Kiera
At dinner, Trev sat next to me again so we could discuss our stimulatioms. I told him how the jerk, Declan, wouldn't help me kill the demon so I had to do it myself. At that, his eyes grew huge and he dropped his fork.
"Wow. He probably wanted you guys to fail so you would be put below the line. He knows that you're just right above it. I can't believe you were able to kill it by yourself without having any powers," Trev said.
"That's the weird part," I started to whisper, "I could see what the demon was going to do before it was going to and then I turned my arm into sort of an ice spear, I guess."
"You did what?" He exclaimed.
"I don't know how I did it, but it was like Justine's power. When I threw one of those ice blades, Declan froze and just gaped at me the whole time, especially when I made my arm into that ice spear."
Trev furrowed his eyebrows and scratched his light brown hair.
"Oh, I get it. You were probably able to tap into Declan's power of being able to use other Neph's powers as if you guys were actually a real pairing of a Guardian and their Supporter. My partner and I didn't think to try that," he said frowning.
I guess that made sense. No time to think about it now, though. The bell rang signaling the end of dinner and the time to check out the current standings and who would be leaving.
~
The intercom instructed all of the entrants to report to The Trials Center. Declan and Justine lead the group, looking confident as ever.
I twisted my hands together nervously down the hall thinking about where my name would be placed. Trev looked back and noticed my hands. He gently untangled them and held on to one. He squeezed my hand and gave me a sympathetic look.
We continued to walk silently down the corridors until we reached the designation.
"Excellent work to all of you in today's stimulation. You have shown great potential and cooperation. However, some of you are lacking the necessities to be able to fight demons in the real world. These are the current standings; those of you below the line please stay here and those above the line may go to your rooms," said Coordinator Vlad.
He stepped away from the board and there were several gasps.
Declan was still ranked in first, as was Justine in second and Trev in third. Jack and Aaron were still in last and would be going back to the Gray Sector tonight. It's not fair. All of the other Neph who fell below the line would be staying in the Sector Walls as a Scout or whatever else the jobs are. But no, the humans can't stay. We have to go back to the awful life we left behind.
My eyes moved down the list to my name, still right above the line. I don't get it. I killed a freaking demon all by myself and my name still doesn't move, but Declan who didn't do anything, is still in first.
I searched the group for him and when I saw him already looking back at me, I glared. He raised that eyebrow with the bar piercing it and looked at my hand in Trev's. He turned back around to face the board, but seemed really tense all of a sudden. Whatever, I'm done here.
I pulled on Trev's hand and lead us out of the massive room. He walked me to my dorm room, which would only be occupied by one person now. Jack and Aaron were gone.
He saw the solemn look on my face as I sat on my bed and tried to smile at me. I appreciated his efforts to make me feel better, but I just wanted to be alone right now.
I think he knew that because he nodded his head once and ducked out the door, silently shutting it.
~
Declan
Kiera looked extremely ticked off when she found her name right above the line on the ranking board. She wouldn't be so mad if she knew why she was still there.
I hung around The Trials Center for a little while, sparring with Justine or just practicing the use of various powers. When I got bored, I headed back to my room.
On the way back, I noticed the door to the Gray Sector's room slightly ajar. I nudged it open with the toe of my boot to find no one in the room. With Jack and Aaron gone, Kiera should have at least been in here since she angrily left The Trials Center.
Wondering about where she could have gone, I trudged back out of the corridor and down the hall to the back door. I opened the glass door to the backyard and stood still for a moment.
Kiera was standing with her back to me, completely stiff. She raised one arm and swung it around a bit. When nothing happened, her shoulders slumped and she plopped to the ground.
"What are you doing?"
She jumped up at the sound of my voice and took a defensive stance. When she saw it was me, she scorned, "What do you want?"
"Well it looks to me that you're trying to repeat what happened during our stimulation. Listen to me right now, you only tapped into my power source and used my power because we were paired together. You won't be able to do it again so just go back to your room."
Kiera growled and drew her arm back. In the blink of an eye, she shot her arm forward and one of those ice blades shot right at me.
What the hell?
When it was about to make contact with my nose, I froze if and wrapped my hand around it, melting it.
Kiera stared down at her open hands with her mouth open.
"H-how did I just do that?" She whispered.
Like hell if I knew. I didn't tell Coordinator Vlad what Kiera had done during our stimulation to keep her secret safe for some reason. I don't know what would happen if someone found out about what she did. But then I heard Coordinator Vlad talking to someone about how the entrants should have been able to tap into each other's power source during their stimulations, so I know that's what Kiera had done. However, that doesn't explain how she could still use my power.
~
Kiera
Holy shit. I just threw an ice blade at the most dangerous guy here and I have no idea how I did it. He made me so angry that I didn't think about what I was doing until it was too late.
