I could feel the sunlight streaming across my face before I even opened my eyes. Last night, I’d actually managed to fall asleep without any morbid or ominous dreams. Tryouts were today, and I knew I should have been more nervous, but actually, I was excited about the tests. As I slowly sat up, I heard a little squeak and squeal, and when I turned my head to the side, Alexander was staring right at me with his chocolate brown eyes.
“Hey, there,” I muttered, and my voice was still heavy with sleep. “How was your night? Any dreams you’d like to share?”
Alexander was still the size of a small dog, and I wondered when he would hit his next evolutionary step. I knew I had to worry about it eventually, but with the tournament on my mind, I realized it would be challenging to find the time.
However, something strange did happen. Instead of returning to sleep like he usually did, the bulky mouse started to jump on the pillow and pointed to his small wrist with a sense of urgency. He continued the process over and over again, and I broke into laughter.
“What’s your deal?” I asked.
He rolled his eyes and then pointed to the thin, stained-glass window.
When I turned to look at what he was pointing at, I cursed under my breath and threw the covers off. The sun was higher up than usual, which meant I was going to be late for tryouts if I didn’t hurry out the door. I dressed as quickly as possible, and as I was struggling to put on my boots, my bedroom door suddenly swung open.
“Satan!” I cried out in surprise, and I nearly fell over with one boot on. When I turned to look at the coven, they were all staring at me with blank expressions, except for Akira, who was smirking proudly, so I knew she was the one who decided to just barge in. “Have you ever heard of knocking, Akira?’”
“Why bother?” she replied with a shrug. “It’s not like we haven’t seen you naked before.”
“That’s not the point,” I sighed as I put on my other boot.
“Well, the point is that we’re here to fetch you,” Morgana said. “We received a raven this morning. Tryouts will start in fifteen minutes and will begin just on the outskirts of the black forest.”
“Yeah,” Akira added, “bookworm is right, so you’d better haul ass.”
“There will be a ton of people trying out,” Vesta commented. “We don’t want to be the last ones there.”
“Hundreds of volunteers and only a few will make the final cut,” Faye sighed.
“We’ve got the best shot.” I winked, and as soon as I was fully dressed, I flashed them a confident grin. “Come on, let’s get out there and show them what we can do.”
We left the room and quickly headed down the stairs, past the corridors, and down to the black gates, and then we sprinted down the greenish-gray hills and to the meeting spot.
As soon as we approached the rendezvous point, my jaw nearly hit the ground. Vesta had been right. There were at least five hundred Scholomance witches all gathered in clusters of groups. They all sounded like a hive of busy bees as they buzzed amongst each other, but when we arrived, I couldn’t help but notice that several witches stared long and hard at my coven and I as we made our way downhill.
“People are staring,” Faye said under her breath as we carried onward.
“And what else is fucking new?” Akira demanded. “Who gives a shit… they’re just worried about us because we have more potential than a hundred of them combined.”
“Don’t you think that’s a bit of an overstatement?” Faye snorted.
“No,” the black-eyed witch responded in defense. “In fact, I’m pretty sure we’re better than all of them.”
“Well, how about we let the tryouts determine whether or not that’s true?” a familiar voice said from behind us.
We all whipped around and Headmistress Theodora was standing there with a serene smile plastered across her beautiful face. Today, she sported a gown that was the brightest shade of red I’d ever seen her wear. It cut just across her shoulders and exposed her creamy white shoulders, and her hair was half up and half down in long, dark waves that cascaded down to her waist.
“You look lovely, Headmistress,” Morgana said.
“Thank you, Morgana,” she replied with her chin raised. “I do like to put in a little extra effort for these trials… even if I don’t watch them. We just haven’t had one in so long.”
“When do we begin?” I asked.
“Right now.” She grinned. Then she raised her hands up high, and her blue eyes flashed across all the students. “Silentium!”
At once, everyone fell deadly quiet, and the only sounds we could hear were the ravens cawing high above us and the shrill wind as it blew through the trees. There was a presence among the students, though. I could feel their energy radiating off them, and it was a mixture of excitement, fear, and determination.
