The candidates sit on the seats along with the government officials, again. The chairs that were placed in the middle of the floor have been taken away and the witches that had organized The Revealing talk in hushed whispers as they give out points.

Sierra tastes bile in her mouth, resisting the urge to throw up on the polished floors. Sitting there, captive to her chair and mind, Sierra Kingsley finally understands that some memories do not get easier with time. Instead, the talons of the flashback dig deeper into her chest.

Alana Cashore's eyes remain tight on the candidates, watching the faces lack in colour. Though they sit in groups, no one talks. No one moves. They are shaken.

The Governor finally stands up and moves towards the podium.

"The results are ready."

He takes a dramatic pause, letting the hall fill with tense silence.

"In first place, we have Sierra Kingsley with eleven points, who broke the illusion in forty-five seconds."

Cheers are sounded along with disappointed boos from students as they exchange money from the bets.

Noah smiles at Sierra and Lucas pats her shoulder in congratulations. Zoe squeezes the stricken girl's hand while Claudia pulls her into a hug.

Sierra doesn't move. She doesn't cheer or smile.

"In second place, we have Amisha Jeet with ten points for breaking the illusion in one minute and ten seconds," the Governor continues, with a smile.

"Orion Winders with nine points at one minute and thirty-five seconds. Alec Bacani with eight points at one minute fifty seconds. Raylene Tan with seven points at two minutes and twenty seconds.

"Noah Woods with six points at two minutes and forty seconds. Lucas Faye with five points at three minutes and two seconds. Zoe Argent with four points at three minutes and five seconds. Day Blackwood at four minutes and thirty seconds with three points.

"Aarush Bhatia with two points at four minutes and forty seconds." The Governor pauses and his eyes fall on the last two candidates: Elijah Grimm and Claudia Bluebell.

"The candidate with one point finished at five minutes exactly. Unfortunately, the candidate who is being eliminated today finished at five minutes and ten seconds."

Elijah Grimm stares blankly at the Governor, and though he looks like he couldn't care less, his heart beats so erratically that he worries it might just pop out of his chest. Claudia holds Zoe's hands tight in her clasp.

"Congratulations Elijah Grimm, you have made it into the next round."

Claudia's body slackens and Zoe pulls her into a tight embrace. Claudia has been eliminated.

One down.

Eleven candidates left.

Five more to go.

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Sierra wanders aimlessly through the corridors, in an attempt to clear her head. She comes to a stop and looks around. Everyone's on a buzz, still recovering from the first task. Everyone's excited that the heirs are going to be chosen soon.

But Sierra can't find a single fuck to give about The Revealing. The only thing floating around her brain is her parents.

And they're not even here anymore.

Inhale. Exhale.

Inhale. Exhale.

She repeats the process. She looks up at the ceiling, counting the lines.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Sierra looks around again, trying to focus on the little details. Red t-shirt. Blue dress. Brown boots. Pink jandals. A silver bracelet. Such pretty blue eyes. iPhone. Gideon.

Gideon Cromwell. Smouldering ex-boyfriend alert.

Oh fuck.

Sierra turns around and fast walks into the other direction. Her pace quickens into a run. She turns her head to see if Gideon has noticed her, and as soon as she turns back around she crashes into someone.

"Woah there, Shortcake," a deep voice rumbles.

Strong hands hold her against a stronger body. Sierra feels herself flush and her hands press against a tight chest. She looks up to find Day Blackwood's green eyes trained on her, and they don't look impressed. Nonetheless he offers her a polite smile. It's a glimpse of kindness, much similar to before the task, when he had looked at her with concern.

"Are you alright?"

Sierra hesitates. She glances behind her, searching for the familiar figure of Gideon Cromwell.

"Yeah," she answers and turns to face Day. His eyebrows are slammed down, and he looks behind her, searching for what had Sierra scurrying.

He opens his mouth but closes it before any words roll off his tongue. Day moves away from her, creating some much-needed space. He gives her a last glance, before nodding and continuing on his path.

Not paying him much heed, Sierra continues on with her escape.

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

In Alec Bacani's unbiased opinion, being himself is hard. He has a mother who loves her hundred pairs of shoes more than him. In fact, husband number four – who has only met Alec once – seemed to be more interested in Alec's life than his mother. And now he finds himself, as a candidate in The Revealing, unable to spend his breaks going home but training in the courtyard. Life really isn't easy, peasy, lemon squeezy. In fact, Alec has come to the conclusion, living his life is mighty difficult. However, life really became tough when his new friend, Day Blackwood, began spending most of their time together talking about Sierra Kingsley.

"She is so weird," Day comments, joining Orion and Alec in the lounge.

Orion furrows his eyebrows. "Who is?"

"Kingsley."

