Strength alone isn't enough; cunning and instinct are weapons too.

The healers worked on the silver poisoning for three hours. By the time they'd extracted the bolt and flushed the toxins, dawn was breaking over the Academy walls.

I was alive. Weak, but alive.

Darius hadn't left my side once. He sat beside the infirmary bed, hand wrapped around mine, looking like he'd aged a decade overnight.

"You need to sleep," I said.

"So do you."

"I got poisoned. That's practically a nap." The joke ...