The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 178

You have thirty-six hours to reach the Final Destination. Any candidate who takes longer than that will not pass. We wish you the best of luck.

I glance through the note one more time, my mind coming fully back to me now as adrenaline starts to pump through my veins. Once I’m sure that I’ve committed it all to memory, I crumple it and toss it into the corner of the box, sorting quickly through my supplies as I glance around the forest, eager to get on the move.

Because it’s not only that I’m on a short timeline here, but I’m also newly aware that the vast majority of my fellow cadets are now my enemies, seeking to slow me down. And considering who I am, and how small I am?

I’m easy pickings, all alone like this. No, I’ve got to move, and fast.

My hands shake a little as I strap the crossbow to my back, examining the quiver full of arrows lightening fast before I attach their little belt to my hip. All their points, I noted, are suitably dulled – not designed to rip through flesh, just, as the note suggested, to do enough damage to slow someone down.

Unless you get someone in the eye, my wolf says, her hackles raised, all of her instincts on high alert as she turns around, examining the forest as I pick up the set of vials at the bottom of the box.

I smirk a little at her comment, because – quite frankly – I’m good enough with a crossbow now that I could sink an arrow into someone’s eye. Not that I’d do that, I don’t think, but…

I mean, would I?

If I were pushed to it, could I kill someone, even a countryman, as the note says?

My wolf hesitates alongside me, but I brush the thought away, forcing myself to concentrate on the supplies after another quick glance around the quiet forest.

I immediately recognize the chemicals as those from Neumann’s collection and, considering my expertise, I know precisely what to do with them. The collection, as the note suggests, includes enough ingredients for me to make a moderately toxic poison that will definitely stop a cadet in their tracks but won’t kill them. The kit also cleverly contains a series of decoy chemicals, designed to trick an espionage-track cadet who hasn’t properly studied our textbook.

But me? I studied.

Lightening fast, I quickly mix the correct toxin and then hurl the remaining vials into the forest, wanting them out of sight. Then I grab the canteen of water from the back of the box, quickly chugging as much as I can from it before dumping the toxin in it, making sure that I get in every last drop. Then this vial, too, I throw into the woods.

Finally, I grab my map and an apple from the bottom of the box, leaving the rest of the food behind, knowing that on my small frame I won’t be able to carry it. Thirty-six hours – I can go that long without food and water, and I need to be fast.

So I chew the apple as I go, consulting my compass and then moving north in the direction that the map indicates the Final Destination lays. As I pass out of my little starting grove, I casually drop my water canteen behind, almost like I did it by mistake as I ran.

I’m not going to get a chance, after all, to get close enough to any of my fellow cadets to press the toxin directly to their skin or their faces. Getting close enough to do that would mean that I got knocked out before I even had a chance.

So my best chance? A scavenger cadet who is loading up on lost supplies.

I clench my teeth as I move away from the canteen, glancing at my map and the landscape around me, trying to figure out my best route.

All the while wondering desperately how the hell I’m going to get through this in time.

And where the hell my family and friends are.

As I plunge into the woods, I hope desperately that they, too, are safe and on the move.