*Jiselle*
The challenge started off as expected. It was about more than just physicality. It was about instincts. About reading your environment, understanding when to move and when to stay still, when to engage and when to disappear.
We navigated through dense forestry, avoiding booby traps set in the most unexpected places. It was starting to get late when Max had just led us to what looked like a clearing, closing in on the Academy when Eric called his name from the other side of the trees. It sounded urgent.
Max exhaled sharply. “Stay here,” he ordered me, brushing his thumb along my wrist before moving toward Eric.
I frowned, glancing around. After our conversation, we stayed with the group but a few feet away, retaining privacy. Yet, the group sort of instinctively allowed themselves to be led by Max. Even the fourth years.
Everyone eventually left to see what Eric found that was so urgent, but before I could move too, movement caught my attention from the corner of my eye.
I turned sharply, scanning the underbrush around me. At first, I saw nothing, just layers of deep green and twisting branches. But then, a flicker of movement again.
My heartbeat picked up.
I threw one last glance toward Max, still deep in discussion with Eric, and took a hesitant step forward. If it was something dangerous, I’d just look and go back.
My steps were cautious as I maneuvered around the shrubs, but when I finally spotted it, I exhaled.
A deer.
It was only a deer.
Halmost laughed at myself for being so on edge. But then my amusement died as my
gaze lowered, catching a bite mark right at the curve of its shoulder. A wolf’s bite.
Panic crept up my spine. We weren’t allowed to shift in this assignment.
So who the hell had done this?
I turned to go back to the group when suddenly, something snapped beneath my boot and the world slowed.
I froze as my eyes darted downward, catching sight of the rope that I knew wasn’t there by nature.
Successfully unlocked!
Slowly, I glanced up, following the weaves of the trap I had just stepped into, and there, directly above me, was a boulder, hanging dangerously by a thin, fraying cord. Two
massive arrows were also rigged, aimed directly at where I stood, waiting to be
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triggered the second I stepped off.
Fuck.
So this was one of the traps they had set up for us to escape from.
And here I was. Completely screwed.
My breath came fast, my brain racing for an answer. I needed to replace my weight with something so it didn’t trigger the trap. I now understood why.we were placed out here in teams.
There was no way I could get out of this on my own. I glanced across the clearing, seeing most of my team still engrossed in whatever the hell they were looking at. If I shouted, they probably would hear, but I didn’t want to risk triggering the trap by any movements or vibration at all.
I sighed, deciding that I’d just have to wait until they realized I was missing, or for Max to get distracted for only one second long enough to realize I wasn’t with the others. I’d wait then, staying as still as humanly possible, but then something else entirely caught my attention, making my plan futile.
A growl.
Low, menacing and primal.
turned my head slowly, and my blood ran cold.
A wolf. But not an academy wolf.
A rogue.
A fucking rogue.
My wolf inside me bristled, urging me to take over, but if I shifted, it would alter my weight, triggering the trap. If I ran, I’d be dead. If I stayed, the rogue would tear me weight, triggering the trap. If apart.
Every single option led to my death.
The rogue took another step closer, and I swore I saw hunger in its eyes.
Then, from across the clearing, as if the moon goddess was having mercy on me, Eric‘ s head snapped in my direction, as if he heard the rogue’s growl… somehow. Eric’s voice cut through the air.
“MAX!”
BLEE
I heard the urgency in his tone, and in a split second, Max’s gaze snapped toward me.
His entire body went rigid.
And then–he moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
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Impossibly fast.
One second, he was across the field. The next, he was in front of me. I didn’t even see him close the distance–he was just… there. My breath caught.
And then, just as fast, he grabbed me and leapt.
We were on the other side of the trap before I even had time to breathe.
I barely processed the movement before the rogue lunged where J had just been, and the trap sprang. The boulder dropped, crushing the wolf’s hind legs, and the massive arrows impaled its skull.
I stood there, shaking, trembling so hard my legs felt like they’d give out beneath me.
