Gray and Rynn were about to race after the captain when someone called out. “Hello to our fellow recruits! Looks like the captain found you!”

  The cheerful voice was coming from a very short, very round goblin girl with a head of lush, dark bck hair. She was pulling apart a frycake, one with a dusting a frosted sugar. Her face and fingers were sprinkled with white. She stood with two other women, and all three wore dark green First Field uniforms and bck boots. Gray didn’t know what was more surprising, the honest look of joy on the goblin girl’s face or the fact that she had an honest-to-goodness frycake, complete with the hole in the middle.

  When the goblin caught his attention, she waved.

  With her was a cat girl who was only a little taller than the goblin. The amount of wild, dirty-blond hair piled up on the cat girl’s head was very impressive. It was long, but not so long that her ears didn’t poke through. Her bangs, though, covered her eyes. Behind her stood the tallest elf Gray had ever seen. She had dark skin, nearly bck, and her hair was long, straight, and white—as bright as the sugar on the goblin girl’s frycake.

  Rynn frowned. “The timing isn’t good. Who are those women down there with Pinch? Should we go talk to them or meet our new squad mates?”

  The decision was made for them.

  The goblin girl came over with the cat girl and the dark-skinned elf in tow.

  The little green-skinned girl had such a round, cheery face that it made Gray smile. “I’m Midjara Munch, but of course, only my mom calls me Midjara. You’re going to end up calling me Midj, so let’s just start off with that. Where were you guys st night? The captain’s head nearly exploded when she heard you weren’t in the barracks. We know your names already, since we’ve spent weeks listening to the captain talk about how impressive you both are. You’re Grayson Fade and Rynnanatha Sereph. Did I get your names right? I’m pretty sure I got them right.”

  Rynn looked uncertainly at Gray.

  Midj spped the sugar off her hands and came over and reached out a hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, but seriously, where were you st night?”

  The cat girl said too quietly for Gray to hear. The elf responded equally as soft.

  Gray shook Midj’s hand. “We have a pce outside of First Field. It’s the captain’s house actually. I figured out how to get passed her wards.”

  Midj blinked. “You broke through her wards?”

  “I did.”

  Midj turned on Rynn. “Did you do break through the wards as well?”

  The elf girl winced. “Only a little. It was mostly Gray.”

  Midj shook her hand. “Well, now, this is exciting?”

  “What took you so long getting here?” Gray asked.

  Midj was about to answer when Settie roared. “That is not acceptable!”

  Pinch and the two women were striding up the steps with the dragon woman chasing after them, waving her cane madly. “It’s not acceptable at all. Gray! Rynn! Stop them!”

  Pinch’s eyes narrowed, and she brought up her sword. “Don’t get in my way.”

  Rynn didn’t have a practice sword, but Gray had his stick. He stepped in front of the fae. “I’m getting in your way. I don’t care about you at all, but my sponsor is back, and I have to deal with her on a daily basis.”

  “Is that Grayson Fade?” The red-headed woman asked. “I would’ve thought he’d be bigger. He’s handsome, though. Definitely.”

  “Shut it, Sindara” the dark-haired woman hissed.

  Pinch fell into a fighting stance, but by that time, Settie had joined them. She grabbed the dark-haired woman and spun her around. “I paid for your passage, Blythe, and your housing. If you aren’t on my squad, I want every shekel back!”

  Gray immediately saw what was going on.

  Pinch backed away, keeping everyone in her field of vision. “I’ll take care of their expenses.”

  “No,” Settie hissed. “I don’t want anything from you or whoever is paying you.”

  Pinch only smiled.

  Rynn fell back.

  The tall raven-haired woman looked into Gray’s face. “I was surprised Settie recruited a man for her squad. We all know what she likes when it comes to that sort of thing. I don’t expect we’ll get to know each other, however, so who you are doesn’t matter. You’ve just had the misfortune of being in a doomed squad with a disgraced sponsor. I don’t suppose you can tell us why we spent days upon days in some backwater called Cradleport.”

  “Don’t say a word,” Settie spat.

  Gray didn’t know who she was warning, but he had no idea.

