Page 31 of This Shattered Star

My heart stuttered as Theia hopped onto the first foothold, leg wobbling, unused to bracing the entirety of her weight onto the upper half of her foot. She extended both arms for balance and teetered for a moment before righting herself, then hopped onto the next foothold.

“It’s not so terrible,” she called out without looking back.

Brannon followed suit, arms already straight out. “Of course not. You have smaller feet,” he grumbled quietly as he landed on the first foothold. Despite his complaints, he only teetered for a second, his movements fluid and precise. He made it seem easiest out of everyone.

I toed the edge of the platform, careful not to peer down into the abyss below.No going back. There was only forward. Towards winning. Towardsmagic.

But my boots felt like they’d been dipped in honey. Frustration climbed a brute path up my chest.Stars, just move.

Kodhan made an impatient sound behind me, his impertinence shooting sparks of anger through my veins like fuel. Enough that my feet moved at last.

Less than half of my foot fit on the circular surface. The muscles in my thighs and calves quivered as they strained to keep me centered. I’d trained countless hours in balance and equilibrium with Gideon, but not like this. Not with the immanent risk of slipping and falling a hundred feet. And jumping across rooftops was nothing compared to this. Nextto shadows, they were one of the best ways to escape unseen. People never looked up. Still, they held more space to move than the measly thing barely keeping me alive.

I could make it.Ihadto make it.

I landed on the twentieth foothold with even momentum before a scream pierced the air, curdling my blood to ice. A different sort of quiver began to curl up my legs, threatening my already burning calves.

“Keep moving forward. Don’t look back.”

By the stars, it was hard not to.

The audience hollered their discontent from above.

“Don’t look back,” Kodhan repeated. “Move.”

The urgency of his order had my limbs locking up. Kodhan wouldn’t push me.

Would he?

Bracing for the worst, I jumped again. And again. A steady rhythm of left-right-left-right. By the time I reached the next platform, sweat trailed down my brow.

Theia extended her hand for me to grasp as I hopped from the last foothold. I took it, allowing her to pull me into her while Kodhan followed and landed closely behind. “Impressive work,” she commended.

I shook out my legs, praying a cramp wouldn’t soon ensue. “I’m not dead yet, so I would suppose it’s something.”

Her lips spread into a wide smile.

But we could only linger in relief for so long.

My muscles screamed as the four of us sprinted across the length of the platform, not trusting those on our tail.

The six overconfident competitors had already begun tackling the next obstacle—the swinging axe-pendulums. They looked so much worse from this close, sharp surfaces glinting as they heaved back and forth in front of the first of the six—a tall, reedy straw-haired man—his mind visibly working to sort out the bestpossible way for him to dart through without getting a limb hacked off.

The axe-pendulums movedfast.Faster than physically possible considering their size.And only a few inches of space sat between one pendulum and the next. The path leading through them was no better, only narrow enough to fit both feet, one beside the other.

Despite his height, the man was quick. He darted past the first few swinging axes, his fire barely bright enough to light the passage in front of him, blinking in and out of existence.

A gasp involuntarily left me as his foot slipped, sending him crashing onto the path flat on his stomach.

He’d been trained well. That much was evident as instinct overrode his shock, like he’d been conditioned not to feel it at all. He pushed up just fast enough to narrowly avoid getting cut in half by the axe that swung by him with so much force that strands of his shoulder-length hair swayed in its wake. He trembled fiercely, his arms struggling to remain tucked tight at his sides.

His lips formed one word.Ice.I couldn’t hear him, not at this distance. But I understood immediately. He shuffled his feet back and forth to demonstrate his point, the soles of his boots sliding with ease.

“Damn it all,” Theia groaned, face contorting into displeasure. “Of every element…” she trailed off with a sigh.

Kodhan tilted his head. A predator assessing its prey. “Quite cumbersome, I agree.”

I scoffed. “Unbothered to the core, aren’t you?”