This is it, then. After everything—surviving the selections, the challenge matches, daily life at Confluence, and even a rogue elemental and Malakai during the trial—I'm going to die here, alone, without even understanding what I truly am.

The thought ignites something in me.

Not fear.

Fury.

My hands ball into fists, nails cutting half-moons into my palms. No. I refuse to die like this. Others have died so I could make it here. To this moment. To today.

Failing isn't an option.

I stand straighter, facing the elemental directly. My breathing comes in ragged gasps, but my voice comes out steady enough to get the point across.

"Come on, then," I snarl, forcing steel into my voice. "An elemental asshole ten times your size tried to eat me once. It didn't work out for him, so let's see if you can do better."

The fire wolf hesitates. Something like surprise dances in its molten eyes.

Then it growls—the sound like a furnace roaring to life—and lunges for my throat.

I don't run. I don't flinch. Instead, I prepare to try to grab it with my bare hands. I'll likely burn myself to a crisp, but I'm sure as hell going to try to suck whatever power I can from it and make it regret testing me.

Then something changes.

A sound like the ocean crashing against cliffs fills the clearing. The temperature plummets. The wolf hesitates, head tilting as one fiery ear cocks toward the sound.

A blur of deep blue flashes across my vision—so fast I almost miss it. The massive form crashes into the fire wolf mid-leap, sending it tumbling across the clearing in a spray of embers and ash.

Where nothing had been a moment before, there now stands an enormous serpentine creature, its scales the dark blue of the deepest ocean depths, wings spread wide like sails catching a storm.

The water dragon from the lake. The ancient elemental.

Steam hisses violently where the creatures touch, water threatening to quench the flames of the wolf with every contact. With one swipe of its forepaw, it sends the wolf tumbling backward to slam into a tree. Flames leap up around the impact, consuming the tree as the wolf stands again and shakes his head, eyes fixed on the other elemental.

The water dragon roars, the sound vibrating through the soles of my feet and into my bones, rattling my teeth. The very air trembles as it positions itself between me and the fire wolf.

I get my first clear look at it and my jaw drops. In this world, the blues are sharper and deeper—eye-watering in their intensity. It stands on two powerful hind legs, long serpentine body erect with forelegs that end in three deadly curved claws. The tail winds behind its hind legs, curled and tipped in a barb of scales that gleam wicked and pure black like obsidian.