Justin The arena was packed. I could hear an excited roar from the crowd from behind the Lodge, drifting over the top of the massive building and floating through the chill evening air. Lo parked illegally in front of the entrance to the building. Now was not the time to point it out.  A series of battered and limp-hanging banners and signs showed the way around to the back. It had rained today, apparently, and we made progress towards the arena as quickly as we could, sludging through mud and the trampled pathway. A stadium had been erected, filled to the brim with stands of onlookers, cheering and applauding in a range of darkened colors, soaked from the rain. Despite the bad weather, it hadn’t dampened their spirits. The crowd had been here all night, awaiting the results. Colored tents for each challenging pack were spaced ou

PerrinWe didn’t talk as much, even though that had been the plan.I had taken one of the chairs opposite Deidre’s desk, hoping to keep my brain thinking platonically for as long as possible. But part of me was still in shock. I could smell the smell of her coconut shampoo. See the glimmer of her earrings in the desk lap. And I had felt the tips of her fingernails as I held her hand; the short ones that she chewed on when she was reading and lost in thought.But I knew it was definitely her the moment I felt my head slightly dizzy with the draft of warm honeysuckle, intoxicatingly perfect.I wasn’t shy, needing to have her by my side. I pulled her easily into my lap, and she didn’t protest, as if still quite unsure that all of this was really happening either. She swun

PerrinAnd it had happened like that. I recalled the broad strokes for my friends. “You what?” Ethan said, shocked and nearly angry. “You can’t make that kind of promise!”Justin shook his head sagely. “That’s free reign, Perrin. And a dangerous move, backing out of every challenge. It puts you at a huge disadvantage if anyone trespasses on your territory.”“Or attacks on your land,” Ethan said. “Or poses a border dispute,” said Kira.“How will you expand?” Ethan asked, c

Perrin “Because I never want to create a monster like my father.” Silence hung in the room. I digested each word, the implications of it. “But you’re not…” I said, more for myself than for her. “No, I’m not. He never got his hands on me. My little brother made sure of that.” And even though she spoke in a viscous, quipping way; there was a hint of something grateful in her tone. “So he won’t be anything like him!” I said, assuring myself more than anything. “Does it matter?” She snapped, regaining her typical composure. “If my father’s insane lust for power is hereditary, then it’s best that the blood line ends with me. At least my brother won’t be breeding any offspring considering he’s gay–” sh

EPILOGUEMarge shuffled through the archive, her shoes making the only sound in the quiet stone building, echoing all the same through the high vaulted ceiling of the church building above. She raised a gnarled hand to the shelf and deposited the book after two tries, her hands shaking slightly with the cold. There were only a few books to return tonight. Far fewer than there had been when Leila had been here.So why had she waited until this late in the evening to do it? She just shrugged and pushed on, the slow creaking of the cart’s wheels punctuating the silence, her old watch on her pale wrist noting the time; 1:45 a.m.She really had no business being there so late. But she had gotten caught up in one of her research projects, spread out across her circulation desk and totally lost in thought until the rumble of her empty sto