There's something like pain in Raith's face, but he nods. "You shouldn't. But we need to head back. We've been gone too long already."

As we make our way through the forest, a new awareness crackles between us—shared knowledge, shared danger. Raith walks closer to me than before, his eyes constantly scanning our surroundings, one hand never far from his blade.

We reach the eastern gate just as the sun begins its descent, slipping back onto Confluence grounds unseen. The castle rises before us, its spires gleaming in the late afternoon light. From this distance, it looks beautiful, majestic—impossible to imagine it harbors a predator hunting students from within.

Raith pauses before we return to the main grounds, his hand catching my wrist. "Be careful, Nessa."

"I will." I meet his gaze directly. "You be careful too."

There's a softening around his eyes, a tension in his jaw that wasn't there before. For a breathless moment, I think he might say more, might finally stop holding himself back so much around me.

Instead, his fingers brush lightly against my cheek, a touch so brief I might have imagined it. "Meet me tomorrow. Same time, training room. We have work to do."

Then he's gone, melting into the shadows of the castle as if he were born from them, leaving me alone with questions I'm not sure I want answered and a growing certainty that surviving the next week might be the greatest challenge I've faced yet.

"Not a single worthy prey in the entire damned forest. Squirrels and lizards. Pah! I demand a true hunt!"

"Typhon, not right now."

I feel resignation through the tether as I sense him soaring through the air high above. He rarely flies, so I feel a sense of awe as I look up and see his wings spread wide and his serpentine body twisting through the air as if he's swimming. Soon, I’ll need to train with him like Raith said. I’ll need to learn to ride on his back and fight while mounted. Anything less would be a terrible waste of the potential we share.

The blue of his body catches the light like reflections on the water so he sparkles high above, wings nearly translucent as he passes across the sun.

A swell of pride and comfort fills me.

Maybe the dangers are many here, but so are my allies. Typhon, Raith, Mireen, Beck, Ambrose, and maybe even Bastian. They're all ready to fight with me against whatever comes, and I can't imagine anyone else I'd rather have on my side.

28

The water channeling exam is every bit the disaster I anticipated. Twenty students stand in a circle around a large basin filled with water. Sestra watches us with her perpetually disappointed expression, making notes on a parchment as we take turns attempting to manipulate the water.