My chest rose and fell in rapid, shallow breaths, my lungs refusing to take in enough air. What the hell did I just see?
Max was in front of me, his hands gripping my shoulders, his thumbs pressing into my skin as if to keep me from collapsing. But he wasn’t just holding me. He was anchoring me.
“Jiselle,” he said, his voice firm but rushed and urgent. “You cannot, by any means, let the instructors know that you saw that. Okay?”
I forced in a ragged gasp, my throat burning as I finally looked at him. His eyes were dark–not with anger, not with arrogance, but with fear.
Max was afraid. Just like before. And I’ve now gathered that only one thing scared Max.
My death.
And that terrified me even more.
“What the hell was that?” My voice barely came out, hoarse and uneven, and it shook worse than my hands.
His jaw clenched as his grip on me tightened.
“Please, Jiselle,” he rasped. “Don’t ask me that. Not now.”
I wanted to scream at him, to grab his face and demand answers. But before I could, before I could even pull another breath, I noticed something.
The other first years were freaking out just like I was. But The second to fourth years weren’t stunned. They weren’t shocked. Instead, they were watching us with something else entirely. Pity.
This wasn’t new to them.
They had seen this before. And now they were looking at us as if it was the last time we were going to see it. Hell, even Eric and all his obnoxious assholery look almost… sad, for Max.
That sobered me up a bit.
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Max’s fingers dug into my arms, pulling my gaze back to him. He looked frantic. His
eyes darted around the forest, as if waiting for something, as if he knew exactly what was coming.
“Max, I’m scared,” I admitted.
“I know, baby,” he breathed. “But listen to me–not a peep. If they ask, you saw nothing.
you understand?”
Do
“But-”
“Do you understand?” His voice dropped, sharp and commanding, in a way he had never spoken to me before.
It wasn’t a question anymore. It was a demand.
I swallowed hard and nodded frantically. “Okay.”
The rustling of leaves made my entire body lock up, and I didn’t need to turn to know.
The instructors had arrived.
The first years immediately erupted, voices clashing over one another, pointing, screaming about what they saw.
I barely heard them.
I gasped as Max bit into his palm and smeared blood all over my head, then pulled my weight against him as if he was holding me up.
I swallowed the bile in my throat, and the pain at knowing he had just hurt himself and simply followed his lead. He was trying to keep me alive by making it seem like I had hurt myself. Like I didn’t see anything.
Because Instructor Havelyn’s face went pale as a first years filled him in.
“Close your eyes,” Max ordered, and I obeyed.
I heard footsteps coming forward, before Instructor Havelyn’s voice filtered through the space.
“Everyone who has a report about the incident and wants answers, please follow Instructor Callan.”
Max’s grip tightened on my hand, and I did my best to act like I was out of it.
“Shhh,” he whispered, his palm sweating against mine.
I batted my eyes open slowly, under the guise as if it was hard to stay awake.
Instructor Havelyn narrowed his eyes on me. “Johal. Anything you saw? From what I gathered so far, you were in danger.”
“She’s shaken, sir,” Max cut in immediately.
Havelyn barely looked at him. “I was speaking to the first year.”
His gaze pinned me, sharp and expectant.
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I shook my head with a fake wince. “I don’t know… what happened,” I managed to say. Havelyn didn’t look convinced and Max’s pulse thundered against mine. I could feel it in his grip. But eventually, thank the moon goddess, he nodded once and walked away. Max didn’t breathe until they were all gone, then turned to the second to fourth years and threatened every last one of them–including his brother.
Max led us back to campus, and the first years who had spoken up–all four of them- followed Callan into the woods.
They never came back.
By midnight, when they still hadn’t emerged from the trees, I knew.
They killed them.
For seeing what Max did.
And Max–he was taken the moment we returned to campus.
He told me not to worry, but I was sick with fear.
Whatever I saw today, I wasn’t supposed to.
And they killed four people–were ready to kill me, too–to keep it secret.
What the hell was happening at this damn school?