“Firstly, I would like to thank you all for your bravery and spirit,” the headmistress began in a loud voice. “You will be representing Scholomance, and your willingness to try out demonstrates your character and determination. Now, let us formally begin! You will all be split into groups, and each professor will lead you to your series of tests. Whoever passes through each obstacle without fail will make it to the final round, where we will determine who the finalists are. Only eight of you will make the cut, and once this is over, some of you may never see the light of day again. You may, however, quit at any time, should you feel you’re too weak to see it through to the end. All you have to do is call out the word: ‘defectum,’ and one of the professors will send you back to the academy. Now, I hope you all understand the severity of what I am telling you. If you choose to back out now, this is your one and only chance.”
I looked around me and saw heads nod in agreement. There was fear in some of their eyes, and I briefly wondered how many of them would die by the end of tryouts. How many of them were actually terrified and just trying to put on a brave show for the headmistress? How many of them were solely trying out because of their pride and hatred toward the warlocks and possibly the other witches?
“Professors, you may come out now!” Theodora instructed.
A line of professors appeared from the gates and headed steadily down to us. Vanessa was leading the group, and she flashed me a dark look before she lined up next to her mother. I stared at the other professors, and I noticed Luna, the gorgeous, pale blonde professor looked absolutely animated, as if it were Hallow’s Eve, while the fiery redheaded Crimson and the pink-haired Evanora looked mildly concerned. I could tell they didn’t want to spill Scholomance blood unless it was vital, but they didn’t really have a say in the matter.
“Vanessa,” Theodora said as she turned to her daughter, “I will leave you to it, then. If you need anything, I shall be in my study.”
“Yes, headmistress,” Vanessa replied as she bowed her head.
Theodora then turned to look at the students one last time and smiled. “May the dark spirits be with you all.”
Theodora flashed me a mysterious smile before she whipped her skirts around and headed slowly back to the castle with her arms folded behind her back as if she were just taking a leisurely morning stroll and not sending her own students off to their deaths.
As I turned my attention to the headmistress’ daughter, I realized she was just as dressed up as her mother. On this dark, gray morning, Vanessa wore a long, vivid red gown that exposed the top curve of her breasts and slid down to her bellybutton. Her long, dark, straight hair was loose, and a bone pin necklace around her creamy neck dangled whenever she moved.
“Now, you heard the headmistress,” Vanessa said, “we’ll need to split you up into groups. Everyone, please stay still and remain quiet. If you don’t, you might lose a limb or two.”
I stood as still as stone as Vanessa pulled out her long wand and pointed it up at the sky.
“Struo!” she shouted.
A spark of orange light emerged from the tip of her wand and hit a silver cloud that hung directly above us, and a strong wind picked up and started to push students into different directions. I felt myself being pushed closer to Akira, Vesta, Faye, and Morgana, and we were all huddled into a group. Next to us, several other witches looked both puzzled and startled at the same time as they were shoved closer to each other.
“You can all move now.” Vanessa grinned. “I was only joking when I said you could lose a limb.”
“Yeah, right,” Akira growled under her breath. “She never fucking jokes.”
When I glanced around, I noticed each professor was standing in front of a large group of students, and since Vanessa was still in front of us, I figured she was going to be our leader. I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. Of course, the professor who gave me the most shit was going to be in charge of our group.
Fucking perfect.
“Alright!” Vanessa roared. “Split off with your professors, and may the darkness guide you and yours… you’ll need it.”
We waited until the rest of the students headed off with their respective professors, and those of us who were stuck with Vanessa remained in the same spot. I glanced discreetly at my coven and tried to figure out what they were thinking and how they were feeling. I could sense their apprehension, their fear, but also their excitement. So, I smiled to myself because I knew they would fight tooth and nail to win this, and so would I.
Vanessa rubbed her hands together and glanced at her groups of students. “Let’s go, shall we?”
We silently followed the professor down to the black forest, and no one dared to say a single word as we trailed along after her. I had no clue where we were going or what we were going to do, but I had a feeling it was going to be gritty, bloody, and monstrous. We finally came to an open patch of dirt surrounded by dead, black trees. Ravens and crows were perched on the branches, and they stared down at us with their beady, black eyes as we struggled to all fit in this one space.