  Blythe nodded at the angel-headed elf girl. “Hello, Rynnanatha. I didn’t believe it when Settie said you were on her squad, but here you are, and from what it sounds like, you’ve been here for a while. At least you’ve seen the Belly. You can tell all your friends about it back at the Crown. Wait, I forgot. You don’t have any friends.”

  Midj pulled a piece of bread apart. Where did she get the bread? “Give it a rest, Blythe. I was sick of you five minutes after I met you. It’s a testament to the strength of the goblin spirit that I could endure yyou and your arrogance for weeks on end. I was surprised that you and your ego fit on the same dang boat. If I had known you’d betray us, I would’ve thrown you overboard.”

  “No, you wouldn’t,” Blythe said. “Because I would’ve given you some frycake, and you’d have lost interest.”

  Midj ughed. “It’s a good point.” She popped the st piece of her treat into her mouth. “I do love frycake.”

  Gray was confused. How had Blythe and Sindara betrayed them?

  The redhead giggled. “I think you’re all adorable, but I have to go where the money is, and the money isn’t with you.” She did go up to Rynn though. “I love your short hair. Can I touch it?”

  “No,” Rynn said sharply.

  Sindara lifted a hand to touch her hair anyway, but Rynn caught it. “I said no.” She flung the redhead’s hand away.

  “Saucy. I love it.” Sindara shrugged. She nodded at the dark-skinned elf girl. “I liked seeing you naked, Ames. You really are a sweet girl. Just my type. Me and Blythe talked about corrupting you.”

  Ames didn’t respond. She looked shocked.

  The cat girl stepped in front of the dark elf. “It’s a good performance but a little cliché. Move along, Sindara. The flirting is not worth the drama.”

  Sindara giggled. “You’re such a good kitty, Tomi, but you really could use a bath. I was kinda shocked I got used to the smell.”

  Tomi grimaced. “That’s funny. With you, I never did.”

  That only made the redhead giggle more. “I’ve never been with a beastkin before. No, wait, there was that dog girl I pyed around with. I thought the barking was hot.”

  Sindara then sashayed on up the steps, followed by Blythe, but of course, she couldn’t resist a final taunt. “We know you’ll be coming after us during the Testing, but if you mess with us, we’ll mess with you right back. Just let it go, Captain.”

  “Never,” Settie hissed. “You’ll realize your mistake eventually.”

  “You never did,” Pinch said with an evil little smile.

  Gray found it interesting that the fae girl knew something about the captain’s past.

  The threw women were gone, and Gray was alone with the captain and his four other squad mates. He frowned. “I can only assume Blythe and Sindara have betrayed us by joining another squad. What does it mean for our squad?”

  Settie’s voice came out in a growl. “It means I have to either find two more recruits or get special permission to field a squad of five. By the murderous gods of lust and blood, this whole year has turned to shit. And we waited for her! We waited forever for her!”

  The dark elf’s voice was soft and low when she said, “They waited for Blythe. She means Blythe.”

  The captain stormed away, leaving Gray and Rynn alone with the three new recruits.

  Gray pointed at the dark elf. “Ames?”

  She nodded.

  He pointed at the cat girl. “Tomi?”

  She nodded.

  He pointed at the goblin girl. “Midj?”

  The goblin girl went and grabbed his hand. “That’s right. We’re squad mates. Don’t worry. It’s all going to work out perfectly.”

  “Because it all is starting out so well,” Tomi said under her breath. “Exquisitely. Couldn’t have worked out better.”

  Ames also whispered something under her breath.

  Of course, Rynn wasn’t saying anything, but at least she wasn’t bowing or curtsying awkwardly.

  Midj ignored the others. “Let’s go into town, to that market we saw st night, and get something to eat. We can talk about the journey in and what monsters Blythe and Sindara turned out to be. But then, Miss Rynnanatha, it sounds like you knew Blythe from before. Is that right?”

  “You can simply call me Rynn,” the elf girl said, but then, it was like she came uncorked. “I know Blythe, or at least I did for a while, when we were younger. We went to school together, and we were friends, maybe, for a while. But she wasn’t wrong, I wasn’t great at making friends…or keeping them. Or maybe keeping her as a friend. She was driven, always had to be the best, and she was, always at the top of her css. I was different. I just wanted…”

  She suddenly went quiet.

  “It’s okay,” Midj said. “Don’t be shy. What did you want?”

