In the end, the captain was vague about the details of her trip and why she was deyed. She said she had to scour the ends of Midmere to find the best squad possible and while everyone should’ve been ready, very few were. She also mentioned something about not having any good prospects in the Belly because of her past, which made both Gray and Rynn curious.

  It was te when they returned to their bedrooms. Above them, they heard Settie walking back and forth. They also heard the click of Yellow’s nails. The dog was so happy to have a third person in the house.

  Gray paused in Rynn’s doorway. She was already in bed, the window open, and the moonlight streaming in.

  They talked about meeting their new squad, since the captain hadn’t come back empty-handed. Settie had wanted to collect six recruits but only came back with five. Again, she didn’t say much. Kill squads needed at least seven neophytes for them to have a chance, though First Field allowed teams of eight in case someone was hurt or killed, but only seven recruits could compete at a time. Gray was surprised that there were any rules at all. So far, First Field had been a lesson chaos. Or was that just another part of the Testing?

  Gray and Rynn went over the events of the day, the captain’s return, and everything else, but Gray couldn’t go to bed without talking about the Battle Royale.

  “Rynn, about my story. About…” He was having trouble saying his dead friend’s name. “Carter.”

  “Poor Carter,” Rynn echoed his thoughts.

  Gray wanted to protest, wanted to convince her that he’d done the only thing he could’ve, and Ravis would’ve killed him if he hadn’t killed him first. Instead, he defended himself in a different way. “It was the only time I killed anyone. Believe me, I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t choose to be in the arena.”

  Rynn looked down. “I can’t imagine growing up in the Cradleport arena. We heard about such a pce, and we thought that it was barbaric. Comparatively, First Field will be easy. Okay, you asked, and I can’t give you a short answer, so I have to ramble. Is that okay?”

  “It’s more than okay,” Gray said. “I love listening to you talk.”

  “You’re very sweet. I think you’re worried that I’m going to judge you, but I can’t judge you. Your experience is far outside of what I know. I’m sorry you didn’t have parents, not that Old Agatha and Blind John weren’t wonderful to you, but…you see? I can’t even ramble right. Just don’t do that to me, okay? I couldn’t…if you betrayed me…I’m not sure I could live after that. I’d want to die.” She put her face in her hands. “I can’t believe I said that. It’s not like we’re bonded. But…”

  Gray went over and sat on the bed. He took her hand. “You said it before, Rynnanatha Sereph. We’re inseparable and unstoppable. We’re going to win because of my mana core and your ability to fight. You are a very good warrior.”

  She dropped her hands. “I can fight really well. And fighting Pinch, every day, taught me more than a million teachers could’ve. There’s nothing like experience.”

  “You’re right about that.” He kissed her hand.

  She touched his lips. “Inseparable and unstoppable. I’m a little nervous meeting our squad tomorrow. What if we don’t like them?”

  “It doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, we’re the heart of the team. There’s nothing we can’t do.”

  She pressed her forehead against his before she left his room.

  Gray went to bed, thinking about how much safer he felt with the captain upstairs in the attic room. Together, the three of them could handle demon attacks, not that they would need to because the captain had strengthened the warding.

  That night, Gray went back to the pce of water and stars, only this time, he stood away from the shack, seeing it from a different angle. He was a little disappointed he wasn’t on the doorstep.

  “Did I do something wrong, Oma?” he called out to the darkness.

  “No, my little dreamer, you reached the rock, and there, you saw the blood and the faces of the dead. For the world is a hard pce and there is sickness, failure, and death all around. I couldn’t comfort you because I couldn’t stand seeing you so afraid. But now, you are closer than you’ve ever been to your destiny.”

  Gray squinted and saw that there was something in the shadows behind the shack, some stone structure. Was it a well? Starlight glittered on stone. A woman’s ughter from the party inside the little house.

  “Who are those women?” Gray asked.

  “Friends you’ll meet along the way,” Oma said. “Now, you must sleep and get ready. The Testing is in three days. It will not be easy on you, or on the poor captain, because while man pns, the gods ughs.”

  More ughter from the shack.

  The voice chuckled. “And it sounds just like that.”

  Gray woke to pain, a sizzling on the back of his neck. He reached and touched the raised skin there. Talking to Rynn, the mark generally came with increased abilities, but then that was for people who could use their mana for actual magic. Gray didn’t have such sorcery, and so, he had to train his body harder. And yet, with a new heart, having a working body seemed like a special kind of magic all of its own.

  Rynn met him out in the hallway. Downstairs, they could smell the smoke of a fire and charbrew filling the air.

  Gray’s heart leapt. Charbrew in the morning, freshly brewed, was such a treat.

  Both Rynn and Gray found the captain, at the kitchen table, with Yellow lying at her feet. She took in the two with calm eyes, very different from the fury of the night before. “You two will get to say here, with me, and I’ll use that has a carrot to encourage the less motivated women on our team.”

