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  Finally, there was Eva with her short red hair and sharp, feline green eyes.

  The three of them represented Earth, Air, and Water—and with his Inferno Gift, they made up the full complement of all four Elements.

  “I take it you all said yes?” Jamie asked sarcastically.

  Eva shrugged. “A boring, unremarkable life didn’t sound particularly appealing.”

  Jamie laughed and dropped into the seat next to her. “What are we in for exactly?”

  But all three just shook their heads.

  “Seriously?” Jamie asked. “No ideas whatsoever?”

  Eva turned to Pete. “Your uncle Seb is involved with the Cleaners—hasn’t he ever said anything?”

  Pete shook his head, looking scandalized. “Seb has nothing to do with the Cleaners. And even if he was, Seb would never betray his duty by letting any information slip.”

  Eva rolled her eyes dramatically. “He sounds rigid and boring. I guess it must run in the family.”

  Pete shot her a fake smile. “Thanks, Eva—always love your on-the-nose compliments.”

  Gemma sighed. “We’re supposed to be a team. I don’t think it bodes particularly well for us that you two have been snapping at each other for the last hour.”

  “No one asked you, Gemma,” Eva snapped. “We all know you’re only here because the Atmospheric they really wanted was unavailable.”

  “Come on, Eva,” Jamie interjected, trying to smooth over the increasingly tense atmosphere. “That’s not necessary.”

  Eva rolled her eyes again but kept quiet.

  Gemma broke the ensuing silence with a deep sigh. “So…” she said, “speaking of Allyra—how is she?”

  Jamie took a deep breath. “She’s in The Five Finals. With Jason as her partner. And forty-eight others who wouldn’t blink before killing her. Need I say more?”

  Gemma grimaced and looked away—a strange reaction that made Jamie frown in confusion.

  Pete provided the answer helpfully, his expression amused, as he said, “Gemma’s brother, François, is one of the forty-eight ruthless killers you just mentioned.”

  Jamie swallowed thickly, aware that he had placed his foot squarely in his mouth.

  “It’s fine,” Gemma said. “François is pretty heartless.”

  “Okay, I know we’re all just fascinated with Allyra’s life,” Eva broke in, not bothering to hide the annoyance in her voice. “But can we get back to the matter at hand?”

  “Which is what exactly?” Pete shot back.

  “The fact we all agreed to be part of the Cleaners.”

  “Yes, but we have no idea what they want us to do or even if they want us to do it together,” Pete replied. “We’re obviously locked in for the night, but there’s food here and four bedrooms. So, I would suggest that the best thing we can do right now is forget about what may come and just eat and have a good night’s sleep instead.”

  “Seconded,” Jamie said. It sounded like the perfect suggestion, and he welcomed the opportunity to relax and forget his worries, even if it was just for a night.

  “Thirded,” Gemma said with a grin that lit up her face, “if that’s even a word.”

  They all turned to Eva. She scowled but shrugged noncommittally. “Whatever…”

  They took that as agreement enough and turned to the table laden with food, digging in ravenously. Happily, the conversation turned to more mundane and trivial topics.

  Chapter 5 – Allyra

  His fingers tangle into her hair. He pulls her close, and his lips are on hers, urgent and desperate.

  She leans into the familiarity of him, traces his lips with hers, and sinks into his warmth. She yearns for him, to give into him, to let his heat consume her.

  The kiss ends, as it always does.

  “Please,” he whispers, the word filled with infinite longing and desire.

  She can’t stay.

  She knows what is coming, and yet she can’t help herself. She wrenches herself away and turns abruptly. She opens her eyes and sees mountains jagged with dragons’ teeth.

  The world is on fire.

  A scream tears its way from her throat.

  Allyra jerked back into consciousness, the taste of smoke still lingering on her tongue. Her recurring nightmare had made a thundering comeback—a charming side effect of sharing a room with Jason. The added anxiety meant her mind was filled with visions of a range of mountains, sharp like dragons’ teeth, consumed with fire so real that the smell of smoke seemed to curl up and twist around her. Fainter was the feel of lips moving lightly over hers and the desperate yearning hollow in her chest.

