Page 72 of Trial of Thorns
“You guys go ahead.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
I still see nothing out of the ordinary, but my gut is screaming at me to run. How could I run, though? My task is right there, only five hundred feet ahead. I still have a few hours to complete the trial, but even if I ran off, I’d have to come back at some point.
A form appears far to my right, a dark rippling like she stepped out of shadow, and my stomach sinks.
Caelynn stands with her arms crossed, her face a perfect mask of indifference. Her white tunic ruffles in the gentle wind. Always confident, never unnerved. Although, now that I look closer, her expression is one of vague annoyance. She’s annoyed I didn’t fall for whatever trap she’d set?
Just feet behind her, the sand shifts oddly, catching my attention. There’s a ripple. A slight movement beneath the ground like... wind.
I pull out my sword and curse again, but Caelynn holds her hands up in a show of temporary peace.
“I’m going to kill you,” I seethe.
She steps forward, hands still up. Brielle is sneering at her, but she’s not surprised. Not remotely surprised.
Dammit, I really want to know what’s going on.
I look between Brielle and Caelynn. “You’re working with her,” I say, my voice void of light. How? Why? I don’t even have the breath to express those questions.
Caelynn steps forward again, her blond hair waving in the increasingly irritated wind. “Come and get me,” she says, with a wink. But her expression tells me she knows I have no intention of doing any such thing. Not right now.
She slides her foot forward, shifting the sand ever so slightly. My gaze darts down to her boot that she very specifically doesn’t put pressure on.
Wood. There’s a plank hidden beneath the sand.
I let out a breath. Did my betrayer just expose the trap purposefully? Because it sure as hell looks like it.
My heart is pounding.
“I’m going to kill her,” Brielle tells me. Well, that’s the truth. I can see it in her eyes.
“No one cares,” the murderer says off handedly. “This is between me and Rev.”
I wrinkle my nose. “Don’t call me that. Only my friends call me that.”
Her eyebrows flick up in surprise. “I wasn’t aware. These two call you that name all the time. And, well...”
She doesn’t complete the sentence, and I hear a huff behind the now obvious shifting sand a few feet back. I have no doubt who’s behind it. All five of them against me?
Or is it four?
Time to run and figure out the rest, but just as I tense to sprint away from my pursuers, a vine sprouts from beneath the sand and grips my ankle. I grit my teeth and use my light to shoot the vine away, but Rook and Brielle have already shifted behind me, blocking my retreat.
The sand behind Drake spins and swirls into a small cyclone and laughter erupts. Kari and Drake march to stand beside Caelynn.
The thought crosses my mind for one instant:I’m going to die.
Then, I act. I spin, my blade flying into my closest enemies—Brielle and Rook. A roar of fire greets me, searing my forearm, but I ignore the pain. A groan of rage tears from my lungs as my blade flies at Rook. He parries with his own, and I spin toward Brielle, her eyes red with anger and determination. I slice toward her face, but Rook reaches me first. The sound of flesh ripping wide registers first.
Then the silver glint of a blade through my stomach.
My face whitens as I feel the warmth of blood growing over my middle. I blast white hot light from my body, holding nothing back—I have nothing left to lose. Panic wells in my body. My own death pressing down on me.
Not like this. I never expected it to happen like this.
Brielle and Rook dive out of the way of my attack, leaving one small path out.
