The first three teams read as follows:

Team 1: Wolf, Premworth, Savanah, Bard, Maitland, Hayforth.

Team II: Caster, Paisley, Archibald, Cat, Svend, Lark.

Team III: Brute, Adria, Peer, Page, Jace, Tia.

I stop reading after that because my heart and stomach plunges to depths I never thought I had within me.

It feels like I'm stuck in a bad dream, my worst-case scenario has come to life. I'm not on the team with Wolf.

Neither am I on the team with Caster.

But I am on the team with Brute, as if whoever planned this just had to add some insult to the injury.

I turn and meet Wolf’s eyes, a second before he's surrounded by what I assume to be his new teammates.

“Wolf!” One of them, a short stocky boy says, sounding relieved. “I’m so happy to be on your team. This is going to be great.”

“Yeah. I think we got really lucky." Another concurs chuckling.

By sheer coincidence, he's standing right next to Caster who glances at the back of the boy's head in annoyance. Wolf looks annoyed too but it's probably because of their chattering. His gaze still holds mine above their heads. I wonder if he can see the barely restrained panic in my eyes.

He nods to me once.

What does that mean? Is trying to assure me, or tell me he understands why I'm scared?

“Well well,” comes an amused tone and I watch Savannah saunter to Wolf. “Who would have thought that you and I would be together once again after you've tried so hard to avoid me? Why on Earth does fate insist on making you a pain in my ass?"

“It's the other way round." He tells her gruffly, finally looking away from me.

"You're on our team too?" The first boy asks Savannah.

"Yes. And I know you two might be happy to be on the same team with him, but you might want to hold your excitement until you actually experience firsthand what working with this big, irritating mute is actually like."

“You know him?" the second one asks.

“Childhood friends,” she says.

“Friends is a strong word," Wolf adds.

"I agree," Savannah says, rearing back her fist and punching him in the side of his face. The punch lands with a loud thwack that has everyone staring in their direction.

Their other two teammates practically gasp, waiting for Wolf's reaction but Wolf merely raises an eyebrow at her.

“That's for not writing back to me for years,” she says and I tear my eyes away from the scene because I can’t watch it without feeling clear longing.

Of course, they're on the same team. That's probably the only thing about this pair-up that makes sense. Wolf and Savannah, always and forever.

If anything, they're the fated pairs, if there was such a thing as fate.

While I have to conspire and plot and lie my way into their lives, they just naturally come together like they were always meant to be.

He’s not yours, I remind myself. You're only borrowing him for a time and then you’re going to give him back to her.

And I can’t ever forget that.

"Nice,” Jace says as he walks up to me. “We're on the same team. I’m glad."

"Us too." Jace is followed by identical-looking boys, tall and slender. From the other side, I see the tiny dark-haired girl that Savannah was talking to approaching me. "Hi, I'm Tia."

"Hi," I say letting my eyes linger on her. I don't recall her fight in the first trial, but I may have missed it while I was getting healed up. As for the twins, I did watch their fight. While they were not extraordinary in combat, their high accuracy with long-range spears made their skills somewhat rare amongst the rest of the hopefuls. Their spears are also retractable and now sit only a few inches long on a holster at their waist. That also makes them portable and renders the twins a surprise act.

But so far, the best fighters here are probably Jace and Brute, who still is yet to make his appearance.

I wonder what the criteria was for picking the teams. Because apart from Brute, the rest of us are either foreigners (like Tia and me) or half-bloods (like I'm assuming the twins are given their dark coloring with lighter eyes) Perhaps the King wanted to segregate us from his purebloods. But that begs the question why is Brute on this team?

Speak of the devil...

“I heard they put the little lying Muzungu on my team." His mocking drawl flows right next to my ear. I jerk away and spin around, startled that he got so close to me without me realizing it.

Brute smiles clearly smug that he got the satisfaction of spooking me. Nevertheless, his smile doesn't last long.

A growl cuts through the din and every one of us falls silent.

Wolf is still standing with his group, but he's sporting a mean snarl, with one very sharp canine exposed, as he stares straight at Brute.

Well at Brute’s neck.

Brute, for what it’s worth, plays off his response well. He visibly pales but coughs into his hand and surreptitious steps away from me.

I stand alone as the rest of my team members step back too, and regard me with a new level of respect. I know that it's not a respect I earned, but one they give me because of how Wolf is treating me.

Perhaps a part of me should be offended by that, as it implies I can't earn respect on my own. A stronger woman would likely tell Wolf to back off, and that I don't need a protector.

