Page 53 of Powerful

‘Where the hell are you, Dena?’ I mumble towards the stands stretching around me.

Maybe I’ve focused on the wrong Phaser. Maybe I’m not searching for my Adena, but someone else entirely.

So, I shut my eyes again, forcing myself to focus. But this power feels familiar, intimate. I’m drawn to it in a way that tells me it can only be her.

And it’s tugging me to the right.

I peek open an eye, finding only the railing to the Pit beside me. I huff, shaking my head. Something isclearly wrong with me. Is the Mute that lines the stands messing with my ability to simply sense powers?

Trying again to feel her, I find myself quickly turning towards the railing once more.

I look out into the Pit, scanning the foliage and the live footage playing on the screens above it. A flash of silver hair tells me it’s Paedyn who is currently being recorded running between the hedges.

There’s that tug again.

My gaze sweeps over the scene, landing on the circle of sand at the center of it all.

There’s a body there. Seemingly small and rightfully scared.

‘… you must also kill the person that awaits you there.’

So this is the criminal who was unlucky enough to be thrown from the dungeons and into a far worse fate.

I blink at the figure.

And then my mouth goes dry.

I’m forced to clutch the railing in front of me to stop from sinking to my knees.

Because I know that dark hair, those curls that bounce with each terrified turn of her head.

I can make out those crooked bangs from where I stand.

My shout is swallowed by the roaring crowd.

I’ve found her.

At the center of a Trial.

CHAPTER 21Adena

It is hot in the Pit.

Again, I suppose that’s to be expected.

I wake to the sound of stomping feet. The chanting of thousands has my ears ringing as my senses slowly hum to life. After struggling to blink open my heavy eyelids, I startle at the sight of hedges looming around me.

Staggering to my feet proves to be rather difficult with my wrists now bound behind my back and my ankles bound beneath me. I gawk at the hedges surrounding me, gulp at the sounds coming from beyond the dense foliage. At least I don’t have to look at my fingers anymore. Though they ache so badly that it’s impossibleto forget what they look like. I do my best to ignore the image of cracked bones and swollen knuckles that persistently flashes in my mind.

I’m dreaming. I must be.

This is all just a nightmare. Pae will wake me soon with her fingers sweeping back my sweaty bangs. And then we will sit and stare at the stars from behind our Fort. Because that is where I am. That is where I want to be.

But that is not this place.

This place is hot sand beneath my bare feet and sun trickling down through the vines above my head. This place is a wall of greenery, a cage of foliage folding in on me. This place is foreign and familiar all at once.

My eyes widen with realization.

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