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“But instead,” I continued, “you associated me with a place that suffocated you and began to believe I was doing the suffocating, too. You blamed me for what your mother did to you because I was a child just like you, and I was easier to blame.”

Quinn’s eyes widened in the flickering light of the nearest sconce. Her mouth opened, but I wasn’t done. Because I understood now. Becoming a Mind Manipulator last year had opened me up to understanding minds better, both my own and other people’s. Including Quinn’s.

Now I understood enough to give myself the closure she’d never been able to.

“Most of all,” I said, “you wanted to become someone completely new, which meant shedding yourself of your mother, shedding yourself of Alderwick, and shedding yourself of me. Isn’t that right?”

Quinn didn’t answer, of course, but I didn’t care anymore. I wouldn’t let her silence itch under my skin from this moment onward. She’d had every right to reshape her life and leave old friends behind, but I didn’t have to let her treat me like something to squash in doing so.

Whipping forward again, I barrelled on. It wasn’t until I rounded a sharp corner that Quinn began to follow again—right as I lurched to a stop.

The tunnel before us had widened into a cavern lined with statue-like figures dressed in armor, each of them holding a different weapon: lances, maces, or axes. None of them moved. The air didn’t stir. But my Object Summoning magic reached out hesitant hands anyway, recognizing the presence of another hand at work here.

“Hold on,” I said when Quinn made to take a step forward.

Surprisingly, she listened to me. Without taking my eyes off the statues, I used my Object Summoning to pick up a small, jagged rock lying to our left. It soared upward, hovered in the air for a moment, and arced outward.

Instantly, one of the statues moved.

Its arm came back. The ax in its hand went spiraling through the air. Blade over handle over blade, its serrated edge imbedded in the opposite wall between two other statues before ripping itself out and flying back to its owner once more.

“Well, shit,” Quinn muttered.

“Yep. Shit.” That ax could have easily imbedded itself in one our necks instead. Which told me the pre-elite test wasn’t merely uncomfortable like a regular one. No, this was life or death. Retrieve that which lies at the end of your path or die.

“I can create a shield of air,” Quinn said, “but…”

“But what?”

She bit her lip. “I’m not as good with air as I am with fire. And I can’t Shape Shift multiple things at once, or else I’d change all the weapons to fluffballs or something.” It was the first time she’d ever really mentioned her second power. Her chin tipped up as if she were daring me to laugh.

I didn’t. “It’s fine. You do your best with an air shield and I’ll handle the rest.”

My voice came out way more confident than I actually felt, nerves tumbling like sickening waves through my stomach. This was going to require a lot more than party tricks, but I had to have faith in Fabian’s teachings.

Everything bears a special weight, but each weight’s value is the same, I repeated to myself, closing my eyes for a split second. I could hold back a mace just the same as I could lift a flower vase. “Ready?” I asked Quinn.

She nodded, and we charged.

Metal clanged as the statues moved. Weapons sliced through the air. Most became muffled as they slammed into Quinn’s air, but one, a heavy-looking hammer with a curved edge, broke through and sailed toward our heads.

I grasped it with my invisible hands, flinging it backward.

Another weapon broke through, and I just barely managed to swipe it away before it could lodge into Quinn’s shoulder. The blade still nicked her, though, and she let out a cry as a single slice of blood spurted right above her brand.

Her air shield wavered. A lance came hurtling toward us, swiftly followed by some kind of pole axe with a speared end.

“Just run!” I shouted. We shot forward faster than before, and it was all I could do to focus on all the objects moving back and forth around us. Left, right, left, right I grasped onto handles and blades and shoved them away.

“Look out!” Quinn cried suddenly.

I turned just in time to find an ax soaring toward me.

Fire exploded around it before it could hit me square in the chest. The metal melted, splashing to the ground at my feet and splattering my ankles.

I screamed at the sizzling heat that instantly blistered my skin. But there was no time to stop running as more of the statue’s weapons came at us. I could only force my feet and my Object Summoning magic to keep going, keep going.

Finally, we broke through the frenzy. I stumbled against the nearest wall of the cavern, breathing through the pain of the burns on my lower legs. Quinn clutched her arm, her shoulder smeared with her own blood and still trickling.