  The room was shrouded in darkness, and in the heavy stillness, Allyra listened for sounds of movement—any sign that Jason might be sneaking up to smother her as she slept. Hearing nothing but silence, Allyra reassured herself that Jason wasn’t attempting murder—at least not right now. She sank back into the luxurious softness of her pillow and considered going back to sleep. Her sleep had been troubled; she had tossed and turned while trying to keep one eye on Jason and any nefarious plan he might be concocting. Allyra was exhausted and irritable, and her brain felt thick with marshmallows. She reached over to the nightstand and glanced at the clock. Fluorescent numbers blinked at her—06:52.

  Allyra hissed out a curse and tumbled out of bed. Her fingers fumbled for the light on the nightstand while she muttered darkly about ridiculous underground rooms with zero natural light.

  Finally finding the switch, she flicked it on, and light flooded through the room. As she reached for fresh clothes, she glanced over at Jason’s side of the room and renewed her string of curses. Jason’s bed was empty and freshly made with such precision it would’ve passed an army sergeant’s inspection. Somehow, Jason had woken up, gotten dressed, and made his bed, all without waking her up. It made her efforts to keep an eye on him seem rather pointless in retrospect.

  Having gotten dressed in record time, she stumbled out the room, all the while trying to restyle her hair from something resembling a rat’s nest into something that might be considered to be a ponytail.

  Confronted with a long corridor filled with identical doors, Allyra wracked her brain, trying desperately to remember the way to the Training Room. She broke into a jog, and after making a couple of wrong turns, she managed to stagger into the Training Room with one minute left to spare.

  As expected, she was the last one to arrive. The eyes of every assembled participant of The Five Finals turned to her, combining into a single laser beam of judgment that threatened to burn a hole right through her.

  “Thank you for gracing us with your presence,” Marcus drawled sarcastically from the front of the room.

  In the wake of his comment, a few snickers rumbled through the crowd.

  Have I somehow stumbled back in time and fallen into a high school drama?

  Allyra straightened her back, lifted her head, and gave Marcus a careless smile. “Of course,” she replied.

  Briefly, Marcus’s lips tightened with displeasure, and he motioned impatiently for her to take a seat. As Allyra settled into her seat, Jason caught her eye and winked. His smirk was so smug that her fingers clenched unconsciously with the urge to peel it off his face. Now fully convinced that she had indeed fallen into a high school drama straight out of hell, Allyra shot him an ugly scowl in return.

  In his role as the Elemental High Master, Marcus stood poised to open proceedings with the other four High Masters assembled around him. Together, the five of them represented the Council—the highest authority ruling over the Gifted. More importantly, they were the most likely holders of the secrets she needed to discover.

  Allyra ran her eyes over them. Farthest to the right was High Master Zhuang of the Terra College. He was short and tidy, wearing a serious look on his face, with intelligent eyes, which roamed over the crowd without missing a single thing. He was widely acknowledged as one of the most brilliant living scholars. It was unclear whether High Master Zhuang co
uld be trusted. He had been kind to Jamie during the Elemental Trials, and he’d chosen to keep the secret of her new tattoo from the rest of the Council members. But Allyra knew that he hadn’t quite believed her when she claimed ignorance on the subject of the tiger tattoo. In fact, she suspected that he knew the tattoo to be one of the Living Weapons of legend. Given how smart he was rumored to be, she would have to be at the top of her game to maintain her secrets around him.

  Standing next to High Master Zhuang was High Master Radebe of the Atmospheric College. He was the oldest member of the Council. By Allyra’s estimation, she judged him to be in his seventies. Despite keeping his hair short, its stark white color stood out against his dark brown skin. If she had to choose one member of the Council in which to put her trust, it would be High Master Radebe with his kind eyes and appealing smile.

