Chapter 39: The Team Assignment

Astrid

Moonshade was unusually loud the next morning, students gathered around the ranking displays, arguing over who they’d be facing once the teams went live. Ivy stayed glued to my side the entire walk in.

"I checked the rules three times," she said.

"And?"

"They’re terrible."

"That’s not very informative."

She explained that the team assessment carried far more points than anything we’d done so far, enough to completely rearrange the ranking board depending on how a team performed. I’d already climbed from near the bottom. This felt like a real chance to climb further.

The display updated as we approached, students crowding in immediately. I scanned the list until I found my name.

Team Seven. Astrid Vale. Reed Ashwood. Xander Ashwood.

I stared at the screen. "You’re kidding."

Xander appeared beside me, reading the assignment, his grin widening instantly. "Well, look at that."

"Don’t," I said.

"We’re a team."

"I can read."

"You sound unhappy."

"I’m trying to decide whether this is a blessing or a punishment."

He pressed a hand to his chest. "After everything we’ve been through together?"

I rolled my eyes. Reed joined us and studied the assignment without any of Xander’s surprise.

"It makes sense," he said.

"How?"

"Our rankings." He explained that the academy deliberately balanced teams according to performance, mixing strengths to create fair matchups.

Xander grinned. "So basically, the academy thinks we’re unbeatable."

"It didn’t say that."

"It implied it."

We were given a short window to prepare before the first challenge, and Reed switched immediately into strategy mode, asking about my strengths. I answered honestly, fast, good at pattern recognition, good at improvising, decent in close combat.

"She’s also annoyingly stubborn," Xander added.

"That’s not a skill."

"It absolutely is."

Reed ignored the exchange and listed our own strengths in turn, himself strategic and organized, Xander fast and unpredictable, particularly sharp adapting mid-combat. Listening to it laid out like that, I realized something.

"We might actually work," I said.

Xander smiled. "You sound disappointed."

"I’m disappointed that you might be right."

We moved somewhere quieter to plan properly, Reed already sketching out several approaches. I studied them, and noticed a gap in his reasoning almost immediately.

"This assumes the opposing team takes the obvious route," I said.

"Yes."

"What if they don’t?"

He considered it while I explained an alternative. Xander listened, then said simply, "She’s right."

Reed agreed without hesitation. "She’s right."

That mattered more than either of them probably realized. They weren’t simply letting me participate. They were actually listening.

A group of higher-ranked students passed us not long after, one of them recognizing the twins before his eyes landed on me.

"They gave the Ashwoods a scholarship student?"

Someone laughed. "Maybe she’s the challenge."

My jaw tightened. Xander’s expression shifted, none of his usual humor anywhere in sight.

"Say that again," he said, stepping forward.

I caught his arm. "Don’t."

The student smirked. "I’m only saying what everyone’s thinking."

"Then everyone should think harder," I said, stepping forward myself.

Reed moved beside me, calm and immovable. "We’re done here."

The group left without further comment. I looked at Reed. "You didn’t have to do that."

"I know."

He’d done it because he wanted to, not because he felt obligated to, and that distinction settled somewhere warm in my chest.

Before the challenge began, Xander noticed me struggling with a particular movement we’d need. "You?" I asked when he offered to demonstrate.

"Yes, me."

"You realize Reed is standing right there."

"Exactly. He can watch me be useful."

Reed sighed audibly. Xander stepped behind me, careful and precise, correcting my positioning. "Shift your weight."

"Like this?"

"A little more."

I adjusted, and something clicked. "There."

I turned, and we were closer than I expected, his teasing smile fading for a brief second before he stepped back.

"See? I’m useful," he said.

My cheeks warmed. "Occasionally."

"I’ll take it."

Reed watched from a short distance, saying nothing.

The teams gathered at the training grounds soon after, instructors explaining the challenge. Each team would enter a simulated wilderness environment to retrieve a hidden object, though the environment itself would shift, paths closing, obstacles appearing, opposing teams free to interfere.

This wasn’t about strength. It was about adapting.

"Stay together," Reed said, giving final instructions.

"You heard him," Xander said, grinning.

I looked at both of them. "Let’s win."

The challenge began, teams scattering forward, several relying immediately on brute force. I caught something the others seemed to miss, a pattern woven into the terrain itself.

"Wait," I said.

Reed stopped. "What?"

I pointed toward a path that looked harmless, too harmless. "They’re expecting everyone to go that way. It funnels into a dead end."

He studied it, then nodded. "We take the other route."

Xander smiled. "I really like having her on our team."

"Don’t get sentimental," I said.

"Too late."

We pushed forward, hitting our first real obstacle soon after, Reed handling the strategy, Xander the physical work, and me spotting the actual solution neither of them could have found alone. Together, it came together fast and clean.

I realized, moving through it, that they weren’t carrying me through this.

They trusted me.

And somewhere along the way, without fully noticing it happening, I’d started trusting them the same way back. For someone who’d spent most of her life surviving entirely alone, that felt like a strange, powerful kind of relief.

A voice echoed across the training grounds. "Phase Two begins now."

The environment shifted immediately, a barrier rising up behind us, another team appearing further ahead through the trees.

Xander looked at me. "Still think this is easy?"

I smiled despite myself. "I never said it was."

"Stay close," Reed said, watching the terrain reshape around us.

I nodded, and we pushed forward together. Then I spotted it in the distance, the object we’d been sent to retrieve, sitting directly in the path of the strongest team in the entire competition.

I looked at Reed, then Xander. "We have a problem."

Xander’s grin came back full force. "Good."