  She gulped in a breath. “I just wanted to improve. I was never competing against anyone, just myself.” She gnced at Gray and then down. “We’ve been sparring with that fae. Her name is Pinch. I don’t think we should go to the market. I think we need to train. It’s going to be crowded, but that’s okay. We can evaluate the competition.”

  “Do you know how this works?” Midj asked. “The Testing, I mean. I know there’s Culling Day and Soulshred Week and there’s the Reckoning, sure, but do we know what the tests will be?”

  “No,” Gray said. “We’ve been doing a lot of running and sparring along with some weights. Also, we practice meditation, to refill our cores. It’s helped. I have my first mana burn.”

  The cat girl snorted. “First mana burn? I, for one, am super impressed. Someday, if I try really hard, I might get there. Fingers crossed.” She held up crossed fingers.

  Ames finally said something that Gray could hear. “The first burn is the first taste of the power of hellfire, then, there’s the promise of heaven. Power and pleasure. He doesn’t know about us. He doesn’t know.”

  Gray was confused, but Midj ughed nervously. “Ames is always saying things like that. And, uh, Tomi can’t help her sarcasm. The three of us are fully marked neophytes. We thought you’d be the same. What about Rynn? Where does she sit? Guess I could ask her myself. What’s your level, Miss Elf? Where’s your mark?”

  Rynn blushed. “I’m a neophyte, the same as you. My mark is over my heart.”

  Tomi came over, and he could see her pretty green eyes under that mop of hair. “Midj was right. I say stupid stuff all the time. Not as stupid as Ames, but Ames is okay. I’m not hungry, but I could use a nap. Slept like ten minutes st night between the snoring, the scorpions, and how hot it was. I’m not used to the heat.”

  “Where are you from?” Rynn asked.

  Tomi didn’t meet the elf girl’s eyes. She also didn’t answer her question. “Not from around here. The three of us packed in that room wasn’t fun, but at least there wasn’t more.”

  Gray wondered how they managed the bed situation.

  “I’m little, though,” Midj said, “so it’s not so bad.”

  “You’re a lot of things, Midj, but little is not one of them.” Tomi made a face. “See? I can’t help the sarcasm. It’s a disease.”

  The goblin girl shrugged. “You’ll appreciate my size when the time comes.”

  “That’s what she said,” Tomi snorted. Then coughed. “Sorry.”

  The dark elf girl abruptly came forward and put out a hand. “I’m Amaranthis. It’s a lot to say. You can call me Ames. I have to make an effort to make friends, otherwise, you’ll think I’m strange.”

  Tomi smiled, showing white teeth. “You’re a lot of things, Ames, and strange is certainly one of them.”

  Ames winced. “I know. I try.”

  Rynn ughed. “It can be hard with the humans, Amaranthis. They don’t have our rules of etiquette.”

  The dark elf looked relieved. “You are right, Rynnanatha. You glow. Your hair is golden, but it’s hidden in darkness. Were you teased?”

  “I was,” Rynn said. “But it’s not why I cut my hair.”

  Ames nodded. “It’s sad that what is beautiful is often despised. It’s because the greed wants to own. It’s because there is a lust to create and there is a lust to destroy.”

  Gray wasn’t sure what to make of the odd collection of women. “The barracks are a nightmare. I’m sorry you didn’t sleep well, but—”

  “I slept well,” Ames said abruptly, cutting him off. “I slept very well, thank you. I dreamed of daffodils.”

  Tomi snickered. “If you forget who is who, the strange one is Ames, otherwise known as Amaranthis Tal’Vessra. I’m Tomika Ka, but you can call me Tomi. I’m the sarcastic one. Last but not least, we have Midjara Munch, Midj for short, and she’s the one who is always eating.”

  “Not always, Tomika Ka” the goblin girl said. “If that is even your real name. But anyway.” She turned and addressed Gray. “I think I know what you were about to say, Mr. Grayson Fade. You were going to suggest that we shouldn’t let a bad night of sleep hold us back from training like heck.”

  He nodded. “Yes, yes I was.”

  Midj sighed.

  Tomi’s face remained expressionless and her voice was monotone. “Wonderful. There’s nothing I like more than running in oppressive, possibly dangerous heat.”