Chapter 3

According to Lander's wristwatch gifted to him by his grandma, it took us little more than an hour to fly to the edge of the island, where the Institute campus hulked by the sea.

During that hour, I braved more and more glances downward, watching the terrain of Eshol rise and fall in heaps of hills and jungle, sometimes speckled with villages three times bigger than our own. Soon, we were passing Bascite Mountain, the largest peak on the island where the majority of the Good Council lived. Even from Alderwick, I'd been able to spot its snow-dusted peak during rare moments when the clouds dissipated.

Now, as our carriage whizzed by, it still towered over us, and I felt the unnatural cold radiating from it, frosting the windowpanes. Roads and structures and lights made little glittering trails that spiraled up and around like it was a jagged horn poking through the top of the world.

"Don't think I'd fancy living there," Lander murmured, shivering.

"Are you kidding?" Quinn popped her eyes out at him. "Imagine living without all the gnats and other insects, above everyone else. And to see snow!"

As much as I agreed with Lander, I had to admit that Quinn had a point about the snow—I'd never seen the stuff up close. But even that sight was nothing compared to the water that soon sparkled on the horizon.

The sea. They called Eshol an island, but just like the Uninhabitable Zone, I'd never actually seen that vast expanse of waves and whitecaps supposedly surrounding us before this moment. Now, though, as the carriage began its descent, I couldn't rip my attention away from it.

A different world. It was a completely different world out past that shore, where stray glimmers in the air betrayed the presence of the famous dome shielding us from… I squinted at the clusters of dots along the horizon.

"Pirates," I breathed. Pirate ships.

"Forget them," said Quinn. "Look at the Institute, Ray."

I forced my attention toward where she pointed.

There, blooming larger and larger as we angled further downward, lay a sprawl of twisting streets and buildings ranging from ramshackle, squatting ones to polished ones that gleamed and towered. Trees cluttered the gaps between buildings, remnants of the jungle spilling from the closest mountainside. And people, so many people, scurried to and fro like swarms of beetles.

But as I looked closer, the seemingly chaotic sprawl actually seemed to take shape. A circle of five wedged sections surrounded an enormous cobbled courtyard with a fountain dotting the center, headed by a golden domed structure that had to be at least three stories high.

I shifted my attention to the right of the campus, where a single estuary, like a winding silver snake, led out to the cliffs towering over the shoreline and separated the sprawl of classrooms from a neat line of houses on the other side.

The most massive houses I'd ever seen. More like castles than the cottage I'd lived in all my life.

"Oh, I am going to love living here for the next five years," Quinn said, eyeing those mansions hungrily.

Free. That's what Quinn was now that she didn't have a mother to invade her mind and force her into doing things she didn't want to do. I couldn't blame her for her excitement, even though my own stomach clenched.

Our carriage nearly skimmed the various rooftops as the coachmen beelined for that courtyard, where a throng of young adults lined its circular edge to watch our landing. Their faces became more detailed as we drew near, some gaping up in awe, others watching with sculptures of boredom, and still others utterly distracted, chatting with friends as if they'd seen a dozen carriages land before this.

Which, I reminded myself, they probably had.

I wondered if we were the last to arrive, or if there would be others after us.

Just as I felt bile rise in my throat, our coachmen swung their giant wings upward and brought us to a rocky touchdown next to the fountain.

The carriage jostled, then slowed to a screeching stop. I looked Quinn and Lander in the eyes as the crowd pressed in on us, as the coachmen morphed back into their human shapes.

"We'll stick together until Branding, okay?" I grabbed their hands, and they clutched me back. "Don't let go, no matter what."

Before either of them could reply, however, the carriage doors were wrenched open. Dozens of strangers swooped in to pull us out, and Quinn's and Lander's hands slipped from mine.

"Welcome," a chipper voice called out instantly, though I couldn't pinpoint the source, "to the Esholian Institute for Magical Allocation and Refinement, where worthy citizens are made!"

Face after face smiled or stared at me. Hand after hand dragged me deeper into the crowd or pushed me away. It was chaos unleashed, louder and wilder than anything I'd ever experienced back at home.

I twisted, trying to find Lander's ebony mop of hair or Quinn's redheaded figure, but even the carriage had gone, pulled off to who-knew-where.

"Don't worry about your stuff," said a boy beside me. I blinked down at his hand on my elbow as he led me to the outer rim of the courtyard. "The coachmen keep hold of it until after the Branding."