Alec resists the urge to roll his eyes. How unexpected, he ponders to himself sarcastically.

"You're still on about her?" Alec asks, not even bothering to look up from his phone's screen.

"Why is she weird again?" Orion inquiries, looking down at his Civisal Studies assignment.

"She bumped into me today."

Orion tilts his head and casts a disbelieving look in Day's direction. A side glance at Alec's face tells Orion that the Italian witch can't believe Day's paranoia either.

Day looks up at his mates and notices the looks of incredulity.

"What?" he asks, his tone sharp and accusing. "Don't look at me like I'm the bizarre one."

Alec meets Day's daring stare with a challenging one of his own.

"Am I the only one here that's wary of her?"

Orion's eyes meet Alec's briefly in question. Were they really going to get into this with Day? Who was incredibly convinced and adamant about his suspicions when it came to the controller witch.

"I get being wary," Alec starts saying. When Day doesn't look convinced at his words, Alec emphasizes. "Trust me, I understand being wary. But don't you think you're being a little too much?"

"To be honest, I don't even understand why you guys are wary of her in the first place," Orion interjects before quickly looking back to the assignment he had been trying to tackle for the last hour.

"Weren't you there at The Revealing –,"

"Oh, trust me I was," Orion interrupts, his tone bitter.

Day flinches, wishing he had thought his earlier words through before spitting them out like that.

"That's not what I meant –,"

"Then what did you mean? For the past couple of weeks all I've been hearing is all of this bullshit about Sierra. She's done nothing at all but try her best in everything. And you know what? If you gave the poor girl a chance you would see how nice she is."

Orion shook his head in disappointment, collects his books and pens from the table and stands up, ready to take his leave.

"Poor girl? Looking at how easily she finished the first task, I doubt she's some 'poor' girl," Day retorts, his fingers making quotation marks in the air as he says the word poor. He's very much aware of the dick he's being and maybe when he retires to bed in his dorm room, he'll wince in realization and regret.

On his way around the couches that Day and Alec were lounging on, Orion halts to a stop hearing Day's words.

"Have you considered that maybe her defeating the illusion with such ease is exactly why I think she's a 'poor' girl." Orion copies Day's actions and makes quotation marks with his fingers as he emphasizes on the word poor. With those words he storms out, leaving the two boys feeling really conflicted.

Orion mulls over the words that were exchanged between Day, Alec and himself. No matter what, he doesn't understand why Day's so weird about Sierra. Had something happened between them? Day can't just dislike her without reason. Day is smart and rational. But then, isn't Sierra like that too?

Orion can't shake the conversation out of his head as he makes his way towards the library. As soon as he steps through the doors, the smell of books hits him. Orion loves reading, how could he not? Stories take him to another place; a place where his problems could never catch up with him.

As his eyes land on Noah Woods, who looks seemingly uncomfortable sitting at a table surrounded by books.

"Don't tell me books freak you out." Orion piques, as he approaches the boy. Noah jumps startled by the sudden low voice.

Noah relaxes as he catches sight of the chubby boy dressed in the same clothes that Noah had seen him wearing at The Revealing. The same dark navy sweater and grey sweatpants. Orion is extremely chill in terms of his appearance unlike most of the boys Noah has seen. They all seem determined to dress in their finest clothes to make a lasting impression. He can't wait for the year to progress, just so he can see everyone get tired and start to wear the first thing their sight lands on that doesn't stink like a trash can.

Unlike Orion, Noah had almost been in a rush to change out of the black hoodie and jeans that he had worn for The Revealing. Anything to forget about the first task. Noah was definitely disappointed when he had realized that he couldn't look at the black hoodie the same again, thanks to their haunting first task. It was his favourite hoodie after all, it was comfortable and even had the outline of city buildings printed on it.

Now dressed in the same jeans but in a plain white tee, Noah pulls a chair out and gestures for Orion to sit down.

Orion's eyes linger a little longer at Noah's right hand still on the back of the chair, before he sits down. Reaching over, he pulls his textbooks and some notes that he had managed to prepare last night out.

"How do you feel?" Noah asks, clearing his throat. "About the task, I mean."

"Can't say I would do it all over again."

"Safe," he replies, the vein in his neck popping at the thought of reliving his worst memory. His fear claws at the back of his mind, inching closer by the second.

Orion rubs his bottom lip with his thumb thoughtfully. "How did you get out of the memory?"

Noah expected Orion to ask what his memory was but hadn't expected that. In response, he shrugs. "I hardened up."

"Oh yeah?" Orion says, with a chuckle. "And how many concrete pills did that take?"

Noah laughs – a single sound, surprised to find his chest a little lighter and claw-free.

"More than enough."

And then Orion begins his first tutoring session with Noah Woods.