“Split up into groups of four,” the professor commanded. “Now, hurry. I don’t care who you’re with.”
Everyone, aside from my own coven, began to gather up into their groups. Akira looked amused as everyone struggled to find compatible partners, but Vanessa, on the other hand, was growing impatient. She finally let out a long, dramatic sigh and flicked her wand. Anyone who didn’t have a partner was pushed into a group, and soon, we were all organized into several distinct teams.
“Finally,” she huffed. “Now, the first test will begin in a moment. As higher-level students, you should all be familiar with the poterant bat, so who can tell me what that is?”
To my surprise, Faye’s hand managed to shoot up before Morgana’s, and the brunette almost looked offended when Vanessa pointed to the freckled redhead instead of her.
“Yes, Faye?” she asked.
“They are flesh-eating bats,” the redhead replied, “exceedingly rare and tremendously difficult to overcome, especially when they attack in a colony.”
“Precisely,” Vanessa chuckled. “Which is why this is going to be so terrifying for you all.”
Everyone’s faces fell as Vanessa directed her wand toward the sky. She began to mutter an incantation, and slowly, the steel gray sky began to form to black, but before darkness fell upon us, one of the clouds split into two as a group of giant bats began to flutter down from the sky. They were fat, with massive heads and beady red eyes, and when they opened their mouths to screech, they had massive yellow fangs dripping with thick drool. Witches started to scream, and most of them ran in different directions through the forest.
“You can’t run or hide from them!” Vanessa called out, obviously pleased with herself. “They will smell you from miles away.”
“Come on!” Morgana hissed as she pulled on my arm. “We have to find pennyroyal!”
“Penny, what?” Akira shrieked with her hands held up over her head.
“It’s the only way to keep yourself protected from their venom and their appetite!” Morgana shouted over the shrill screams that filled the air. “They could take one bite out of you and die from the plant in your bloodstream, not a second later.”
“What if you’ve got the wrong plant in mind?” Akira cried out over the screams.
“It’s Morgana,” Faye yelled, “she knows the right plant!”
We sped through the thicket and frantically pushed thorny vines and broken branches out of our way. As we ran for our lives, we could hear screaming in the distance, and some witches even called out the safeword. We finally came to a patch of bushes that were emerald in color, and even in the darkness, they glowed a vibrant green. It was the liveliest thing I’d ever seen in the black forest, and I knew this had to be the pennyroyal.
“Vanessa must have purposely lured us near a patch of pennyroyal,” Morgana said as she quickly scanned the plants. “I guess she’s not as heartless as we assumed… the only problem is we have no time to brew this properly, so you’re just going to have to eat it. I think it will have the same effect.”
“Eat it?” Akira shrieked. “What if it’s poison, and this is just one of Vanessa’s tricks?”
In the next moment, a young witch with dark purple hair and pale green skin fell from a tree in front of us. She landed in the bushes, and right as she looked at us, bats came swarming down on her and began to tear her into bits. She tried to yell out the safeword, but it was too late. They covered her entire body, and she screeched as they dug into her flesh, little by little. She was screaming frantically until she finally collapsed to the ground, and the bats continued to devour her. They ripped off her skin and picked out her eyeballs, and we could hear her bones crunching and her organs tearing as they munched away. Once the bats were too focused on finishing their meal, Akira turned to Morgana, and the black-eyed witch was white as snow.
“Give me the fucking plant,” she demanded in a whisper.
Morgana handed us each a pinch of pennyroyal, and we quickly stuffed the bitter green leaves into our mouths and chewed. It was difficult to swallow the thick, waxy plant, but as soon as they made their way down my throat, I was ready to haul ass again.
“We’d better get the fuck out of here,” I suggested.
“Agreed.” Faye nodded.
We bolted through the trees and ran hard and fast, past the dead witch and her attackers. We had no idea where we were going or what we were looking for, but all I knew was I wanted to get as far away from those things as possible, even if we just ate the antidote.
There was no room for taking chances.
“Where are we even going?” Akira panted behind me.
