Jasmine’s chest still throbbed from the last trial, and no amount of water could wash the metallic taste from her mouth. Rest was a luxury she no longer had. Her mind kept replaying the Council chamber—the hollow-eyed elders murmuring about her as if she were already gone, already a corpse waiting to be buried, even as her body refused to obey.

There was no time to pause. When she finally reached her chamber, Caleb was already patrolling the stone corridor outside, the morning light harsh ...