Page 43 of The Song of Sunrise (The Prentice Teller #1)

And where Sabra is sharp and cutting, her older brother Ragnar is a brute force incarnate.

He stands just behind her like a wall of muscle, broad shoulders squared and tense, as if daring someone to give him a reason to charge.

His shoulder-length red hair fans around a scarred, grim face that doesn’t seem capable of anything resembling kindness.

He looks like a bull barely held in check.

I don’t bother hiding the disgust on my face. They’ve been awful since the moment I joined the Watch—sneering, snarling, and clearly enjoying every second of it.

Ragnar catches me staring. His eyes narrow.

“I’ll watch our backs for that piece of shit,” Gryphon whispers to me and Selene, gesturing to Ragnar. Besides Castor and possibly Leaf, he is the only other cadet even close to Ragnar’s size and capabilities.

“Thanks, Gryph.” I smile at him and squeeze his arm, and the big hulk of a man smiles back.

I’m very glad I have him on my team. He nudges my shoulder and flashes a contagious smile that I cannot help but return.

Almost indiscernibly, my body temperature drops just for a moment.

Like Atlys is watching this very interaction and is not pleased with it.

I should hate him.

This is the third time he’s helped me—first with the spring, then with Castor, and now, using his magic to keep me warm. Hell, he shoved me to the ground last night, twice ! No apology. No explanation. And yet, somehow, he keeps showing up when I need him.

It doesn’t add up.

He’s arrogant. Reckless. Infuriating. But there’s something in the way he acts when no one’s watching, when it’s just the two of us. Not kindness, exactly—just... something unexpected. Something that makes it harder to keep my guard up.

And I hate that I notice. I hate that my body reacts before my mind can catch up. That I feel the warmth of his magic and, for a second, forget who he is. What he’s done.

It’s not affection. It’s not trust.

But it is a distraction. One I can’t afford.

I force myself to look away, to pretend I didn’t feel anything at all. He’s the enemy. He’s not safe. And I’m not stupid enough to believe this means anything.

Still, the warmth lingers longer than it should.

“I claim her.” Selene eyeballs Cassiopeia. Her blonde hair is pulled back into a slick pony, contrasting intensely with the red Jord ribbon tied around her upper arm. Selene and Cassiopeia have been head to head since the beginning of the year as two of the best first year Moon’chers.

“That leaves me with Sabra.” Pandering to the crowd, Sabra stretches her lithe body. I take the warmth of Atlys’s magic and stoke it into a fire, letting the anger sharpen me until my focus burns past fear and locks onto the challenge ahead.

There she is , Atlys purrs in my head. Let them see you burn .

“Akemi, your eyes!” Selene says, but Commander Hogsmith begins to stride in front of our line, boots crunching a dotted line in the snow before I can ask what she means by that.

“Champions, I welcome you to your second task of the Summit!”

The crowd cheers loudly, blowing horns and clanking mugs of ale.

“As you may have guessed, you will be working as a unit in this task. Watch, against Jord, against Terraguard, against River, against Forest. What team will prove to be victorious, and what team will be eliminated from the Summit all together?”

“A full team elimination? Oh shit!” Gryphon murmurs.

Cadets scream names at the top of their lungs, cheering for their favored teams and openly cursing other ones. Professor Gregorio has to put a muffling spell on them to eventually stop their bickering.

“Each team will race through a series of physical challenges, first climbing up a ramp where you can only use each other as support, then you may use only three planks on parallel ropes to cross over a ravine. After that, you’ll dive to the bottom of a pool to retrieve a key needed to open the final logical test at the end.

Your only hint is that it’s a riddle. No magic channeling is allowed.

” He claps his hands above his head to remove the myrage hiding the gargantuan course.

Despite the cold air around me, my palms begin to sweat.

The wooden course is slick with snow and ice.

The ramp is nearly three times my height, leading to a section suspended in the air where ropes sway in the wind.

As if the course wasn’t high enough, the ground under that section is dug up, leaving a sixty foot gap between the ropes and the earth beneath.

I can’t see over the edge of the landing where the ropes end, but I can only imagine it leads to the pools. The logic test somewhere beyond.

It’s daunting. I wipe palms on my leathers.

“You will have two minutes to converse with your teams to strategize on your approach, then the race will begin. BEGIN!”

I turn to Selene and Gryphon. “I’m not much of a swimmer—”

“I’ll dive,” Selene offers easily. Both Selene and Gryphon are Moon’chers, making them natural in the water.