“I don’t know, but we just have to keep moving,” I shouted back. “Look what happened to that girl who hid in the tree? It didn’t work out too well for her.”
“Point taken,” the short-haired witch grumbled.
We were running when suddenly, one of my witches screamed bloody murder. I stopped, whipped around, and saw Akira had four or five bats swarming all over her. They were nipping at her skin, and some were taking rather large chunks out of her. Bright red blood arched into the air, and the bats descended into a frenzy.
“Akira!” I pushed past the others who were utterly petrified and yanked the witch away as hard as I could. As I did so, some of the bats started to attack me instead. I swatted at them and managed to hit one hard enough that it went flying into a tree and broke its wing.
Finally, something happened. The bats stopped biting us, and, one by one, they began to drop dead to the ground.
“It… it worked,” Akira gasped with cuts all over her.
“You’re a fucking genius, Morgana!” I said.
“Yeah,” Akira panted with her hand over her chest. “That was not fucking fun.”
“Are you doing okay over there, Akira?” Morgana asked.
“Yeah… I thought those fuckers were going to eat us alive,” she replied with wide, black eyes. “Satan, that felt like a close one.”
She stepped forward and flinched. Then she looked down at her body, and when I followed her gaze, I noticed several chunks of her thigh and calf had been bitten off, and blood was pouring out onto the ground.
Without our bond, she would have probably bled to death in a few minutes.
“Your wounds should heal up soon,” I said, and when I touched my own cheek, I flinched from intense, sharp pain. “Mine, too, hopefully.”
Before any one of us could say another word, the black sky began to morph back into daylight, and all the screams died down at once. We slowly straightened up and looked around, and when I stared up into the sky, I noticed there was red smoke forming above us, like crimson clouds. It was creating a sentence, and I knew it had to be Vanessa directing us to the next challenge.
“Look!” I said as I pointed up to the sky.
If you survived, make your way north until you find me once again.
“That bitch is totally enjoying this,” Akira growled.
“Doesn’t matter,” I said, “we need to keep going. Akira, can you walk?”
“Yeah.” She nodded to her closing wounds. “I’m already starting to heal. Don’t worry about me.”
“Awesome,” I replied, “let’s go.”
We headed through the forest and followed the direction of the smoke. The letters had now dissolved and became a smoky line that was guiding us true north. We followed the red trail in the sky and finally came to another round patch of dirt where Vanessa was standing. She was settled right in the middle of it, and there were strange, intricate carvings beneath her feet.
“I see you all made it without a scratch,” she said as she cocked an eyebrow in our direction. Then her blue eyes focused intently on my face. “Well… maybe that was a poor choice of words.”
I worked my jaw in frustration. Akira almost had a point. Vanessa was pushing us to the very edge. She wanted to see us fight as hard as we could, even if it killed us. I knew she wanted us to become stronger, but her tactics were too cutthroat at times.
Other witches slowly started to appear from the forest, and some of them were bitten to shreds.
“Well, is this all?” Vanessa asked in a faux-innocent voice after about half the number of witches had made it to the field. “What a shame… so little of you returned.”
I could sense everyone’s pain, fear, and regret from here. Some were more resilient than others, but for the most part, I could sense many of the witches regretted entering the tryouts. I could feel it, but it was too late to turn back now.
“Now that everyone is here,” Vanessa said, “we shall move on to phase two.”
She twirled around and looped her wand about three times in a circular motion. The air started to grow incredibly chilly, and I was beginning to breathe puffs of mist. Then snow started to fall, and it quickly coated our lashes and hair. The snow was starting to build upon the ground, and it rose like a tub being filled with water. By how quickly it was rising, I thought we were going to drown in snow, but then it suddenly stopped, just below my knees.
Every single witch had their feet buried in the snow, except for Vanessa, who remained untouched by it, as if some invisible umbrella had protected her from it.
“Weather can be highly unpredictable in different realms.” She grinned. “Knowing how to escape or manipulate the weather can be quite tricky if you don’t possess the right skills.”
What the hell was going on? Was she going to try and kill us with snowballs next?
