Zara's POV
The next day, we were all seated in the cafeteria when it was announced.
"All second-years will participate in tonight's mandatory trial. Partners have been assigned. Report to the North Wing at dusk."
I barely tasted my food after that. Not that I'd been eating much. But what made my pulse trip wasn't the trial. It was when my name was read aloud, paired with one I'd hoped to avoid.
"Zara Blackwood. Atlas King."
Again!
The way his eyes lifted to meet mine across the hall, like a storm building behind them, I knew tonight wouldn't just be about surviving the dark.
By dusk, the North Wing was alive with the sound of boots, the nervous shuffle of students adjusting the straps of lanterns and packs. The instructors handed out the barest essentials: a map that