  To the left of Marcus stood High Master Jameson of the Inferno College. Her lips were pulled thin into her usual look of general discontent. As if she could feel Allyra’s eyes on her, High Master Jameson’s icy blue gaze snapped to her, forcing Allyra to look away quickly. She barely managed to suppress a shudder that spread down her back like a crack through glass. High Master Jameson’s eyes were disconcertingly like her daughter’s, and the last time Allyra had looked into Rosalie’s eyes had been in the moment when she’d driven one of the Tiger Swords through Rosalie’s shoulder, deep into the rock beneath. It had been during the Second Trial, in the moments after Rosalie had thrown the knife that killed Pierre. Allyra couldn’t help but remember the roar of the Tigers in her ears and the brutal lust for blood that had surged through her. In that moment, she had been a hair’s breadth away from taking a life.

  Allyra shook the memory from her mind and turned her attention to the final member of the Council—High Master Perez of the Water College. She was a small woman and perhaps the youngest of the Council members though it was hard to discern whether that distinction lay with High Master Perez or High Master Zhuang. Of all the Council members, High Master Perez was the hardest to read, her impassive face giving nothing away.

  And standing in the center, in the position of most prominence, was Marcus, the Elemental High Master. Stern, menacing, and tall, he loomed over them all like a bird of prey surveying its territory.

  If the Council was the highest authority of the Gifted, then Marcus was the highest authority of the Council. Despite the power and prestige of his position, Marcus was nonetheless a pretender to the throne. He was an Inferno occupying a position meant for an Elemental. The only reason he was able to occupy the position was because no Elemental had been born since the Betrayal. That moment of infamy, when the Elemental High Master of the time had led the entire generation of Elementals into the Between to destroy the Veil that stood as a protection between worlds.

  At least that was how history remembered the story.

  Alex hadn’t believed it. He believed that the truth lay hidden in history and her affinity for the past would finally uncover the truth of the Betrayal. Allyra’s father hadn’t believed the story either. It was why he’d joined the Rising and why he’d gone into the Between in an attempt to discover the truth. It was a quest that had ultimately cost him his life. It was now left to her to finally bring the truth to light. She would do whatever it took to do so.

  Marcus cleared his throat and started to speak.

  “Welcome to The Five Finals,” he said with what appeared to be an attempt at a kindly smile. “To be here, you’ve all proven yourselves as some of the strongest and bravest amongst the Gifted.”

  It was an uncharacteristically gentle start to one of Marcus’s speeches. Allyra had become more accustomed to warnings of pain and death.

  “Every one of you are winners or runners-up of one of the Trials held at the Great Colleges over the past five years. It is an impressive achievement. So much so that you might imagine yourself to be invincible.” Marcus paused and the smile slipped from his face. “But take a look around you. Every person seated in this room would have achieved as much as, or more than, you. The Trials are designed to identify the most powerful of the Gifted, but The Five Finals will find the survivors.

  “The Trials would’ve tested you, but The Five Finals will only test you further. They are filled with nothing but pain and suffering. And if you can’t find the strength in yourself to survive, you’ll find The Five Finals to be filled with death.”

  Allyra hid a small smile. This was more like the type of speech that Marcus was known to give. But after all the threats of imprisonment and death he’d subjected her to over the course of the Elemental Trials, his words had lost some of their impact.

  Marcus continued, "The Five Finals will consist of five individual tests, each one taking place at one of the Great Colleges. Each one is designed to test you to breaking point. There will be no intervention. No help. If you can’t survive, then you will be left to die.”

  He paused and Allyra glanced briefly around her, but there was no trace of fear on faces of her fellow Competitors.

  “Of the twenty-five pairs that sit here today, only one will be declared the winner. For each Final, you will be ranked on two aspects: survival and speed. The First Final will eliminate ten pairs. The Second Final, another seven pairs. Following the Third Final, all but two pairs will be eliminated and after the Fourth Final, a single pair will be allowed to proceed to the Fifth Final. Should that pair pass the Fifth Final at the Elemental College, they will be declared the winners.

