I woke up to the sun streaming through the windows after an uneventful Alignment. I was laying in bed with Darius next to me, the covers pulled up over my naked body.

“We survived another Alignment,” Darius murmured in my ear, running his fingers up and down my arm. My skin tingled at his touch.

“We did. And nothing crazy happened this time.” He was so good to me; I couldn’t imagine why I thought he could be responsible for the destruction of the library or of the rogue research.

He laughed. “Nope.” He kissed my neck, moving to straddle my waist and pin my arms above my head. I tangled my hands through his hair, clutching at the nape of his neck as his kisses sent shivers down my spine.

“And now we have all the time in the world.” I flipped us so I could straddle his waist, kissing down his jawline before he pulled me back to his mouth.

“Let’s use it wisely,” he murmured, taking control and flipping us again. His lips latched on to the mark on my neck, using this time to nip at it and make it more pronounced.

My eyelids fluttered closed as I tugged at his hair with my fingers. After a few minutes, we fell beside each other, breathless.

“You make me so happy,” I murmured. I traced my index finger over the scar on his arm. The arrow. The rogue scratch. He had been through so much. And I never wanted to leave his side.

My stomach growled and I groaned. Just like that, and a perfectly good moment was ruined.

Darius laughed and dipped his head to my neck again, kissing it. “Shall we go to the Grand Cabin for breakfast?”

“I would much rather stay here in bed all day with you,” I said.

“I know.” he brushed my hair away from my face. “But just think—the sooner we go the sooner we can come back and…” he trailed off to whisper in my ear.

I blushed and pushed him away. “Okay, okay. You’ve convinced me.” I sat up, letting the covers fall, and walked over to pick out a fresh set of clothes.

Once we were dressed, Darius took my hand and we walked over for breakfast together. Inside the Grand Cabin, we were greeted with the usual hustle and bustle of the morning. Caesaria waved us over to a table.

“Morning,” she greeted us. “You have to try the eggs. The chefs cooked them with ham and they’re to die for today.”

“Sounds delicious,” I commented. A server set a plate in front of me and I raised a fork to my lips. “Anything special happen with the Alignment?”

Caesaria shrugged. “Nothing that I can remember.” Her eyes locked on mine, giving me an odd look as if she expected me to ask another question.

Where is Raydir? I wanted to ask. He’s usually one of the first to get here.

Tension filled the room as I looked around. Neither Raydir or Izel were anywhere to be found.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Darius asked, nudging me with his foot. “You’ve hardly touched your food. Don’t you have training with Fletcher today?”

I nodded. “But not until a little later. And we’re supposed to meet up with Izel first.” I looked down at my plate. The eggs sat untouched with my fork still hovering above them. Guess I wasn’t as hungry as I thought.

Caesaria cleared her throat and glanced at a spot behind where I sat with Darius. “I think she and Ray will be joining us soon.”

I frowned and turned around, a pang of jealousy piercing my heart when I saw Raydir’s arm draped over Izel’s shoulders, their fingers entwined together.

“Wow.” Darius let out a low whistle. “How long has that been going on?”

“Since yesterday,” I said.

He gave me a sideways glance. “How are you feeling about it?”

“Are you really going to ask her that?” Caesaria jumped in. “She’s dating you. She chose you. Do you really have to know how she feels about her ex moving on?”

Darius laughed. “Well, I certainly didn’t expect that response.” He kissed my cheek. “I have to go. I’ll check in with you later, okay?”

I nodded. “Okay.”

“Hi,” Izel greeted us as she and Raydir sat down.

“Hi.” I offered both of them a smile. “How was yesterday?”

Izel blushed. “It was great. And even better that nothing crazy happened on the Alignment. It seems like these last few have just been riddled with craziness. It was nice to have a little break from it all.”

That seemed to be a common theme. “Um, listen,” Izel continued, “I caught up with Fletcher outside and he wants the three of us to come by the lake for training this afternoon.”

“The three of us?” Which three?

Caesaria dipped her head in understanding. “You, Izel, and Raydir make up three of the elemental powers. Fletcher makes four.”

I rubbed my arms nervously. Elemental powers were some of the most complex powers. And put them together…the research only said it could be done sparingly. So I wasn’t even sure how this was going to work.

“Arwyn?” Caesaria asked, frowning. “What’s up?”

I shook my head. “Nothing. I’m fine. I’ll catch up with you at the lake.” I stood up from the table and hurried back to the cabin. After rummaging around for a few minutes, I found the elemental book where I had left it on the coffee table.

