Chapter 83: First Round

Astrid

Ivy noticed something was wrong before we’d even reached the training grounds. "What’s wrong with you?"

"Nothing," I said.

She gave me a look, and I sighed, explaining what had happened during our team meeting yesterday. The altered symbol. Eliza noticing the mismatch. Criston insisting someone had deliberately interfered with the material.

She stopped walking. "Did you tell Aldrich?"

"We don’t know anything yet."

"Someone changed your challenge material, Astrid."

"Eliza thinks so."

She looked horrified. I understood the concern, but I didn’t want to run to Aldrich with a theory and nothing solid behind it. Maybe it was an old error. Maybe the material had been copied wrong. Maybe Eliza remembered it incorrectly.

"You should tell someone," Ivy said.

"After the challenge."

She looked ready to argue, but students were already moving toward the training grounds. I had no choice but to follow.

The outdoor area was packed, teams sizing each other up, everyone buzzing with nerves and competition. Ivy pointed at me before heading off. "We’re talking about this later."

"Yes, ma’am," I said, giving a lazy salute.

She narrowed her eyes and left.

Josh waved when he spotted me. Eliza stood nearby, already reading through something. Criston arrived last, of course.

"You’re late," I said.

"I’m early," he said.

I checked the sky dramatically. "Did you bring your own clock?"

"You woke up argumentative today."

"I was born argumentative."

"This is going to be fun," Josh said.

"No, it isn’t," Eliza said, closing her book.

"You haven’t even given us a chance."

"Exactly," she said, walking past him.

I laughed. Josh looked personally wounded.

Aldrich announced the first round shortly after, the Territory Trial, teams entering a marked section of forest to work through checkpoints testing observation, strategy, navigation, and cooperation. No separating. Everyone finished together or not at all.

Josh looked at our map. "Great. We’re going into the woods with a mind reader, a witch, and someone who doesn’t trust any of us."

"Who doesn’t trust you?" I asked.

He pointed at me.

"He’s right," Criston said.

"Nobody asked you."

"Can we start?" Eliza asked, taking the map from Josh.

Before we entered, I glanced across the grounds and found Reed and Xander instantly, the bond warm and unmistakable. Estelle stood between them, leaning over the map, laughing at something Xander said.

"You know you’re staring, right?" Josh said.

"I’m not," I said immediately.

"You were," Criston added.

"Do you ever get tired?"

"No."

"Say something," I told Eliza.

"Can we leave?" she said, still studying the map.

"See? She’s the sensible one," Josh said.

I folded the map. "Fine. Let’s go."

The obvious trail seemed like the way forward, until Criston immediately dismissed it. "Too obvious."

"It’s a path," Josh said.

"Exactly."

I studied the markings again and realized something. "These aren’t distances."

"Then what are they?" Josh asked.

I looked at the terrain, the slope rising ahead of us. "Elevation."

Criston studied the map, then the trees. Eliza confirmed the pattern. The obvious path stayed level, which meant it was probably wrong, the real checkpoint likely higher up.

"She’s right," Criston admitted, clearly not thrilled about it.

"I always believed in you," Josh said.

"You didn’t."

"I do now."

The climb was steep, Josh complaining the entire way about discrimination against people who liked sitting, until we finally reached a clearing well ahead of several other teams.

I smiled despite myself.

"Don’t get used to being right," Criston said.

"I wasn’t planning to. You already take up enough space."

"There’s history here," Josh muttered.

"There isn’t," Criston and I said together.

Josh raised both hands.

The checkpoint held a wooden mechanism covered in symbols, a locked compartment, three pathways marked around it. I studied the symbols while Eliza recognized part of the pattern, Criston noticed something odd about one path, and Josh fumbled uselessly with the mechanism.

Then it clicked for me. Not directions. A sequence. I called out which pieces to move, Eliza confirmed the order, Criston caught a missing symbol, and together we completed it.

The compartment opened.

"WE’RE GENIUSES!" Josh shouted.

"We opened a box," I said.

"Exactly."

I laughed. For the first time all day, I felt genuinely excited. We might actually be good at this.

Moving toward the second checkpoint, another team crossed our path, mostly Moonshade students. One of them looked at the clue in Josh’s hand and sneered.

"Looks like the freaks found something."

The mood shifted instantly. Josh stopped walking. I grabbed his arm before he could take a step forward.

"Touchy," the student said, laughing as their group walked off.

I knew what it felt like to be stared at, whispered about, treated like an intruder. I wasn’t going to let them get the satisfaction of watching Josh lose control.

"They’re not worth it," I told him.

"You say that like you believe it."

"I don’t," I admitted, and he laughed despite himself.

"You handled that well," Eliza said quietly.

The compliment caught me off guard. "Thanks."

She nodded once and kept walking.

When we reached where the second checkpoint should have been, we found nothing. Trees. Rocks. Nothing else.

"This is the place," Josh said, checking the map.

I checked it myself. He was right.

Eliza walked toward a tree, examining a small marker before stopping completely.

"What?" I asked.

She pointed. The marker had been changed entirely, not slightly. The instructions had led us somewhere that no longer matched.

"This is like yesterday," Josh said slowly.

Criston took the map, his expression hardening. "Someone moved it."

"Are we being sabotaged?" Josh asked.

Nobody answered right away. I didn’t want to say yes, but this couldn’t be another accident.

"Looks like it," Criston said, scanning the trees.

We decided to retrace our steps, and I turned first, then stopped. A branch snapped somewhere ahead.

"What?" Josh whispered.

I raised a hand. Silence, then another branch, closer this time. Criston turned toward the trees. Eliza closed her book.

"Please tell me that’s part of the challenge," Josh said.

Nobody answered. The trees stayed still, nothing visible. Then a voice, low and clear, came from somewhere ahead. "You shouldn’t be here."

"I officially hate this challenge," Josh whispered.

I didn’t move. Neither did anyone else.

Because whoever had spoken wasn’t a professor. Wasn’t part of another team. And wasn’t supposed to be here at all.