How is this possible? How is he here?!
Before we even left the ship, Rowan and his squad went in the complete opposite direction from Kregg. The distance between them should have taken him days to cross. In fact…
Kregg told me he was dead. So why…
Why is he standing behind me?!
My arms and legs tremble uncontrollably. Rowan alone even wounded—could take on Rela, Dominio, and me at the same time. I cannot fight him alone.
I look forward. Kregg's expression shifts. That smug smile vanishes as he narrows his eyes at Rowan. "Rowan. How are you still alive?"
Rowan doesn't even look up. He stares at the ground. His golden arms are gone. He's just an armless man standing there.
"Tell me, Rowan!" Kregg rages, clutching the stump where his arm used to be. "You're supposed to be dead! Even if you were alive, you'd be far from here. So tell me—how did you get here?"
I turn back to Rowan. He's always been charismatic. If he'd caught us in this situation, he would have been talking by now. Something is wrong with him.
Loud, ragged breaths draw our attention. We all shift our gaze to a figure crawling up the hill. It's the man in heavy armor—his helmet gone, his scarred face slick with blood.
"Kregg," he gasps, struggling to lift his head. "Kregg, listen to me! That is not Ro—"
Rowan appears above him in an instant. His knee slams into the man's nape. The body goes still.
Gray steam rises from the corpse. Kregg and I freeze.
Rowan stares at the body and begins to speak but his voice is different. Familiar, yet wrong.
"No failure. No criticism. No beating heart."
He repeats the words. "No failure. No criticism. No beating heart."
The smoke clears. Rowan's form begins to shift. Kregg raises his staff and unleashes a fireball, colliding with the steam.
The figure is finally revealed.
Dominio.
"Lady Skarektos. Apologies for my lateness."
I spin around. He's behind me. Blood streams from a gash on his forehead, but his eyes his eyes are sharp. Focused. His face is emotionless. His presence is unnervingly cold.
"How, how are you still alive?!" Kregg shouts. "After that stunt you pulled, I sent three rookies after you! You missed that attack, ho–"
His eyes squint as he stumbles back against a black tree.
Dominio remains still behind me. His tone is formal as he grips my shoulder. "Are you safe?"
"I–I am safe." I look up at him. He stares at me like he's peering into my very soul.
He sweeps his leg, tripping me just as an arrow nearly pierces my skull. He looks up. The same blue-skinned archer is perched on a branch, his bow already drawn.
I look up as he takes aim at me. I turn back but Dominio is gone.
I whip around toward the branch. The blue man is still there but now his throat is slit, and his chest is pierced.
Rowan… no. Dominio. He shifted forms to look like him. I've heard that skilled rogues can disguise themselves, but I thought it was just a rumor. He told me he was in the Hashashin, but I only shared that with Zain and the others to intimidate them. There's no way he was actually part of them.
Dominio… was a Hashashin?
Screams erupt as slashing sounds follow. Kregg is frozen in place, slumped against the tree, his eyes rolled back.
I sprint down the hill. Bodies litter the ground. Some rookies try to attack Dominio, but he dodges each one effortlessly. Every time he passes them, they collapse with their throats cut open.
I glance up. Rela and Edward are watching the carnage unfold from above.
I shout, "Rela! Edward! Stop Dominio!"
I shift my gaze to him. He halts mid-motion. A dozen bodies lie around him. He holds his dagger, his hands completely unstained.
"Dominio! Stop this!" I command.
"Iaqad Al zak alqabi," he says in a tongue that sounds vaguely familiar.
"Aurelia, what's wrong with your friend?" Edward asks, ice already forming around his hands.
"I don't know. I'll investigate. You and Rela hold him off!"
Rela looks at me, then back at Dominio, her face etched with worry. "Are you sure, Aurelia? He seems to be helping us."
"By killing them senselessly?! I only wanted them incapacitated, only Kregg dead, but the rest subdued!"
Dominio turns his gaze toward me. Colors shift violently: red, blue, green, yellow.
"Aurelia, move!"
I dive aside. My vision returns to normal just as Dominio's dagger lands where my neck was. His hands tremble. His veins bulge.
"Aurelia, get to the other side. Now!" His voice is strained. Ice creeps up his feet, locking him in place.
I cup his cheek. "Dominio, what's wrong with you?"
He leans into my palm, speaking in hurried, ragged gasps. "Just go. You'll find someone on the other side of the hill. He's lost his legs. He can fix me."
Suddenly, his grip tightens around my wrist. Rela moves like lightning, shoving me aside as he shatters the ice.
I turn and run. I don't look back. Behind me, I hear the chaos. Ice cracking, steel clashing, bodies falling.
I sprint past Kregg, still disoriented, past the dead tank, down toward the gray coast.
Two bodies lie ahead. One is still moving.
It's a bald man with a red robe, a blue tattoo on his scalp and no legs. The severed limbs lie several feet away. I rush to him. He looks up, tears streaming down his face as he smiles.
"A Hashashin in this exam." He laughs weakly, coughing blood. "I'm already dead."
I kneel and press my hand to his chest. "Who are you? What did you do to Dominio?"
He stares at me, his eyes unfocused. His grin widens.
"I brought the assassin to this world. I brought the child of death upon this exam!"
His laughter echoes across the island as he coughs and sputters.