Page 136 of Feathers of Ash and Hope

“Unless you faced a dragon for someone else, I’m pretty sure he was. Did she ever run to you?”she asks in return. I’m about to negate that when I remember our encounter in the library.

I never asked her why she ran through the library in total darkness.

Fuck. Had someone chased her, scared her? Nearly reached her within the academy walls? And how had she known where to find me? How did the stranger know she ran to me?

It’s safe to say I don’t find sleep that night, and my worry about Ara shoots up to astronomical levels.

I can’t wait to get back because if he was talking about Ara, he warned me that someone is after her, and she’s currently unarmed and up on a mountain that is challenging all on its own.

Ara

I wakeup on a cool stone floor. Alone.

“I guess dropping us off in flights would have been too much to ask,” I grumble while I get up, dusting myself off and taking in my surroundings.

I know where I am even though I don’t know the room I’m currently in. If you can call it a room at all since it has no ceiling, the four tall walls opening to a barely lit sky above me.

Picking has begun.

There had been moments in my argument with Dar that I hadn’t been sure I would even get here. So there is a little satisfaction mixed in the trepidation when I look around. I have to be in the old ruins, and I’m suddenly glad Professor Riku made us memorize all those maps in geography.

The ruins are on the southern side of Mount Albión.The room around me is empty, a few weeds and moss growing in the cracks along the walls. There is only one doorway, so I don’t have much choice but to start walking.

Whenever they told us we would be tested, I hadn’t thought getting out of a labyrinth would be part of it, but this is exactly what it feels like. I huff out a breath while I eye the two doorways in front of me.

I use the sunlight for orientation, but since I don’t know the structure of the building or where the exit is located, that isn’t much help.

Somehow, I envisioned Picking being more about flying and finding my way through the wilderness instead of being abandoned in a strange building.

At least the rules are easy: survive and don’t leave the mountain unless you are ordered to. Well, I can do that, I hope.

My body aches from the night on the hard stone floor, which makes me think of the last night I spent on a hard floor… in Tate’s arms.

Concentrate.

I have been stripped of all my weapons, leaving me with only the helmet on my head and the shield placed next to me, which makes me a little anxious.

At least nothing has attacked me yet.

I meander through one room after another, and my thoughts start wandering again, this time back to my conversation with Dar. We got into a bit of a disagreement after he declared he would take me home.

But he couldn’t take away the marking on my arm, which is now a wriggly line longer than the span of my hand. Dar had to agree that it wouldn’t go unnoticed forever. He freaked out about the promise to the dragon, though. I wince, just thinking back to that. He was also not amused that I slipped past the guards so easily, so there’ll be changes.

The building is eerily quiet around me, and the fact that I haven’t met any runners yet freaks me out a bit. I should have run into someone by now, shouldn’t I?

When steps come in my direction, I’m already so on edge that my first instinct is to run and hide. I don’t question it and scramble up the wall beside me. It provides me with the perfect view to watch the birds circling overhead while I wait for whoever might come into sight.

Some of the birds are with riders, some without, and I’m sure I’m making a fool of myself, but rather that than…what?

What am I afraid of?

It’s not like anyone is going around killing runners.

But I still hold my breath when the steps come closer, and Livia comes into view accompanied by a rider. The small hairs on my neck rise, and a shiver runs down my back. Riders are not allowed on this mountain during Picking unless they pick up a body.

They walk past me and in the direction I came from. A rumbling roar in the distance has me appreciating the wall I’m sitting on even more.

Maybe Dar’s worries have been more substantial than I gave him credit for. Up until now, I mainly worried about not gettingpicked or falling to my death if a bird deemed me unworthy, but now…

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