“In fact, most of you are buried in this snow,” she laughed. “Could you imagine how impossible it would be for you to escape in this condition? How the hell would you run?”
She snapped her fingers, and this time, the snow turned into sand. Red, hot sand that seeped into my boots and stung like thorns. The air had also turned hot, sticky, and sweltering. Sweat dripped down my forehead, and I was finding it difficult to even breathe. The sky was now a blood red, and the sun was beating down on us.
Witches groaned in protest, and a few of them recluntactly said the safe word and instantly disappeared, while several others fainted before they could even utter the word.
“Well, I guess that means they’re disqualified.” Vanessa rolled her eyes. “Tough luck… but let’s not dwell on that, shall we?”
No one could even reply because of the intense, barbaric heat.
Vanessa snapped her fingers again, and this time, the trees began to wilt, and the soil cracked beneath her. Everything was dying until she raised her wand and twirled it above her head. Suddenly, the weather returned to normal, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
“Oh, I wouldn’t get too comfortable,” she laughed, “we haven’t even begun the second test.”
Witches swallowed hard, and beads of sweat collected under my arms and on my forehead and upper lip.
“I think a lovely storm will do for this one,” Vanessa muttered as she looked at us all with bloodlust in her eyes.
She murmured an incantation under her breath, and suddenly, the sky turned an even deeper shade of red, and the air grew painfully cold once more. Instead of white snow, a red slush began to fall from the sky, and it started to rise up to our ankles. Teeth chattered, and people huddled closer together until there was a loud, low pitched scream that almost sounded like the wind, but I knew it was something else. Something darker and deadlier.
“Manes,” Morgana hissed.
“Are you sure?” Akira asked in a faint voice.
“What are manes?” I asked.
“Phantoms of winter,” Morgana responded in a trembling voice. “They turn you inside out if they get a hold of you, and your blood becomes soaked into the snow.”
The screaming grew louder, and some witches began to run back into the woods. Vanessa just stood there calmly, though, with the hem of her red gown soaked in the bloody snow.
“We have to find a safe spot to conduct a sapiens spell!” Morgana cried out. “Magic from our wands isn’t going to save us from the phantoms.”
Suddenly, a shadow descended downward and screamed before it flew inside a nearby witch with long dark hair and a small round freckled face. We watched in horror as she violently convulsed, and the top of her head began to flip inside out, and her scalp slowly peeled back to expose her brains and facial muscles.
“I can’t watch this,” I hissed as my stomach rolled. “Let’s find somewhere to hide, and then we can do the sapia spell.”
“Sapiens,” Morgana corrected before we made a run into the dark forest.
“Now’s not the time for corrections, Morgana,” Akira panted as we struggled to run through the thick, bloody snow.
Vanessa had been right, running through the snow was nearly impossible. The smell was also unbearable, and the air reeked of metallic metal and rotting flesh. We pushed onward, though, and I did my best to ignore the howls of the phantoms mixed with the screams of the students who couldn’t get away fast enough.
We finally came to the mouth of a small cave, and we sprinted inside. As soon as we were in the dark shelter, Morgana pulled out her wand and chewed on her rosy lip.
“What’s wrong?” Akira groaned.
“I’m trying to remember how it goes,” Morgana whispered without making eye contact with anyone.
“You mean you don’t remember?” Akira sneered.
“It was out of a book that was two levels above us!” the beautiful bookworm retorted in defense.
“What are we going to do if you can’t remember it?” Faye wailed. “I’m not turning inside out for a stupid fucking game.”
“What if we do a simple memory enchantment?” I suggested. “I read about it last semester one night in a hex book. It should work.”
“Do you remember the entire spell?” Vesta asked with a raised green eyebrow.
“I do,” I nodded.
At least I thought I did, but I knew it would be better to keep that part to myself. So, I pulled out my wand and aimed it at Morgana.
“Hold still,” I ordered. “Memento Sapiens.”
A light pink stream of light left the tip of my wand and seeped through Morgana’s pale blue eyes. She inhaled sharply, and her eyes began to glow rosy pink as she was illuminated for a moment, and then it all faded away in the blink of an eye.
