"Just how did we end up here," Lucas muttered, narrowing his eyes at the horizon as he stood beside Sylvia and Nova on the deck of a cruise ship that had absolutely no business being part of a school tournament.
The ship moved steadily across the open ocean, cold wind brushing across the deck in steady gusts. Cadets were scattered everywhere around them — some leaning lazily against the railings watching the water, some clustered in loud groups catching up after the chaos of the first round, some stretched out on the long cushioned loungers like they'd forgotten there was supposed to be a second round coming.
"To wherever the second round is supposed to happen, I'd assume," Gideon said from beside him, with the calm of someone who had accepted that information would arrive when it arrived and worrying about it beforehand served no purpose.
Before boarding, Beatrice had given them precisely one sentence of guidance.