“For the wall at the beginning, I’ll make a base. Selene, you climb on my shoulders. Akemi, you can climb up both of us because you are the smallest.”

Thanks for the reminder . “Okay, good idea. And for the planks?”

“I’ll go first, then you, then Gryph,” Selene says. “We’ll have to pass the last plank up to me, so you’ll both have to share.”

“I’ll take the riddle at the end,” I offer. Finally, something I am good at.

“Sweet! I’m sure your Teller gifts with words will come in handy.” Gryphon pats me on the back a little too hard.

For luck, I tap my hip where the piece of my Teller cloak is safely stored. This is another part of my story, Marrow. Hopefully, I am making you proud.

Before we can talk through any more strategy, the commander bellows. “GO!”

The line of champions charge forward at full speed. My boots slip on the ground, costing me precious seconds as we race toward the tall ramp wall. Many other champions are slipping as well, not prepared for these icy surfaces.

Castor, Vega, and Pictor reach the wall first with ease. Then the thought hits me. When they charged into the cafeteria the other day, they were coming from outdoors. How much of this course did they already know about? Or even practice on?

I push the thought aside and keep running. As planned, Gryphon slams into the base of the wall ready to hoist us up, but not without exchanging shoves with Ragnar first.

“Go back to your stage, Teller.” Sabra shoves my shoulder before charging on. I lose my footing and fall. My head slams hard onto the ice-coated earth. The edges of my vision darken.

Get up! Atlys commands. Now!

Boots charge around me, kicking up mud and snow. I’m going to get trampled if I don’t move! I push myself upward and run, ignoring the scrapes on my hands and hoping that my head isn’t seriously injured.

At the base of the wall, two teams are already almost over: the Humans and the Jord.

Both Forest and River teams are struggling with tactics of how to climb the sloping wall.

I watch as Leaf easily scales the wall to the top, followed by Kauri, a third-stone string bean of a cadet, leaving Artemis at the bottom, who can barely make it halfway.

Leaf holds Kauri’s legs to try to reach Artemis, but he cannot make it high enough to catch her hands.

Ramona and the River team seem to be trying the same approach and not doing any better. I’m already panting when I reach Gryphon and Selene.

Gryphon stands wide with his back pressed against the base of the sloped wooden ramp. His boots slip on the hard packed ice as Selene scales up his body and onto his shoulders, then leans against the wall, extended hands waiting.

“Come on!” Selene yells from above.

Despite the chaos of this task, Gryphon is smiling, lip bloodied from his brawl with Ragnar. I step into his cupped hands and he lifts me to Selene, who offers me the same step. I climb, ascending until I’m standing on her shoulders.

I make the mistake of looking down and almost lose my balance.

One small misstep and I’ll fall, not only hurting myself but also the chances of the Terraguard team winning.

We need three people working together to climb this wall.

Turning back to the wall, I pull myself over, then offer my hand to Selene.

My bicep strains as I pull on her arms while she scales the wall, the snowfall making it harder for her to place each foothold.

“Hurry!” I grit out, pain ripping through my shoulder, the joint dangerously close to popping out. The relief is instant as she collapses onto the platform. Sweat freezes on my brow before it has a chance to drip.

“Move back!” Gryphon bellows as he jogs away from the base of the wall, then turns back and runs at full speed. Like a rushing bull, he charges at the wall, his momentum so fast he catches the edge of the upper lip with one hand and pulls himself over the ledge with ease.

“By the Goddess, Gryphon. No need to show off.” Selene rolls her eyes. “Grab me those planks, big guy.”

Ahead of us, two parallel ropes stretch across a wide trench.

They are heavy and thick and coated with a light layer of snow from the relentless sky above.

I try not to focus on the distance to the pit below.

The chances of surviving the perilous drop are slim.

My stomach flutters and my throat sticks as I swallow.

“Akemi, focus!” Selene is already working her way onto the ropes, setting the one of the three planks down perpendicularly before kneeling.

I follow her pattern with my plank, setting it down and kneeling. The breeze picks up, and my knees begin to tremble.

Remain outside yourself, aware, but connected to your mind’s eye. Do not let your fear overtake you. Atlys’s voice fills my head.

Gryphon joins from behind, his weight bending and pulling at the ropes. It takes all my concentration not to panic at the way my plank slid slightly in his direction.