The first trial breaks me.
Kira drives me into the earth with a force that cracks stone, her hand wrapped around my throat, her eyes blazing with something ancient and merciless.
"Your mother survived worse," she snarls. "She was born in fire. Forged in blood. You carry her legacy in your bones, Laney. So prove it."
Rose surges forward, a tidal wave of rage and power that floods every nerve, every muscle. My vision bleeds red. My bones shift, elongate, reshape themselves with a sound like breaking thunder.
I don't just push Kira off.
I launch her across the chamber.
She hits the stone wall hard enough to crack it, then drops to her feet, grinning like a wolf who's just tasted fresh meat.
"There she is," Kira breathes. "There's the daughter of the mountain."
Two days.
Two days of p
