The vision of his face hovering over mine fills my mind as I clench my fist, feeling phantom flames lick across my knuckles. I've survived the offering ceremony, the elemental trial, and my first day at Confluence Academy.

But surviving isn't enough. I need to find out what the hell it means to be unbound—why I was able to call fire while touching Raith, and whether the strangeness of my abilities stop there.

This morning, part of me was ready to give up and die. Part of me still is, maybe.

But I want to see this thing through. I want to show all the assholes running this place that we're not fodder to discard. They expect us to die in droves before Confluence Day?

I'd love nothing more than to thrive. To shove their dismissal down their damn throats, if that's what it takes.

And not just them. There are the people like Serena and Raith who are stronger than me, and they think they can wield that power like clubs to keep me down.

Fuck that.

I'll make it to Confluence Day—whatever that is—and I'll even earn myself an elemental if that’s the goal. And if, by some miracle, I survive to make it out of this place, I'll find a way to use my power to make it up to Brissa and my mother.

But for now, my reality revolves around one brutally simple truth.

This place and these people see me as expendable, and I intend to prove them wrong.

I'm going to live.

5

There might only be one good thing about life at Confluence Academy, and it's a wonderful invention known as a "shower."

My body is a map of pain from my first two weeks at Confluence Academy. Every muscle screams in protest as I sink deeper into the steaming pool, hoping the hot water might erase the memory of Serena slamming me into a wall so hard this morning that I tasted blood. My tongue probes the inside of my cheek, still tender. I'm lucky I didn't chip a tooth.

All I did was look at her when I was leaving the dining room after breakfast. She's apparently still pissed she didn't get a chance to challenge me herself and beat me senseless that first day. Thankfully, Raith Hollow has kept his distance from me. He's apparently too busy excelling in every single subject and attracting followers like some kind of budding commander of the fire affinities.

I close my eyes and try to let these thoughts dissolve in the heat. It has become a daily ritual for me. I sink into the waters that remind me of home—of when home still felt like home—and I try to forget about the dangers and politics of this place for just a few moments.