Page 47 of Tempest Blazing (The Dragonne Library #3)

Tess

Broken stone arches cast jagged shadows across our assigned sector, remnants of a grand amphitheater. The ruins looked like picked-over bones. My team—if I could even call it that—had claimed a relatively sheltered alcove formed by two collapsed columns.

Anxiety knotted in my stomach as I studied them. This ragtag group was supposed to be my ticket to passing? The thought made my chest tight.

I couldn't afford to fail—not when everything depended on proving myself worthy of my bond with Thalon.

The Guild could sever our connection with a few bureaucratic signatures if I didn't demonstrate my value here.

No matter what it took. No matter what I had to endure or become. I would pass this trial.

"Right," said the tall girl with silver-streaked hair, brushing dust from her hands. "I'm Kira, lion shifter." Authority rolled off her in waves.

The others followed suit. Tobias, a stocky earth mage with mud-brown eyes. Jace, whose water affinity showed in the way moisture seemed to gather around his fingertips. And Senna, a slight girl whose shadow magic made the air around her shimmer with darkness.

When the introductions circled to me, I kept my voice level. "Tess Whittaker."

"The human," Tobias muttered, not quite under his breath.

"The fluke ," Senna added, her tone sharp enough to draw blood.

Jace shook his head. "This is what we get for being in the bottom tier. Stuck with—"

"Is this really how you want to spend your precious prep time?

" Kira's voice cut through their complaints like a blade.

The easy demeanor vanished, replaced by something harder.

Something that suggested she'd stepped on plenty of people to get where she was.

"Because I'm pretty sure the other teams are actually planning right now. "

Everyone straightened. Even me.

"We need to hide our flag somewhere defensible," Kira continued. "I'm thinking we bury it under enchanted stone—Tobias can handle the earth work, and I can ward it with barriers."

I stepped forward. "What about magical misdirection on a larger scale? We could set up false energy signatures to draw teams away from our real position while we—"

"Theory's great and all," Tobias interrupted with a dismissive wave. "But this is about practice."

The casual dismissal stung. I'd spent hours studying arena layouts, magical theory, tactical applications. None of that mattered to them.

"—or we could create layered illusion fields keyed to emotional magic," I continued, refusing to be shut down. Desperation leaked into my voice—the sound of someone who couldn't afford to be sidelined. "There's a rune cluster near our boundary line that could serve as a false marker if we—"

"Look," Senna said, rolling her eyes, "we get it. You're trying to prove you're not just a fluke. But maybe leave the actual strategy to people who've been doing magic longer than five minutes?"

My throat tightened. Five minutes. As if time measured worth. As if every sleepless night studying, every hour I'd spent proving myself, counted for nothing because I wasn't born to this world.

Then Kira's expression shifted. The calculated look of someone who'd just found the perfect solution to an annoying problem.

"Actually," she said, her tone deceptively casual, "I think we're overcomplicating this." She turned to face me directly, and something cold settled in my stomach. "Tess, you'll run decoy."

The desperation clawed at my chest, mixing with the familiar burn of determination. Whatever they asked of me, I'd do it. I had to. But beneath the fear, anger flared—hot and sharp. Of course. Of course they'd find a way to make me expendable.

"Decoy?"

"Think about it." Kira's smile was sharp-edged, predatory. "You're fast, you're... visible. Draw the other teams toward you, pull them away from our flag position." Her eyes glittered with something that made my skin crawl. She knew exactly how desperate I was. Knew I couldn't afford to refuse.

Tobias nodded slowly, catching on. "While they're chasing her, we shadow from a distance and—"

"Ambush anyone who takes the bait," Jace finished. "Hold them for the two-minute capture penalty."

The rough stone bit into my palm as I clenched my fist. Metallic fear coated my tongue. My magic flickered defensively under my skin, a golden heat that made my fingertips tingle. Every instinct screamed danger.

The two-minute rule was designed to prevent teams from simply eliminating opponents outright—if you could restrain someone for a full two minutes, they were considered "captured" and had to return to their starting position. Legal, yes. But the way they were talking about it...

This wasn't about strategy. It wasn't about demonstrating skill or magical prowess or any of the things this trial was supposed to test. This was about knocking other players out of contention through magical ambush tactics.

"That's..." I started, then stopped. What was I going to say? That it wasn't fair? That there was no honor in baiting half-wounded opponents into point-draining traps? They'd laugh me out of the arena. Thalon would hate this. Honor mattered to him—even in a rigged game.

Their eagerness sickened me. Trapped between their ambition and my own desperate need to survive.

This wasn't just about winning—it was about who I'd have to become to do it. I'd spent my whole life being used, discarded, told I wasn't enough. Was I really going to let them turn me into the very thing I'd fought against?

But the alternative was losing everything. Whatever the cost to my conscience, whatever compromises I had to make, I would not fail this trial.

The others were already moving on, discussing ambush positions and timing. Their voices faded into background noise as the weight of impossible choices pressed down on me.

"Tess?" Kira's voice cut through my spiral. "You with us?"

I opened my eyes to find all four of them staring at me. Waiting. Expecting compliance. Kira's knowing glance at the others confirmed what I already suspected—they all understood exactly how cornered I was.

"Yeah," I said quietly. The word scraped against my throat like broken glass, leaving behind a metallic tang that made it hard to swallow. "I'm with you."

