The horn sounds.

Paedyn Gray doesn’t hesitate.

She bolts the moment the echo rips through the forest, boots pounding into the undergrowth as contestants scatter like spooked deer. Shouts erupt behind her—panic, excitement, hunger. She doesn’t look back. Looking back gets you killed.

Branches whip at her face as she ducks low, silver hair flashing between the trees. She runs until her lungs burn, until the noise thins and the forest swallows the screams. Only then does she slow, pressing her back to the rough bark of an oak.

Think.

The armband digs into her arm, bright and mocking. Target. That’s what she is. Ordinary or not, she’s prey in a forest full of monsters.

A flicker of movement catches her eye.

Paedyn drops instantly, flattening herself against the earth as something vanishes a few feet away.

Hera Colt.

Invisible.

Paedyn holds her breath, counting heartbeats. Hera doesn’t know she’s been seen—and Paedyn plans to keep it that way. She rolls silently into a patch of ferns and crawls until the forest rearranges itself again.

A scream pierces the air. Then another.

Paedyn winces, forcing herself to move toward the sound. Armbands aren’t going to steal themselves.

She creeps up a ridge and peers down—

Chaos.

Braxton Hale stands like a wall of muscle in a clearing, tree trunk raised over his head as if it weighs nothing. A contestant flies backward with a sickening crack. Braxton doesn’t chase—doesn’t need to. He simply turns, eyes scanning, calculating.

Nearby, Blair Archer floats above the ground on a platform of twisted roots, lilac hair wild as her eyes blaze. With a flick of her wrist, a dagger rips free from someone’s hand and embeds itself into a tree inches from their skull.

“Pathetic,” Blair sneers, tightening her grip—inside them.

Paedyn’s stomach twists. She’s seen cruelty before. This is something else.

A blur flashes across the clearing—pop—and Jax Shields reappears beside a fallen girl, grabbing her armbands before blinking away again with a panicked laugh that doesn’t quite hide the fear in his eyes.

Then the air shifts.

Paedyn feels it before she sees him.

Kai Azer steps into the clearing like the forest itself parts for him. Tall. Relaxed. Storm-gray eyes sharp beneath that infuriatingly calm expression. Blood streaks his knuckles—but he looks untouched.

“Having fun yet?” he calls lazily.

Several contestants freeze.