  “The winners will need to survive all five Finals or no winner will be declared. The Five Finals are not meant to be easy and it should come as no surprise that we have not declared a winner for the past three Five Finals.”

  The serious part of his speech over, Marcus’s face broke into a smile again. “But I don’t want take anything away from your achievements. Each of you should be congratulated for making it here. Welcome to The Five Finals.”

  Marcus inclined his head slightly at the crowd, and all around her, the Competitors rose, almost as one, clapping resoundingly. Allyra couldn’t work out whether they were clapping for Marcus’s less than inspirational speech or their own achievements.

  Marcus swept out of the room with three of the other four Council members trailing silently behind him, leaving only High Master Zhuang behind. He motioned for them all to retake their seats.

  He stood silently and waited for the over-enthusiastic applause to fade and die down to a complete silence before he spoke.

  “Yes, yes—I can see you’re all ready to leap before you look,” he said quietly, with just the slightest hint of sarcasm coloring his words. “Trust me, you’re going to rethink your enthusiasm once this gets started. So, let’s get down to brass tacks. There are no rules when you’re in The Finals. There’ll be no one watching, no one judging. Cheat, trick, steal, do whatever you need to do to survive and complete the Final in the fastest time possible. You can even kill a fellow Competitor and suffer no consequences.”

  High Master Zhuang paused, staring them down with fierce intensity, seemingly disgusted by his own words. Allyra felt an arrow quick shard of ice shoot down her spine. She glanced around her and knew that the same thought would be passing through every Competitor’s mind.

  Forty-nine other people here, and forty-eight of them wouldn’t think twice before killing her on their way to winning The Five Finals.

  Her eyes found Jason’s in the crowd. In theory, he was the one person she could trust. The person she could depend on to survive.

  In practice, he was probably just as likely, if not more so, to kill her.

  As if he could read her mind, a slow, predatory smile worked its way across Jason’s face, arrogance written into every inch of his handsome features.

  Allyra made a mental note never to turn her back on him.

  She turned her attention back to High Master Zhuang. “There are no rules in The Finals, but in the time between them, there are a few nonnegotiable ones. First, absolutely no fighting between pa
irs will be tolerated. If you so much as injure one hair on another pair’s head, you and your partner will be immediately eliminated.”

  From somewhere in the crowd, an acerbic voice rang out. “You said fighting between pairs—does that mean injuring a partner will be tolerated?”

  High Master Zhuang smiled. “Mr. Lee, I see that the years have done nothing to dull your quick wit. To answer your question—yes, injuring your partner is acceptable. After all, you will be training and sparring each other, so some injury is bound to happen. However, allow me to give you a small piece of advice: don’t. I would advise most strongly against it. Your partner is your lifeline, someone who will hold your life in his or her hands. The Five Finals crowns a pair of winners, not an individual winner. Don’t be stupid. Don’t hurt the one person that might save your life when it really counts.”

  Again, the sarcastic voice rang out from the crowd. “But what if your partner is a complete idiot and you’ve been waiting years for the perfect opportunity to stick a sword through him?”

  A murmur of nervous laughter traveled through the crowd, and Allyra strained unsuccessfully to see who the voice belonged to.

  High Master Zhuang raised his eyes upward. “Mr. Lee, do whatever you want. I wouldn’t presume to try and stop you from doing something stupid.

  “Now, let’s get back to the rules. Despite Mr. Lee’s interjection, do try to avoid hurting anyone during the time between Finals. However, there are opportunities to hurt each other if you really want it. In the time between Finals, each pair is allowed an opportunity to challenge another pair. You only have one opportunity before each Final, so theoretically, if a pair made it all the way to the Fifth Final, they would’ve had five opportunities to issue a challenge during the course of The Five Finals.

  “Of course—I say theoretically because tradition dictates that no challenge is issued before the Fourth Final as only two pairs would remain at that point and we prefer to see the competition happen in the Final itself. Similarly, no challenge can be issued before the Fifth Final because only one pair will remain at that point.