But I've never had a protector before.

And I'm finding it's a really nice thing to have.

A pair of Elite Soldiers escort each team to three different sections of the dark forest spaced apart so the teams don't get in each other's way. When they get us close enough to see the Dark Forest on the horizon, they point us in that direction and then walk off without saying anything. I assume they've done their part and we're now left to our own devices, to figure out the rest on our own.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Amazing.

As we walk, I try to silence my fear and recall everything I've ever heard from my past life about this Shrewk.

Which is exactly nothing.

Jace, surprisingly, is very knowledgeable about it.

"We learn a lot about birds in the Hakua village," he chatters as we walk. "The Shrewk is an insanely valuable bird. Its feathers can be used to make weaker healing potions strong, and it's said that its heart can even bring back the dead. Of course, that is if anyone actually has the stomach to kill such a divine creature." Jace pauses, a devastated expression filling his face. "I hope we don't have to kill it."

"I'd rather kill it than have to find it in there," Tia grumbles. "That Dark Forest creeps me out. I've heard it drives people mad."

"What did you think this was going to be?" Brute mocks. "Did you think becoming an Elite Soldier would be a cakewalk? And now you're complaining that it's not easy enough? Ha. That's why they shouldn't let your type in here."

"They shouldn't let your type anywhere," Tia grumbles under her breath. Brute doesn't hear it, having gone ahead of us but I do and I snort. She glances at me and smiles.

"I can't believe they put two maidens on my team," Brute grumbles the word maidens as if it's the worst curse he can imagine.

“And yet here you are,” I say. “With the rest of us undesirables.”

Brute spins around so fast that I nearly bump into him. He glares down at me, but I don't move, perhaps emboldened by the knowledge that he's scared of Wolf, like everyone else.

He won't hurt me knowing Wolf is somewhere close, a scream away. Perhaps that's why insanity possesses me enough to mock him even more. “Why are you here with us? Did you not wipe his highness' arse to his satisfaction?"

“You should watch your mouth,” Brute says. "There are a lot of ways for this trial to end for you."

"I'd say the same for you."

He smiles cruelly. "You know I have absolutely no problem teaching mouthy maidens like you a lesson."

I remember the water girl and rage spikes through me. "And I have a knack for taking down big, dumb oafs too."

He scowls. “You wanna try it out? Because your Wolf isn't here to protect you.”

“And your Prince isn’t here to protect you.”

“Might I remind you both that we’re on the same team,” says a wry voice belonging to one of the twins. We both turn to look at him and he holds up his hands defensively.

"I'm just saying. We should be spending this energy searching for the bird."

"He's right," Jace says. "All this talking is just going to slow us down. The other teams might catch one before us and then the game will be over."

I look around to see that we're now close to the outskirts of the forest.

Jace's words also remind me that the goal isn't simply to catch the bird. It's to do so before the other teams.

I frown as a memory niggles itself out of my brain. I think I remember something now.

It seems the future as I knew it isn't really changing, just adjusting. The series of events are in different order but the same thing is still happening.

I remember once when Caster and I were laying in bed, back when I stayed at the cottage with him. He was playing with my hair, and then sat up abruptly and began putting on his shoes.

I asked him where he was going and he told me that his father had given his team a secret test, to catch a certain bird. He didn't go into detail about it but said he needed to leave immediately because the bird only sang at night and that was his best chance to find it.

Of course, he didn't mention that the bird was a Shrewk, but what are the odds that it's a different bird? It can't be a mere coincidence that, in this timeline, the King has us searching for a bird once more, a bird that can grant superior healing apparently.

Wait a second.

Healing.

Ah.

Perhaps the bird holds more significance in the story than I initially thought.

“We should wait,” I say and everyone stops walking to regard me.

"Why? We should hurry," Peer (or Page) says.

"No need," I say. "The bird only sings at night. Even if we hurry and go in now it would simply be a waste of time."

“How do you know this?” Brute mocks. "Did one of your visions show you?

"Would you believe me if I said yes?"

"No," he admits. "I don’t believe a word you say."

I glance around at my teammates' faces and read ranging layers of doubt on their expressions. "I read about it in a book."

"Impossible." Brute laughs cruelly. "You can’t read everyone knows that."

