Sealed inside the towering city walls of Acadia, magic users known as Wielders are feared and hunted for the abilities they have been blessed with. They're living in hiding, terrified of revealing themselves to the Authorities that hunt them.
But w...
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"The truth is often one's best shield."
-James Rollins
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The roar of the audience that pierced Adira's ears when she stepped through the giant sliding door almost made her shrivel back into the darkness of the tunnel. She looked at her friends - at Wren tucked into Obsidian's arm, her whimpers echoing through the air around them - and was filled with a fierce anger she had never known. How was Wren supposed to fight when her power was nothing physical? She'd only just arrived and they were throwing her in to be slaughtered like cattle.
It all had happened so fast.
One minute Adira was startling awake in Wren's bed, with everyone staring at her like she had come back from the brink of death; the next she was being escorted down a tunnel leading to the Pit.
She didn't have much time to tell Ryder and company about Soren and what they had to do, but she tried her best to explain, despite their confused gazes. Wren seemed to be the only one who understood, but Adira guessed that she knew everything in general.
The tunnel was dark. The shadows pressed in on her, reminding her of the shadow that took Soren. Where was he? Was he okay? What had taken him? Her mind had shuffled through so many possibilities, but she wouldn't know the truth until she saw him. And she would see him. She couldn't live with the fact that he might be dead or hurt because of her.
But now, as she stood in front of the screaming audience-the ground mud beneath her feet-her anger was a festering wound, burning inside of her. It wouldn't heal until she unleashed it.
She clenched her fists as her eyes locked with Ryder's, feeling the terror he felt while fighting the mist bodies surrounding him. For each one him and Taliyah made vanish, another took its place.
To her left, Obsidian growled. He scooped Wren up in his arms and ran her to the only rock that wasn't complete rubble. Adira stepped forward as she watched him whisper something to Wren then place himself before the mist battle that was still taking place.