  “Only women?” Gray asked, remembering the ughter in the shack.

  “Only women,” the captain said. “Will that be a problem?”

  “Men are bigger and stronger. I’m assuming the Testing will be mostly fighting. Is that not the case?”

  The captain sniffed. “No, that’s not the case. We don’t know what the Testing will be. It changes, every year, and it’s a variety of things. Some might be truly strange. One year, cooking eggs was one of the tests. It’s all Testing.”

  “And it’s all the test. They bloody the recruits to find the best,” Gray finished the rhyme.

  “You’re paying attention. Good.” The captain gnced at Rynn. “Do you take offense at Gray’s assumption about men being bigger and stronger?”

  “No, Captain” Rynn said.

  “Why is that?” It was clear that the dragon woman wasn’t going to let her get away with simple answers.

  That of course, led to a ramble. “Well, Captain, isn’t mana the great equalizer? With mana, I can’t change my shape, but I can use the magic to be better, stronger, faster, and with time, as I progress from neophyte to adept to archmagus and beyond, I’ll get more abilities. I’m not going to fear a rge, strong man who can’t use mana. I will fear someone with a powerful core, regardless of gender. But Gray grew up among gdiators without magic, and so, it only makes sense that he would make assumptions. My Aunt Florence always used to say that if we’re not careful, our own assumptions will blind us more than bad eyesight.”

  A little smile curved the captain’s lips. “Yes. We can’t see things clearly because all we can see is our preconceived notions. Perspective comes from experience, but then, so does cynicism and prejudice. If only we could see each moment with new eyes and an open mind.” Settie switched topics. “Now, we have a long day head of us. We only have two days left to train for Culling Day. You’ll meet the squad, but I have to warn you, they are not…they can be…I’d not realized…”

  Gray sat down. “You’d not realized what?”

  Rynn remained standing as they waited.

  “Your fellow recruits are strong but odd. Let’s leave it at that, so you can see them with new eyes.”

  It made Gray curious but it also made him uneasy. He and Rynn had become a team, and to open that up to others felt risky. Part of him just wanted to do this Testing with just the two of them, but that didn’t seem wise, and yet, how many people did it take to cook eggs? He hoped that Rynn was good in the kitchen because he had very little experience.

  Getting a list of the tests would give them such an edge, but according to the captain, they kept that a closely guarded secret.

  Gray suggested going to the mess canteen for breakfast, but Settie rightly pointed out that it would quite busy. More and more recruits had flooded in, and if you weren’t there early, you didn’t eat. Running out of food was just one more test.

  But the captain had brought supplies, and after a quick breakfast of sausages, cheeses, and crusty bread, they went through the tunnel, and it wasn’t long before they reached the gates of First Field.

  Now that they were so close to Culling Day, crowds of recruits flooded the campus, mostly going to breakfast, but a few were down at the sparring pavilions, probably expecting to see more battles with Pinch and her fae squad. That wasn’t the case, of course, since the day before, Pinch said that her little game of rceny was over.

  On the way to the training fields, Gray told Settie about he and Rynn’s training regimen and how they had begun every day sparring with Pinch.

  The captain wore her usual hat and mask, and she tapped her cane on the street as she walked. “Yes, Pamalee Thornpinch. I’ve heard of her. Someone is paying her and her squad to be here.”

  “I know,” Gray agreed. “Do we know who that might be?”

  They stopped by the fieldhouse, where Rynn started stretching, getting ready for the training.

  Settie stretched as well. “It doesn’t matter who the fae are working for. We have to focus on our squad. Speaking of which, your fellow squad members will be here any minute. We’ll run, do weights, and then spar. When do you want to connect to their cores?”

  Gray grinned. “That will involve a bit of intimacy. They’re strangers.”

  “It’s why you are here, Grayson Fade. Strangers or not, you need to keep them filled with mana.”

  Rynn shot him a gnce and then quickly looked away.

  He didn’t bme her for being uncomfortable. The situation was awkward, but the captain wasn’t wrong. His one ability was refueling cores, and if he had to kiss strange girls, well, there were worse things in the world.

  He remembered the blood in the water and the faces of the dead.

  Far worse things.

  Gray felt a chill in his gut when he saw Pinch standing in the sand pavilion with two women, one with a bright red hair and freckles, the other with hair the color of midnight, striking against her smooth, pales skin. He had to smile. It looked like he might get more sparring with her after all. The three women were talking in hushed voices until they saw Settie.

  Then Pinch turned, an evil smile on her face.

  “That bitch,” the captain hissed and stormed toward the pavilion.

  Rynn gnced at him. “Why is she so upset?”

  Gray didn’t know but he had some ideas. Those two women seemed to be a little too friendly with Pamalee Thornpinch.