though the air is made out of soup, heavy and hot in my lungs. There’s a small flutter of panic in my stomach, the worst place for it to be because my gift begins to strain at the tight hold I have on it in response.
The last time I was trapped underground like this, I was tortured.
I force myself to think about something, anything, except for that time. I force myself to think about Sage and Felix, to wonder whether Felix will be able to find some way to convince Sage to give him a chance. It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot since her birthday because there was no mistaking the adoration in his eyes every time he looked at her. Sometimes bonds aren’t a blessing and they just make things more complicated and those two are a classic example of that.
Gabe staring at me like he’s imagining what choking the life out of me would feel like is another.
When we reach the bottom of the stairs, I find a small room. Three of the walls are stone and the wall on the far side is made up entirely of giant fire doors cut out of a concrete door. Whatever is on the other side, it’s clear I’ll be going in blind.
Vivian waits until we’re all crowded in the space and then calls out, his voice echoing in the tiny space, “You’ll be split up again, this time into groups of three. No, you don’t get to choose who you’re with. No, I don’t care whether or not you think this is fair. No, there isn’t somewhere you can put in a complaint because I don’t care about your opinions and feelings here. I care about training you to the best of my ability. I’ve had two hundred and forty three students leave here and make it into TacTeams and they’re mostly all alive today, thanks to this training, so shut your mouths and get to the center alive if you wanna pass this class. First to the flag wins an automatic pass on this class for the year.”
Okay.
Get to the center without dying.
I’m not even going to pretend I have a chance of getting to the center first but, fuck, I’m going to at the very least attempt to get there in the next hour. It doesn’t seem so bad, and if I have two other students who need me alive and coherent to pass then I should be okay. This isn’t so bad.
At least, it wasn’t so bad until I got paired with Zoey and some guy I’ve never heard of before but who grins at Zoey like this is all going to be a freaking party.
Gabe shoots me a look but doesn’t attempt to talk to his little friends and get them not to be assholes to me, he just walks over to his own chosen partners and starts murmuring to them. I guess the maze requires strategy, but Zoey and Brenton don’t say a word to me as I stalk over to join them both. I also don’t mutter a word to them, I already know there’s no point.
I’m in this alone.
The moment the doors swing open I see exactly what they mean by simulation and honestly? I’m totally and completely fucked.
So just a regular Friday afternoon for me.
Chapter Thirteen
The room is pitch black.
As always, I’m the last one to walk forward into the maze, but this time it doesn’t really work out to my advantage because everyone else has obviously done this enough to know that the moment our feet cross the threshold of the simulation, all of our senses are torn away.
At least I hope it’s all of us and not just me.
I imagine this is how having a stroke must feel. I can’t see or hear anything and there’s only the vaguest sensation of the ground beneath my feet that says my feet must still be moving. I have no freaking clue how this simulation is possible, how the Draven campus managed to create this hellscape, but I’m utterly defenseless.
I also should’ve taken it easy on my workout.
I don’t know how long I walk through the bleak nothingness, only that when it ends and I can finally see again, the light is blinding, my eyes streaming and my head aching with a sharp pain. My bond immediately reacts to the pain, my gift straining under my control, and I have to stop for a second to regain control. There’s no one