Page 56 of Once the Skies Fade

“He’s as clueless as the rest of us.”

I shrugged a single shoulder. “Perhaps. And I know nothing for certain, but if I was the betting type, I expect them to send us into the one place in Arenysen that all fear.”

“The forest?” several of them asked in unison, but one of the Assembly members—a timid-looking female—looked apprehensively around at her colleagues.

“They wouldn’t,” she said, unconvinced of her own words. Her eyes landed on mine. “It’s too dangerous.”

So the Assembly didn’t even know what the trials were.

I chuckled quietly to myself, holding the poor female’s gaze.

“What’s a deadly competition without a little danger?”

Chapter 27

Calla

What happened in there?” Isa hissed at me as soon as we were alone in the hallway.

I lifted my hands between us, palms toward the ceiling. Shaking my head, I stared down at them, surprised to find them steady.

“I don’t know,” I said. Isa didn’t buy it.

“I think you do,” she said, her glare stern but still somehow kind. “If we’re going to get through this without a stars-damned incident, Calla, I need you to get a hold of it. The Assembly?—”

“I know,” I interrupted as irritation began to burn in my chest. “They’re looking for any excuse to be rid of me.”

Grabbing my hands in hers, Isa squeezed my fingers reassuringly, and her eyes softened. “Twice now you’ve lost control of them. And both times, it was around him. If he did something?—”

“No,” I blurted out. Isa’s eyes widened as she jutted her chin forward, waiting for my explanation.

But only a string of curses rattled through my mind.

He called me Killer! What if he believes the rumors? Allowing him to stay is a risk.

Here was a chance to get him removed from the tournament and sent home, assuming that was the only punishment he’d face. As much as I didn’t want him here—as much as I worried about his motives, I didn’t want him to be executed either.

Drawing in a deep breath, I slipped my hands from hers and fisted them at my sides as if I could harness my magic’s power that way and find the courage to explain this.

She’s your best friend.

You can tell her.

“He reminds me of…” I started, but my voice gave out before I could finish.

“Emeryn?”

I shook my head. “Brennan.”

His name was a choked whisper, the first time I’d uttered it since that night. Isa flinched but said nothing for a long moment.

“How?” she finally asked, expression twisted in confusion.

“I don’t know. One moment I’m fine—relatively speaking—but then he has a look or he says something, and it’s like I’m drowning again. The shadows…my shadows…they just appear, like they’re responding to my distress and trying to protect me or something. It sounds ridiculous.”

“It sounds anything but ridiculous, Calla. We all respond to trauma differently, and sometimes subconsciously.”

“How do I control it though?”

---