I ran my finger down one of the pages until my gaze landed on the part I wanted.

Elemental powers are some of the most complex gifts. They can be very powerful on their own, and together they become magnified. The safest way to use an elemental power is by itself. It can be combined with one other elemental power at a time in small doses.

For extreme cases, all four elemental powers can be used at once. But this has consequences.

Four element wielders can only use their powers altogether once. So if you do this, choose the moment wisely.

Four elemental wielders. Me, Fletcher, Izel, and Raydir.

One chance to use our powers in tandem. I sincerely hoped we would never have to do that.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Can you show me how you do that cool ‘walking on water’ thing?” Caesaria asked when we were out at the lake.

I shrugged. “Sure, while we wait for Fletcher.” I positioned my feet firmly in the grass and lifted my hand out in front of me. The water rippled below me and small blobs rose above the surface, resting there in a hovering state.

“It just takes focus. And then if you step carefully, you should be able to make it across,” I said.

Caesaria stepped on the first blob. It dipped slightly under her foot before steadying. She thrust her arms out to the side for balance.

I narrowed my gaze at the water, willing it to stay like that. Caesaria’s feet bounced with each step. She safely made it all the way to the other side before turning around and coming back.

“Throw me a challenge!” she yelled from the middle of the lake.

I smirked, swirling my hands in front of me. One of the water bubbles rose up higher. Caesaria didn’t even miss a beat as she jumped up and landed with only a slight wobble.

Jerking my finger to the side, the bubble zinged away from her. She let out a shriek, but just before she hit the water, a wave swept up underneath her and delivered her back onto the grass next to me.

“Ok, I guess I deserve that,” she said, laughing and running a hand through her damp hair. “You’re doing a fantastic job with controlling your powers. And I know that can be difficult with harnessing emotions.”

“Yeah. Fletcher told me it’s one of the most difficult parts of having an elemental power. You use your emotions to use your powers but your emotions are what get in the way of controlling them.

“Sounds like a vicious cycle.”

“It is.”

Caesaria opened her mouth to say something else but paused at the rustling of the tree branches. “We’re not alone out here.”

“Of course not.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “We’re in the woods, Cae. We’re surrounded by animals out here.”

“No.” Caesaria shook her head. “This is different.” She took a tentative step forward.

At the edge of the clearing, a dark-colored wolf appeared. From the sharp blue of its eyes, I knew it was Randel. But what he was doing out here voluntarily in the middle of the day, I had no idea.

Caesaria tensed, freezing in place. I tentatively walked forward.

Randel stepped forward, dipping his head to me in greeting.

I crouched down and reached out a hand to stroke his fur. He let out a small growl, but this one was different. It was inviting instead of a warning.

“What are you doing over here?” I whispered to him. I moved my hand to rub behind his ears.

Randel tilted his head in appreciation toward me. Upon hearing my question, he jerked his head up and scratched at the ground with his claws, spelling out a single word in runes: ᛞᚨᛜᛖᚱ

Danger. Before I could ask what he meant, Randel jerked his head up and spread his wings, quickly flying out of sight.

Boots crunched over the branches on the ground and Fletcher appeared in the clearing.

“Ar, we need you back at the valley border. Now,” he panted.

“Valley border?” I frowned. “Why? What’s wrong?”

“We have visitors.”

There were only two reasons we would have visitors: new rebels escaping from their Fate Ceremony or someone trying to infiltrate our borders. And judging by the look on Fletcher’s face, I assumed it was the latter.

Caesaria and I shared a nervous glance. We dropped our bows and abandoned our arrows to follow Fletcher back to the valley borders. The same group who had greeted Raydir and me when we arrived stood with their bows trained on two familiar people at the border. Bennett stood front and center with his bow raised.

I would’ve recognized her blonde hair anywhere, but I no longer recognized the girl I once called my friend.

“Emilia!” I cried out.

Emilia trained her blue eyes on the crowd of protectors in front of her, ignoring me completely. She sat up tall on the back of a tan horse. “We bring orders from Gwyniar. You have thirty days to surrender the valley.”

“Emilia, you can’t do this,” I tried to plead with her. Darius ran to my side and held me back.

“Arwyn, it’s ok. She’s not worth this.”

Emilia narrowed her eyes, a cold blue stare. The friendly fire I had grown used to for so many years had died out. “Any wolf who dares to travel into Alvenora and Gwyniar from here forward shall be killed on sight.”