“Heaven! Wake up! We’re going to be late!” Logan’s irritated voice drifted over me like fog, filling my head and echoing until I opened my eyes. Logan was gone but he’d left my door open. Josie, Aiden, and I had been unsuccessful in our search for something interesting in the black market. But that was nearly a week ago. Today… today… today is the Golden Trials! My sleepy brain finally got one fact straight. I slipped out of bed and began dressing, trying to ignore the bitter thoughts that were now filling my head. My Aunt’s death, which I somehow connected with the disappearance of my mom, my brother… This was his fourth year of the Trials. And my dad… he was lucky enough to not have to take the test since he was an adult when he’d moved here. My sister, Phoenix, had eight more years to study. Surely, she’d be fine. But would she? What would happen if she passed? Would they immediately send her on a quest? At the age of fifteen? Or would they train her, teach her, until she’s older? But there’s still always the possibility of her death, like my Aunt’s. And bitter thoughts consumed me once more.

Everyone gathered in the middle of town where at least one hundred desks had been set up for those taking the test. I sat at a desk in the very back row and stared down at the pencil I was to use. The mayor, Aiden and Josie’s mom, threw a stack of papers in the air and each one zoomed to a different desk. “You may begin.” The mayor said.

I looked down at the paper and signed my name at the top. Then I looked at the first question: In your opinion, why is the earth so large? Why is the earth so large? What kind of question is that? I skipped that question and moved on to the second: Do you think those who fail quests should be punished more, forgiven, or treated how they currently are? I was starting to feel angry. The touch of the paper, each comma, one letter, caused my blood to boil.

I took deep breaths, trying to calm myself. I steadily wrote my answer and moved onto the third question. Every once in a while, I’d skip a question thinking something along the lines of: What does that have to do with anything? Or Why do they need to know that? Or Why would they even ask something like that?

I took several deep breaths whenever I started to feel overwhelmed. I looked away from the paper and saw Aiden, he was staring straight up. I assumed he was thinking and didn’t want it to look like he was cheating so he looked up at the sky. I thought it was a pretty good idea, I could cool down a little and collect my thoughts for a moment. So I looked up too. Golden stairs were forming, one by one, leading from the clouds in a spiral staircase. So far there were only a few, about six or seven, but every few minutes another would appear. “The Ascendant Stairway.” I whispered, not loud enough for anyone to hear. Suddenly, I understood why Josie wanted to pass the Golden Trials so badly. I was aching to climb those stairs, see what was above those clouds where the stairs led to. I was about to rise out of my seat and go wait for the stairs to reach the ground when someone to my right coughed.

I jumped and looked down at my paper again, knowing that the only way I could ever climb those stairs was to pass the Trials. But the second I read the twenty-eighth question hatred began pounding through my veins. Just the number was enough to anger me, twenty-eight. That’s how old my Aunt was when she was picked to ascend. But the question was what really did it: Do you think that those who died on quests should be added to the list of those who failed quests?

I wrote in big, messy letters: YOU KILLED MY AUNT!!!

Then I stood up, leaving over half of the questions unanswered, and walked away. Many people stared as I left, walking in the direction of Firefly Cafe which was mercifully empty. I slumped in a chair, shooing away the waitress when she came to get my order.

I don’t know how long I sat there, but eventually I was joined by two friendly faces. “I can’t believe you did that, Heaven! Why did you do it? You didn’t finish all the questions, did you?” Asked a wide eyed Josie.

“No, Jo, I didn’t finish the questions. I only made it to twenty-eight. But I skipped a lot along the way.” I said.

“Why did you do it?” Aiden repeated Josie’s question. I hesitated to answer, I’d never confided my feeling of drowning to anybody. If my mom or Aunt were here I would’ve told them, but they were both gone. I refuse to say that my mom is dead until I see proof. I’ll say that she vanished, that she disappeared, that she’s gone, but I won’t say that she’s dead.

I decided to ignore the question. “So, do you guys know how you did?” I asked. Josie and Aiden exchanged a look, my curiosity intensified by a hundredfold.
“We know you wouldn’t have wanted us to but we didn’t finish. We left a few minutes after you, we’ve spent the whole time since you left looking for you.” Aiden explained. I gagged on my coffee.

“But this is important! Jo, you’ve been studying for this almost your whole life! I’m fine, you shouldn't have done that!”I said loudly, the waitress looked over at our table looking slightly alarmed.

“I know. But we had to find you. Obviously something happened, we couldn’t let you deal with it on your own.” Josie said nervously. I could tell that she wanted to be finishing the Trials. But she had come to find me instead because she thought I wasn’t okay, I was touched.

“Well, I’m fine. And now we’ll have to wait until next year.” I said, hiding my happiness. I honestly would not have wanted it any other way. I didn’t want to ascend, but I had been worrying about Aiden and Josie ascending and leaving me behind. At least now we had one more year.

Yeah, one more year. That’s all we need. Maybe by then I’ll finally have worked up the courage to ask them to purposefully fail so that we can stay together forever. Just the thought of Josie’s reaction made me flinch though. “Heav! We can’t fail on purpose! We’ll have to move on at some point! Or else we’ll be stuck like Semper Discipulus!” Semper Discipulus was an old woman who had never passed the Golden Trials and was still studying, and trying to pass. Nobody knew her real name, everyone who did had died. Most people suspect that as punishment for failing so many times, those who lived in the clouds above Auream killed all of Semper Discipulus’s loved ones.

My imaginary Josie was probably right, we couldn’t fail on purpose. I’d be a monster for asking Josie and Aiden to risk turning out like Semper Discipulus for me.

I looked out the window to see that it was dark outside, I paid for my coffee and Josie, Aiden and I walked out the door into the freezing night. We first walked to Josie and Aiden’s house because it was closer to Firefly Cafe. We said our goodbyes and I departed, alone, for my own home.

I opened the door and it was like a bomb going off. “YOU WALKED OUT OF THE GOLDEN TRIALS?!” My father bellowed. I looked in the corner of the room where Lucas was standing, a mischievous smirk playing around his lips. Of course, he had been there for the whole thing.

“So what if I did?! They killed Aunt Carrie! And they want to take us, your teenage children and kill us too! The Golden Trials are nothing more than suicide!” I yelled back. I ran up the stairs towards my room. It was cold, I had left my window open and let in the freezing night air. Along with the air, my cat had slunk through the window. She was sitting on my bed, staring with me with those hypnotizing green eyes.

“Hello, Stella.” I said, walking across my room and slamming my window shut. I then went to my bed and sat down. I thought of my horrible day and the horrible morning that was to come when my results arrived in the mail. My father’s rage tonight would sound like a lullaby compared to how he’d be tomorrow. My last thought before I drifted off to sleep was maybe I should try to sneak out my window in the morning before anyone else wakes up.

A/N: If you like this book so far and you want me to write more please post on my wall or owl me and add it to your bookshelf, thanks!