I try not to react even though he hit a sore spot, an old insecurity that never healed. Indeed, I can't read. While most older Accacians have the same problem, a new mandate was introduced about twenty years ago, that required all children to get basic education in reading, as part of an initiative to make the North more intellectual. At least that's the reasoning they gave. I found out later that it was to identify magical affinity early in Northern children (affinity can be detected easiest in the young) which is why a lot of the earlier children's books were filled with incantations and magical lore. The idea was, if enough children showed magical affinity, then we could eventually find enough magical users in the North to rival the Pangeans.

So far, it hasn't worked out that way but it made the young populace far more literate than the older ones.

Well, for everyone except me.

I didn’t read much during my developmental years and when I did, I was slow to make the words make sense. It's an insecurity I've carried for years.

And it stings even more being called out by a dunce like Brute.

“Are you all going to trust this idiot to lead you into disaster," he says.

"I'm not an idiot," I say. "And I'm also right. You'd waste your time going into the forest right now. The bird will only make itself known at night."

"No one should be going into the Dark Forest at night."

No one should be going into the Dark Forest at all, but here we are.

"We should be fine if we stick to the outskirts," I say. "And perhaps we can use your spear, Peer, to somehow lure the bird to us."

"And lose a perfectly good spear?" The twin I'm assuming is Peer frowns. "I think not."

I can see I'm losing them and Brute is smiling victoriously.

"Fine," I say. "You all can go look for the bird now. It's a waste of time but you can try. And then I'll go at night and try my luck."

Brute smiles wider. "Fine by me. It's your funeral."

"Hold on." Jace holds up his hand. "That’s not fair. We can't let her go by herself."

"She’s the one who's insisting on it," Tia points out.

"Yes, but we’re a team. We do things as a team and as such we can't let one team member endanger herself on her own. Especially if it's to accomplish a task given to all of us."

Guilt and discomfort skitter across the face of everyone but Brute. I understand their dilemma. They don't want to leave me behind, but none of them trust me enough to follow my lead either.

"It’s fine," I say. It'll probably be better to work alone anyway. It's definitely better than working with Brute who's stab me in the back or shove me deeper into the forest himself. "I'll go on my own."

But Jace isn't ready to let it go.

"How about we split into two groups?" Jace says. "The rest of you can go during the day. Me and Adria will go at night."

I glance at Jace. "You don’t need to do that."

"Yes I do," he says, smiling. "Especially since I believe you"

Warmth trickles down slow and steady, until it's a pleasant feeling in my body, a comforting one, like sinking into a wolf's mother's bed. "You do?"

He nods. There's not a single trace of doubt on his face.

He really does believe me, I realize awed.

Brute scoffs breaking the moment.

"Don’t let her beast hear you say that," he says as he walks off. Tia and the twins reluctantly follow him.

"Let's go find somewhere to rest in the meantime," Jace says. He points at a tall tree with fanned-out branches sitting alone in the middle of the grassy field. "Under there looks promising."

I nod and follow him, quietly, still shocked at what he said. I realize now that even though I told a pretty convincing lie to the King, I still expected people to doubt me. It was my nature of being. I was always being doubted. No one had ever just believed in me before, sometimes even after I tried very hard to prove myself.

But Jace...believed me, and he barely knew me.

Plus I was a Muzungu, one of the lowest castes across the desert, mocked for not being as intelligent as other tribes, which was why we were one of the first to fall to the Pangeans.

Did he mean it?

"Why did you say that?" I ask finally after we reach the tree.

He shrugs. "I suppose because I meant it. I believe you."

It strikes me again, in a soft part of my heart. I instantly feel guilty. "Maybe you shouldn’t." After all, I'm lying now.

He shrugs. "If I can't trust my friends then who can I trust."

I smile wryly, the warmth growing so much it's becoming painful. "Isn’t it a little premature to call us friends?"

"Well we're on a team together and our survival kinda depends on each other. I think that gives us an intimacy to surpasses friendship."

I shake my head. He's wrong, but I don't want to tell him.

"Just promise me one thing," Jace adds as he sits on the grass and leans back on his elbows.

"What?" I ask, sitting beside him

"If you ever foresee my death, don’t tell me," he says. His face is instantly serious, much more than I've ever seen him look before. "I don’t want to know. But whatever I get from these trials, make sure it gets to my mother. And tell her that I love her very much."

I nod. I don't remember him at all from my past life, but hopefully, I won't have to do any of that. "I promise."

Then we sit there and wait. For hours we wait in more silence, and Jace eventually lies back on the grass, his eyes closing as the sun descends and the sky is bathed in orange.

Predictably our team comes back in a bad mood with nothing to show for their excursion.

And then night falls, and it's our turn to go in.