???

The signal flare erupted overhead, bathing the arena in harsh crimson light. My heart slammed against my ribs as controlled chaos exploded around us—shouts, spell-fire, the crack of magic against stone.

This was it. My throat went dry, and for a split second, the weight of everything—the bond, the trial, the possibility of losing it all—pressed against my chest like a stone.

A familiar warmth pulsed against my chest—the echo of Thalon's presence through our bond. Even separated by distance and the trial's magical barriers, I could feel him. Golden eyes. Trust. The certainty that we belonged together.

The fake flag bounced against my hip as I sprinted northeast, away from where I truly wanted to be. My job was simpler and more ruthless: be the bait.

Every step had to count. The instructors were watching, evaluating, deciding who deserved to advance. I couldn't control whether we won, but I could control how well I performed. Even if it meant using people the way I'd been used back home.

The first pursuit came sooner than expected.

"There!" A voice cut through the din behind me. "Flag runner, southwest quadrant!"

I led my pursuer through a winding chase, deliberately taking the long route. When they rounded the corner into the fog, Tobias and Jace struck. Earth magic erupted from the ground, stone tendrils wrapping around the other applicant's legs.

Two minutes. That's all it took.

I watched from my hiding spot as their amulet shifted from blue to yellow to red. The applicant's face crumpled—not just disappointment, but devastation. Like watching their dreams shatter in real time. When the binding released them, they stumbled away, and I heard them whisper, "I was so close."

Fifteen points. One person's hope crushed. And me?

A bitter taste coated my tongue, sharp as the metallic tang of blood.

The strategic part of my mind catalogued the success, but something deeper recoiled.

This felt too familiar—the calculated manipulation, the way I'd positioned them perfectly for the trap.

It reminded me of the time Mom sent Madison and me to charm information out of the landlord's son about upcoming inspections.

The way she'd coached us on which smiles to use, which questions to ask.

The proud gleam in her eyes when we delivered exactly what she needed. The same hollow victory.

The second capture went even smoother. Another applicant chased me straight into Kira's ice trap, overconfident and reckless.

This one fought the bindings with desperate fury, magic sparking wildly around them as they realized what was happening.

"No, no, NO!" The word tore from their throat like a physical wound.

Another twelve points. My hands shook as I wiped sweat from my forehead. The applicant's magic had been beautiful—silver sparks that danced like starlight, probably some kind of celestial affinity. Now those same sparks sputtered and died as their hope crumbled.

The third was a pair who should have known better. Senna's shadow magic wrapped around them like living chains, and one of them—a girl who couldn't be older than twenty—looked like she might cry as her amulet flashed red. Her partner just stared at me with such raw betrayal that I had to turn away.

Another twenty-three points. Another piece of my soul carved away.

That's when I saw the scorch mark.

Burned into the crumbling wall like a brand.

Three interlocking circles with jagged edges—frozen lightning.

Anya's signature spell. Relief flooded through me so suddenly my knees nearly buckled.

She was okay. She was here, fighting, still in this.

I'd seen her practice it dozens of times in the training yards, watched her perfect the precise wrist movement that created those distinctive curves.

My steps faltered. The mark was fresh, the stone still warm to the touch when I pressed my palm against it. She'd been here recently. Maybe minutes ago.

Keep moving. Stick to the plan.

But my eyes were already scanning the terrain ahead, searching for more signs.

There—a section of ground where the frost patterns were too geometric to be natural.

Kane's elemental work, probably a defensive barrier.

And beyond that, a faint shimmer in the air that could only be residual magic from a powerful spell.

They were close. So close I could almost feel them in my bones.

Longing hit me like a physical blow, sharp enough to steal my breath.

I could see it so clearly—Kane's ice barriers shielding us while Anya's lightning cleared a path through our enemies, the three of us moving like we'd been born to fight together.

His strategic mind directing our movements, her dark magic complementing my fire, all of us watching each other's backs the way we always did.

Every instinct I had screamed at me to change course, to find them, to fight alongside the people who actually mattered to me. We could watch each other's backs, cover each other's weaknesses. Face this trial the way we'd faced everything else—together.

By the time I reached the midpoint of the trial, my individual score had climbed to a respectable fifty.

The scoreboard above the arena flared with shifting numbers—not enough to guarantee my safety, but close.

Close enough that I could almost taste the relief of keeping my bond with Thalon intact.

But what was the point of safety if it came at the cost of everything that made that safety worth having?

What good was succeeding if I had to become someone I hated to do it?

But if I abandoned my role now, if I let my individual score stagnate while others climbed higher.

.. I could lose everything. The Guild could sever my bond with Thalon with a few bureaucratic signatures, and all of this—the training, the friendships, the sense of finally belonging somewhere—would disappear like smoke.

Each breath scraped against my raw lungs, mirroring the rawness of the choice tearing me apart. I stared at the path toward my friends, then back toward where my temporary allies were probably positioning for their next ambush.

The warmth in my chest pulsed again—Thalon's presence, distant but constant. Those golden eyes looking into mine when we first bonded. The trust there.

One step away from my friends. Then another. Each step felt like betrayal, but I made them anyway.

Thalon. I was doing this for Thalon.

So why did it feel like I was tearing myself away from him with every stride?