A message was sent to Master Akerman that she wouldn’t be participating in the afternoon training session, and Allyra spent a quiet afternoon catching up on the sleep she’d missed the night before.
All too soon, it was time to reenter reality, and she hobbled gingerly to the dining room for dinner. A chorus of voices carried clearly through the door and suggested she was late—again. She was starting to get used to all conversation ceasing as she entered a room. Worse still was the weight of stares as all eyes turned unerringly to her. She ignored them all, held her head high, and did her best to hobble with some dignity.
The food was laid out in a buffet style with no shortage on choices. Despite having done next to nothing for most of the day, Allyra found she was starving. Reasoning that she needed protein for strength and carbs for energy, she passed over the salads and chose a hamburger, piling French fries onto the remaining space on her plate.
Feeling very much like the new kid at school, she made her way down the long trestles. She didn’t recognize anyone other than Jason, who was surrounded by an array of adoring female admirers. He didn’t bother looking up as she limped by. Another raucous group seemed to be centered around a boy with a loud laugh and dancing, mischievous eyes, who she surmised to be the Mr. Lee who’d made the sarcastic comments during High Master Zhuang’s recitation of the rules.
Spotting an empty spot at the end of one of the trestles, Allyra made her way toward it but stopped when two girls waved her to join them. In appearance, they were polar opposites—one was olive skinned with dark hair cropped close to her head like a boy’s. The other had classically pale Scandinavian coloring with clear blue eyes and long blonde hair.
The blonde looked at her bandaged ankle and grimaced. “Ouch. You okay?” Before Allyra could answer, she continued, “I’m Henrietta, or Henri, and this is Adriana.”
Allyra slipped into the seat next to Henri. “Allyra,” she offered in reply.
Henri grinned. “We know—you’re kind of famous. Even for those of us from the Oceanic College.”
“That’s Antarctica, right? Sounds freezing—"
Henri waved it off, cutting her off. “It’s not too bad, it’s pretty well heated inside, and all the snow does make it rather beautiful. But enough about Antarctica, and tell us about the Between—we heard you actually fought a Revenant.”
Henri’s voice was husky and breathless, as if she couldn’t get the words out fast enough. She paused and looked at Allyra expectantly, her blue eyes wide with childlike expectation.
“If by fight a Revenant, you mean that it cut me open and I barely escaped with my life…” Allyra said sarcastically around a mouth full of hamburger.
“Really?” Henri looked disappointed, but it only took her a couple of seconds to brighten up again. “Well, don’t tell anyone that. Let the rumor work for you.”
Allyra raised her eyebrows in a silent question, and Henri quickly jumped in to clear up any confusion. “Reputation is everything here. The last thing you want is everyone thinking that you’re an easy target. It’ll open you up to challenges, and you really want to avoid those if you want to stay in the competition.”
“And being a First, you’re already at the top of everyone’s hit list,” Adriana chimed in.
“A First?” Allyra asked, swallowing down the last mouthful of her hamburger and moving enthusiastically onto the French fries. If discovering her Gift had done anything, it had awoken an appetite of ferocious proportions.
“Meaning that you only won this year,” Henri replied thoughtfully. “It’s pretty unfair really. The Firsts almost never win. The Fifths are the most likely to win. After all, they’ve had the most time to prepare and get used to working as a team.”
Henri paused for breath, and Adriana took over. “It sucks to be a First, they’re always the first to be eliminated, and they’re constantly being challenged by the other pairs who want to gain an advantage. And they’re always the most likely to be killed—”
“Adriana!” Henri admonished, her eyes wide. She glanced at Allyra and hurried to soften her partner’s words. “Sorry. She doesn’t mean it. Besides, you survived the Between, I’m sure you’ll survive The Five Finals.”
Allyra waved her off. It wasn’t that she enjoyed hearing she was part of a group considered to be easy prey for others in The Five Finals, but she’d always preferred the ugly truth to kind lies.
“The most important thing is to trust your partner.” Adriana said.
“That’s not useful, Ads,” Henri reproached again.
Adriana scowled at her. “It’s the truth though.”
Allyra glanced at Jason, who was still at the center of a cluster of excitable admirers. “We haven’t exactly gotten off to the greatest start,” she muttered darkly.
Henri gave her a sympathetic glance. “Look, I know it sounds impossible, but you have to trust him. You guys are in it together. You live and die together.”
“You might as well get used to the idea that if you die during The Five Finals, Jason will probably be the last person you see,” Adriana added helpfully.
“How did you guys do it?” Allyra asked, desperately trying to turn the focus of the conversation from her and Jason to something else. Anything else. “How did you become friends with someone that tried to kill you?”
Henri and Adriana grinned at each other, an easy and practiced look that Allyra suddenly found herself envying.
“Well, first