“I remember it now!” she cried out.
“Great,” Akira growled. “Could you remember it a little more quietly?”
“Oh.” Morgana blushed. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” I said quickly, “just do the spell.”
Morgana closed her eyes and began to recite the incantation. Then she brought her hand up to her lips and bit into it. She let the blood drip onto the wand, and she continued with the rest of the spell. Soon, a light, airy blue light began to seep out from her wand and divided into five bolts of light that hit all of us in the chest. It felt like invisible fingers were wrapped around my heart, and for a brief moment, I was concerned she had enacted the wrong spell. I could barely breathe, and it was like ice was collecting into my lungs.
“What… what’s happening?” I struggled to ask.
“You’re becoming visibly dead,” Morgana panted as the light hit her, too.
“What?” Akira demanded through her teeth.
“Don’t worry,” Morgana said. “It’s supposed to happen… our bodies will be invisible to the phantoms, and they won’t be interested in us.”
When the painful feeling finally faded, I breathed in a long, steady breath. We had all collapsed down to the ground in pain, and the air was deadly quiet.
“Are you sure we’re safe?” I finally asked.
“Positive,” the brunette responded.
We slowly stood up, and my legs nearly buckled underneath me as I struggled to stand upright.
“It won’t last forever,” Morgana said while we all groaned in protest.
“I feel like I’m made out of tin, and my joints are all rusted,” Vesta moaned.
“Like I said,” Morgana sighed, “it will pass.”
We headed out of the cave, and as soon as we stepped past the mouth, a transparent ghost swarmed down and stared right at us. She had a withered face and a missing eye, and she regarded us as if we were a strange-looking painting.
“She won’t do anything,” Morgana said under her breath.
The phantom continued to look at us, and when she decided she couldn't turn any of us inside out, she screamed and dissolved into nothingness.
“Satan,” Faye sighed. “It worked.”
“Thanks, Cole,” Morgana said as she turned to me. “If it hadn’t been for you, then I would never have remembered the spell.”
“Well, you were the one who did it,” I smiled.
“Guys, look,” Akira said, “the snow is melting.”
She was right. When I looked down, the red snow was beginning to melt into the soil, and the crimson clouds were returning to a deep gray. The sound of violent wind died down, and the air settled into normality.
“Now what?” Vesta said after a moment. “Did we win?”
“Not yet,” Morgana answered. “At least, I don’t think so.”
As soon as her words left her lips, a deep black smoke appeared in the sky, and once again, it was guiding us north.
“Let’s go,” I muttered. “I have a feeling this will be the last one.”
My coven followed behind me closely, and we did our best not to pay attention to the dead bodies that littered the forest floor.
“Unholy fuck,” Akira muttered. “I wonder how many people already died.”
“Too many,” I sighed. “Come on, just try and ignore it.”
We marched through the dark woods and followed the inky black smoke until we saw Vanessa standing on another patch of soil with a serene smile on her hauntingly beautiful face.
“And I see you’re all still together and in one piece… it’s almost impressive,” she said.
“Almost.” I smirked.
The sharp featured brunette ignored me, and we all waited for whoever was left to make their way to the professor. Every witch who came crawling or walking through the woods looked absolutely exhausted and to be in severe pain, except for a few exceptions. There was this one group of four witches who seemed to be enjoying this. One had bright orange hair and pale skin with thick dark eyebrows, and a sarcastic grin stretched across her pretty face. By her side were a set of twins with black pixie cuts and pointed ears that were slightly larger than Vesta’s. One had a streak of blue in her hair, while the other had a pink one, but they were both heavily pierced, made up, and tattooed. The fourth witch was a short, slim witch with light brown, long, sleek hair and a set of heavy bangs that hung just over her large, dark-brown eyes.
“Now that we have our remaining groups here,” Vanessa said, “this final round will determine the two groups who will compete in the tournament.”
The other group flashed us a smirk, and I could feel myself growing more competitive. I followed my coven’s eyes, and I noticed they were also staring hard at this other group.
“We’ve got this,” I said under my breath.
“No doubt,” Akira agreed.
