At his words, her heart somersaulted in her chest. She’d tried her best to not think about this, not today, not over the last month. But she couldn’t avoid it any longer, not when Rob was taking her on the two-day drive back to the Elemental College. To The Five Finals.
Allyra smiled gamely and nodded. “Let me just grab my stuff.”
“I already packed the bag on your bed—you don’t have anything else, do you?” Rob said, already halfway out the door.
“No, I guess not,” she replied softly, taking one last look around the small cottage and its battered, mismatched furniture. She couldn’t help but feel a strange kind of fondness for it. There was nothing but the bare essentials here, but at least it had been safe, which perhaps was the ultimate luxury.
Outside, Rob and Laureline were wrapped together saying their goodbyes. The drive back to the Elemental College would take at least seventeen hours and deliver her to her possible death, but Laureline wouldn’t be accompanying them, so Allyra was grateful for small mercies.
Laureline turned to Allyra and pulled her into a hug, swamping her in a cloud of sickly sweet honeysuckle perfume. “Good luck, Allyra, all of the Rising is excited by the opportunity to get a closer look at the inner workings of the Great Colleges. You can count on us to support you in any way we can.”
Giving Allyra a fond smile, Laureline pulled away. “And one more thing, before you go, I wanted you to know that Jamie’s mission is going well. He’s performing admirably.” Laureline let out a small, careless laugh. “But why am I telling you this? I’m sure you know already—you and Jamie are so close after all.”
Zing! Another bull’s-eye for Laureline.
Jamie hadn’t contacted Allyra—not once since he left three weeks ago. The hole he’d left behind was more effective at destroying Allyra than any physical wound.
Rob opened the door of Laureline’s car, a sleek, red convertible—a beauty of a car, and the perfect choice for someone more concerned with looks than practicality. It was a miracle the car had even made it down the muddy dirt track. Laureline settled gracefully into the car, but before Rob could close the door, Laureline called out, “Allyra, you might want to change into something more appropriate before you get to the college. Appearances matter.”
“I doubt anyone will care what I’m wearing when they try to kill me,” Allyra shot back sarcastically.
Laureline gave her a pitying look. “That’s what you still haven’t learnt. Everything counts.”
* * *
The drive passed mostly in silence. As the hours whiled away, the scenery shifted from the lush sugarcane fields of the Lowveld to the barren vastness of the Karoo and finally into the majestic mountains of the Cape.
It was too quiet with too many opportunities for Allyra’s mind to get tangled up in doubt. She knew what she had to do, and she focused on her list.
Save Emma.
Finish what her father had started—uncover the Council’s secrets.
Save the green-eyed Cleaner.
Survive The Five Finals.
Alex.
The last point was just a name. It was the one she understood the least. The one she’d avoided thinking about. His name alone was enough to stir up a whirlwind of emotions within her. Alex Cairns was an enigma, a muddle of paradoxes. He had saved her in the Between but told her not to trust him. He had trained her for the Elemental Trials, but then he sent her back into the lion’s den with so little information she might’ve died a dozen times. He had kissed her and then told her never to look back.
As it always did when she thought of Alex, her mind wandered to the plaque on the Winner’s Wall. The golden plaques engraved with the names of all the winners of the Elemental Trials were there. Her father’s name was there. Hers would be too now. But it was the name from one hundred and fifty years ago that caused the sense of disquiet in her soul.
Alexander Patrick Cairns.
The name that embodied the darkest moment in the Gifted’s brutal history. The name of the Elemental High Master who had betrayed everything the Gifted stood for in a selfish personal quest for power. The Betrayal had left every Elemental alive at the time dead.
Alexander Patrick Cairns.
It was a name shrouded in infamy. It was also Alex’s full name.
The question was: could he be trusted?
Allyra didn’t know. She wanted to trust him—desperately. She wanted to believe that he cared for her, that he wasn’t just using her for his own ends.
Never again a pawn—that was the promise she’d made herself. It meant she couldn’t just trust blindly, even if she wanted to. Knowledge was power, and Allyra intended to become very powerful.
“Jamie just needs some time,” Rob said, jolting Allyra from her thoughts.
“Excuse me?”
“I know you guys haven’t spoken in some time, but he’ll come round. It was just a lot of information to process.”
Allyra took a deep breath, staring out at the passing scenery yet seeing nothing at all. Her fingers tightened on the door handle. She was desperate for something, anything, to hold onto.
“Let’s not pretend three weeks isn’t a long time,” she said steadily, “not when it comes to Jamie and I.”
She could still remember the look on Jamie’s face. The moment of weakness when she’d blurted out the secret she’d held onto so tightly. The guilt of keeping so much from her best friend had been eating her alive. So, the word had just tumbled out.
Elemental.
A pause as Jamie stared at her blankly, an unspoken question in his eyes.
She’d tried again.
I’m an Elemental.
First came the quiet reassurances. Words spoken so slowly