"Are you a teacher?" I asked him, and it wasn't until he threw back his head with laughter that I narrowed my focus to get a good look at him: lanky, lean, slicked blonde hair, and extremely boyish. Smooth cheeks and narrow shoulders. Definitely no older than me.

"Do I look like a teacher? I mean, don't get me wrong, darling, I could probably teach you a thing or two." He winked at me, and I recoiled. "But no, I got here only a few hours ago. You just looked a little stunned back there, and I didn't want the next carriage to run you over."

"Next carriage?"

The boy pointed, and I watched, letting my mouth fall open, as a vessel even bigger than ours barreled toward the courtyard—this time pulled by a flock of hundreds of toucans that barked and brayed as they landed.

"The coachmen must be Wild Whisperers?" I guessed aloud as the carriage landed… right where I'd been standing seconds before.

"Could be," the boy said beside me. "Or, who knows? Maybe they're Mind Manipulators, forcing the toucans to obey from within the carriage."

There were fine lines, I realized in that moment, between the different types of magic. They could all do similar things, just through unique methods.

I also knew in that moment that I'd rather befriend a bird than control one.

When I turned to tell the boy this, though, he had already pushed back into the crowd to welcome the other newcomers. And I hadn't even found out his name.

I sucked in the words I had been going to say, suddenly feeling even more lonely despite this flock of loud, sweaty strangers around me.

Too many. I'd seen too many people my age in the last thirty seconds alone, and when I raised myself up on my tiptoes, the sea of bobbing heads only seemed to expand.

"Quinn? Lander?" I called weakly.

Nobody answered. Nobody even glanced my way as a young woman shot up through the crowd, standing proudly on… nothing. A pedestal of air alone.

The hubbub trickled to a quiet. One by one, nine other young men and women rose above our heads through various forms of magic. Lengthening their legs or levitating themselves or—in one man's case—pushing himself up on a swarm of bees.

When only the swarm's buzzing and a hundred different breaths rang through the courtyard, the first young woman called out in that same chipper voice I'd heard upon stepping out of the carriage.

"Now that you're all here, we'd like to give instructions and your tour of campus. But first thing's first, a little lesson."

She gestured at her shoulder, where her brand flared against her skin. I lifted my gaze from that pedestal of air to take in her outfit, and held back a gape. Nothing but a band of fabric around her midsection and thin straps for sleeves.

My own tunic suddenly felt… much too stifling in this condensed body heat.

I scratched at my stiff, too-high neckline as the woman continued.

"We—" She gestured at the other nine "—are your class royals of each sector. Every year, the newest fifth-years are chosen for the title: a prince and a princess for Element Wielding, a prince and a princess for Object Summoning, and so on. Our job is to help you." She paused, a smile carving its way into her cheeks. "But also to make sure you behave."

All around me, my peers shifted their stances, glancing at each other uncertainly. My own heart stammered, especially as I thought about the knife in my bag… and the idea that a weapon might not be allowed. The woman laughed at our fidgeting, but it was one of the so-called princes beside her, standing on some kind of solid, invisible rock, who cleared his throat next.

"Don't worry too much about that."

My gaze snapped up at the sound of his voice, deep and serious, but… with a smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth. As if he enjoyed watching us squirm even more than the woman did. Despite all that, I couldn't deny how stupidly handsome he was, with deep brown locks of hair that curled above his ears, tan skin, and wide shoulders that marked him as a man rather than a boy.

The moment I thought that, his attention flicked toward me, and I collided with eyes of smoky quartz that narrowed slightly before he began speaking to the whole crowd again.

Dammit. Had he been reading my mind? Surely, he wasn't a Mind Manipulator, since he was standing on nothing but solid air. He had to be an Element Wielder.

"Here at the Esholian Institute," the prince continued, "it's not too difficult to behave. You are free to do whatever you want—" He gestured at the first woman's scantily-clad outfit, as if to say, see? "—save for messing with the island's shield, running away, or…" A pause as his eyes skimmed over the crowd. "Killing each other."

A chill nipped at my spine as the prince's smirk returned with even deeper menace.

"Now, on behalf of the Good Council, we'd like to demonstrate what will happen to you if you do try to run away, mess with the island's shield, or kill another student. And to give you a hint, it's the same thing that happens to those who fail their Final Tests. Enjoy."

I stiffened as the courtyard cobblestone fractured beneath my feet. All around me, screams shot into the air. Someone's fingernails dug into my arm before tearing away again as the world tilted.

I didn't even have time to look for Quinn or Lander again before the entire ground sucked me down and swallowed me whole.