Declan had just said that I could only use his power during the stimulation. Then how did I just throw that blade of ice?
I was about to voice those thoughts when Declan said, "Do not do that again."
"I-I don't know how I did that!" I yelled.
Declan swiftly walked over to me and got right in my face.
"You can't let anyone know what you just did. I don't know why you were able to do that so keep it a secret if you want to stay here. I don't know why I'm even telling you this to help you because I couldn't care less if you were forced to leave. You must not tell anyone, not your boyfriend or Coordinator Vlad." He forced.
Oh, he just made my blood boil. I reached up and bunched the front of his shirt in my hand and pulled his face even closer to mine.
"You're always saying these backhanded comments to me. You say that you're telling me these things for my own good but then you go and say that you don't actually care if something happens to me or not. You're such an asshole. And he's not my boyfriend," I spat, shoving him away from me.
He glowered down at me, his silver eyes almost too bright. He looked very dangerous now.
"Go back to your room now, and forget any of this happened. Your name is right above the line because I'm trying to keep you safe. I made sure your name wouldn't move up to keep you under the radar. A human has never made it as far as you. You should have left with the other two weak humans from your sector. If you keep behaving recklessly like this, them I won't be able to secure your safety," he said and left me standing in the middle of the backyard.
I clenched my fists and hurriedly walked back to my room. When I got in the lonely room, I stripped off the black suit and put on my ratty pajamas. I fell asleep right when my head touched the flat pillow.
~
Sunlight from the single window in my room shone directly on my face. I sat up groggily and wiped my eyes.
"Attention all entrants. Please lock your doors and barricade them with furniture in your rooms. There has been a breach in The Dorms. Please remain calm until further notice."
Oh shit oh shit. I jumped off my bed to lock the door until I realized there wasn't a freaking lock. I started to sweat. The only furniture in the room was my bed since they took out Jack and Aaron's beds. It was much too heavy for me to move. The safest thing for me to do would be to hide under my bed since everyone else's rooms would be locked by now.
I scrambled under the bed and tried to calm my breathing.
With a sudden bang, my door exploded open and banged against the wall. I shoved my fist in my mouth to stop from screaming.
"Kiera get out of here now!"
I quickly climbed out from under the bed when I heard Trev's voice.
He grabbed my arm and pulled me down the hall.
"What's going on?" I screamed.
"A demon," Trev panted.
I stumbled and my arm slipped out of his grasp. I fell on the floor and Trev skidded to a stop. He looked behind me and commanded, "Kiera don't move."
I didn't dare look behind me. I could feel the hot breath of something on my neck. I hunched myself closer to the ground and squeezed my eyes shut.
Suddenly, I was scooped off the ground and I looked right into Trev's frightened eyes ten feet away from me.
Oh God. I'm dead. The demon got me. I'm not going to make it to the end of The Trials after all.
I wasn't ready to give up just yet. I started banging repeatedly with my fists at my attacker.
"Dammit. Stop doing that," a voice growled when my knuckle hit something metal.
"Declan! Put me down!" I yelled.
"Such a liability," he mumbled, but continued to run with me in his arms.
Handing me over to Trev, Declan said, "Take her to your room and lock yourselves in there. I got this."
~
Declan
Trev took Kiera from my arms and she stared defiantly back at me while he dragged her down the hall to his room. When I thought they were far enough away, I turned around and faced the demon.
Standing just over seven feet tall, the demon hovered over me on four legs. It looked just like a tiger with three massive horns extruding from its head. Gearing up on all fours, the tiger demon leaped off the ground right at me.
"Kiera get back here!" A voice yelled.
Distracted, I looked behind me to see Kiera sprinting, her hair flailing wildly as she pumped her arms. Trev was a few feet behind her with a red splotch just above his cheek.
In that moment, the demon descended upon me, crashing us to the ground. Remembering what Kiera had done during our stimulation, I jerked my arm up just as the demon landed on me. My arm was encased in ice and I speared the demons abdomin. It roared in response. Not nearly enough to kill it, the demon jumped off of me and landed a few feet away.
Kiera and Trev reached me and pulled me up.
"What are you guys doing here? I thought I told you I had this," I accused.
"I tried to keep her back, but then she fought me," said Trev gesturing to his cheek.
No time to respond as the demon came upon us once again.
All three of us took battle stances and waited for the demon to reach us.
"Trev," I said and he nodded, knowing that I was asking him to destroy the brain.
"No not now," Kiera said right before the demon tiger's claw swiped across Trev's stomach and he collapsed.
She dropped down next to his side and ripped her pajama shirt off, leaving just a tank top on underneath, to staunch the bleeding.
"Kiera, not now," I instructed.
"We can't just leave him like this!" She yelled.
"No, get up Kiera. Now is the moment to fight."