“Let’s get this over with,” Vanessa said before she raised her wand up into the air.
Suddenly, the ground shook, we all started to sink into the soil, and I watched as every single witch stared down in horror as they tried to wriggle against it.
“Don’t fight it,” Morgana told us.
“I’m not even going to ask how you know that,” Akira said through her teeth.
I relaxed my body and let myself sink into the soil. For a moment, I couldn't breathe, and all I could taste was dirt as it seeped into my mouth and nostrils. I thought I was going to suffocate until my body started to fall downward.
I landed hard on something that felt like metal. My face hit the surface first, and I was sure I almost broke my nose from the impact. Then I gently pulled myself up and looked at my coven. The girls groaned and rubbed their heads and looked around in confusion. We were in some underground dungeon with a metal floor and matching metal walls. There were carvings all around the walls, and there was only one light, and it shone down on three black doors that stood in front of us.
“Where the hell is everyone else?” I asked.
“Vanessa must have designed some kind of premonition room for the different groups,” Morgana breathed. “Can you imagine the work that went into creating a distinct test for--”
“Not now, Morgana,” Akira groaned. “Can you figure this one out, or not?”
“It’s premonition… advanced premonition,” the brunette whispered.
The coven all turned to me, and they didn’t have to say a word for me to figure out what they were thinking.
“Give me a second,” I said as I looked at the three doors in front of me.
They were identical, and anything could be waiting on the other side. So, I took a deep breath and tried my best to concentrate on the task in front of me. All I had to do was pick the right door, and we’d win.
I extended my hand and tried to feel the energy of the first door. There was a violent, bloody, and chaotic presence behind it, and it felt as sharp as a dagger prickling at my fingertips.
When I pulled away and edged toward the other doors, I didn’t feel anything at all. It was a dead sensation as if there was absolutely nothing but oblivion behind those doors.
“It’s the first one,” I said, “the first door will lead us back to the gates of Scholomance.”
“Are you sure?” Vesta whispered with wide silver eyes.
“Yes,” I answered firmly. “I’m sure of it.”
“Well,” Akira sighed. “We can’t stay down in this dungeon forever… open it, Cole.”
I took in a long deep breath and curled my fingers around the black doorknob. My hands were sweating, and my heart was hammering in my chest before I pushed the door open. Then I gasped with a pleasant surprise when I saw the familiar gray sky and iron gates in front of us.
“We did it!” Morgana shouted with glee as soon as we were through the door.
As soon as each one of us was past the threshold, the door vanished as if it were never there in the first place.
“So, you did,” Vanessa’s harsh voice echoed, and when we spun around, the professor was standing there with a frown, while the other professors beside her looked fairly pleased. “Well done.”
In the next second, another door appeared and out walked the same group I noticed before. The orange haired witch flashed me a wicked smile as her group left the door.
“Excellent, Penelope.” Vanessa smiled when she saw them.
“Thank you, Professor,” she replied with a smug smile.
“Well, now that you two groups have appeared, the tryouts are officially over,” Vanessa said as she waved her wand in the air.
Hundreds of students all started to appear in clouds of smoke, and most of them looked defeated and exhausted. Then they groaned when they realized the two groups had been selected, and they’d failed.
“Silence!” Vanessa commanded.
Everyone grew quiet and focused their attention on her, and she tossed back her long, pin-straight hair and cleared her throat.
“Well done to those of you who survived,” she began. “I know it wasn’t easy, but at least you’re still alive. Those who chose to use the safeword are now recovering in the infirmary, and you can at least take comfort in the fact that you tried to make it to the end. Be that as it may, I’d like to officially announce the two groups of students who will be taking part in the Ludi Mortiferum. Normally, it is just four students per group, but since one group is a coven, it would be considered blasphemy to separate them in the game… which is the only reason why we’ll have one group of five. Congratulations to the winners.”
People slowly started to clap, and while I felt accomplished and satisfied with our outcome, I couldn’t help but feel the other group glowering in our direction. I already knew they would do their best to make sure our training was going to be as hellish as possible because they would rather die than see a man at the finishing line.
But they had no idea what I was capable of, or how far I would go to see us win.