Sven stood in the opening of the ravine with Hedy and Kees at his back. Their skin peeled away from their foreheads, burned to a crisp from merely walking through the Summer Trial. I imagined how I must look after all my time spent beneath the forge-like sun.

Their arrowtips caught the moonlight, aimed mainly at Bastiaan. I stepped in front of him.

Sven actually laughed. I’d never heard a sound so ugly before. “How cute.” He gestured to Bastiaan. “You’d actually let her take the hit for you?”

Bastiaan emerged from behind me, throwing discs in hand. “That’s the thing. I don’t stop her or ‘let’ her do things.”

“How quickly you’ve figured out the intricacies of love.” He sneered. “By all means, hide behind her again if that makes you feel like the hero.” Sven lowered his bow. Kees followed suit. Hedy did not.

Sven approached and bypassed me entirely, going straight for the Well. “Did the water fix you, then?”

I braced myself for what he was about to discover. I wanted to make a run for it, but Hedy blocked the exit by bow and arrow. I couldn’t expect Bastiaan to kill again. Nor did I want to partake in snuffing another life. Even if it was Hedy’s.

Sven peered over the edge of the Well. He maintained that position for one breath. Two breaths. I could almost physically feel his rage building.

He turned a murderous gaze to me. “What. Did. You. Do?”

I didn’t have the energy to be surprised by his blame. “The Well was dry when I arrived.” I wasn’t about to tell him about the moisture we saw or Bastiaan’s theory. It had already disappeared, as though imagined.

“It’s dry?” Hedy croaked.

Kees had yet to move since lowering his bow. He appeared lost in tortured memories, hardly caring about the Well or me or anything else. Haunted by the Trials. They’d had to defeat most of Spring and all of Autumn to get here. That was the second time for Kees.

“You stopped it up, didn’t you?” Sven accused. “To stop me from getting a true Talent.”

Everything truly was about him. “How would I do that?”

He gripped my collar. “Undo it.”

“Get your hands off her,” Bastiaan growled, lifting his throwing discs.

“Undo it!” Sven’s spittle sprayed my face.

I tried to shove him back, but he didn’t budge. “I can’t, you fool!”

“You’re choosing not to!”

“Choosing not to die.”

“You are so selfish!” He threw me from him and I crashed into the ring of stones, barely keeping myself from toppling over.

Bastiaan released a disc and it caught Sven in the shoulder. Sven hissed and blood splashed his sleeve.