Page 15 of The Stone Secret
She wraps her arms around my waist and squeezes. “I’m sorry, Serath. So sorry.”
How can this contact be so soothing? How can her holding me like this take the edge off a pain that’s acted like a thorn in my side for decades?
I hug her back, reveling in her scent and her body that fits perfectly against me. This female is made for me but denied to me. Her hair is silken against my lips as I drop a kiss to her head and breathe her in. Mine.
My chest vibrates as my beast stirs.
“We should train now,” Selas says. “We only have a few weeks until the elite trials and a few days before she trains alongside the initiates prepping for their final exams. She needs to be on par with them.”
My heart sinks. She’ll be in danger. So much danger.
Cam wriggles in my arms, body rubbing against me and inflaming me. I release her with a soft growl, and she looks up at me, cheeks flushed.
Fuck, she is so beautiful. If Selas wasn’t in the room right now—
“I’m not skipping the cadet exam,” Cameron says.
Her words are ice water.
“What?” Selas draws her away from me. “What do you mean? Your father said—”
“I know what he said, but hear me out. If I have to wait to take the elite trial tillafterthe cadet exam, then why can’t I just take the cadet exam like everyone else?” Selas looks like she’s about to speak, but Cameron forges on. “I don’t feel comfortable training alongside the initiates if I haven’t earned the right to be there.”
“You’re a Basque,” Selas replies. “The only Basque that can take up the mantle and—”
“You think I might die in the cadet exams and never make it to elite.”
Selas snaps her mouth closed and breathes through her nose. “I don’t think that. I believe in you.”
And so do I. “Cameron’s right.” Selas looks at me in surprise, but I forge on. “The elite trial can only take place on a sidhe moon, which is six weeks from now. She could take the cadet exams if she wants. It will be good preparation. It’s not like we can fail her. When she makes it through, she can join the initiates and take the elite trial.”
Cameron is looking at me with an indecipherable expression.
“What is it?”
“You didn’t say if. You said when.” She beams at me, and my head feels light with euphoria. “Thank you.”
“I think she needs to know about the elite trial,” Selas says softly.
The warm, fuzzy feeling vanishes.
“I know it’ll be dangerous,” Cameron says. “But I’ll be ready. I’m willing to work hard, and I have you guys to prepare me for it.”
Selas arches a brow my way, handing me the floor.
I cup Cam’s shoulders. “The other exams are pass or fail. Yes, some cadets die during them, but there is no penalty for failing to score. You can score low and still survive and end up in an administration position. The elite trials are pass or die. There is no in between.”
“What…what do you mean?”
“You either pass the tests and live, or you fail and don’t come out at all. There is no scoring low in the elite trial. No body to be returned to a family if you fail.”
“What happens? What is the trial?”
My scalp tightens as my subconscious recalls the trial, but the memory is gone, wiped by the council.
Selas answers for me. “We don’t remember. Our memories of the trial have been wiped.”
Cameron’s disquiet is loud in the silence that follows. When she speaks, her tone is firm, and her eyes flash with determination. “My brother is in the clutches of the enemy. Failure isn’t an option for me, and neither is death. Speak to Lionel and tell him I’m taking the cadet exams. I need to do them, for my own confidence and peace of mind.”
