Silence from all of us. Maybe we were supposed to cheer or applaud or something, but none of us could be bothered. She looked annoyed for an instant and then continued. “All six of your bands were chosen because I believe you can win this thing. I’m confident that this year I have the most talented group of musicians on the show, and I know Team Angel is going all the way!” This got a tiny bit of forced applause. “Unfortunately, only one of you will make it to the final four. You all have talent or you wouldn’t be here, but to make it to the end, you need to work hard and want it more than anything. I want you all to ask yourselves: How bad do you want this? What are you willing to do to win?”

Angel had been doing this show for four years, and she gave the same speech every season. I wondered if she knew from the very beginning who had the best shot at winning, if she could tell, just by looking in our eyes now, who wanted it the most. As I glanced around the room, it hit me that we might not be on the show after this week. Out of six bands, only three of us would be staying with Angel. Any band she eliminated might be picked by the other mentors, but there was no guarantee that would happen.

Beside me, Jared’s eyes took on a fiery determination I’d never seen before. Jared was in this thing to win it, no doubt. He’d do anything for that chance, but would I? How much did I want it? Or was I only doing this for Kyle? For Jared?

No, I wanted to win, too. Maybe not as much as Jared did, but after hearing that roar of the crowd, feeling the music blasting from the giant speakers, and playing with the band at my side, I wanted to do this for the rest of my life. I wanted that record deal and the tour and the future as a part of Villain Complex. To get that, we had to win The Sound.

After an appropriate pause for her words to sink in, Angel continued. “This week we have the battle round, which will be fun.” I couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not. She waved at her assistant, and he passed her a sheet of paper, which she squinted at while he disappeared against the wall again. “Okay, let’s see here… First up, The Static Klingons will compete against Villain Complex.”

I groaned softly. Why couldn’t we have been up against any of the other bands on the team? Of course we would be paired with the one band that seemed sort of nice. Now there was a strong chance one of us would be going home next week.