The helicopter’s roar faded as our team hit the ground, the forested arena swallowing us whole. The Hunter’s Moon Trial had begun, and my heart pounded like a drum, the air thick with pine and danger.

Team Alpha—Cassian, Ronan, Lyra, and me—landed in a clearing, the moonlight slicing through the trees. I adjusted my jacket, my ribs still aching from Severus’s fight, my wolfsbane vial heavy in my pocket.

Rank 24, hard-won, but this trial could make or break me. Cassian stood tall, ...