Charley felt an itch under her blindfold, but she was afraid that the two gentlemen sitting in the front of the SUV would get upset, bind her hands, and shove a hood overhead if she lifted it just enough to get her finger under it. Driving to top-secret locations was something Charley had thought only happened in books and movies, but here she was, sitting in the back of a car with a woman who spoke cheerfully to her about everything she was going to be doing at the Champion’s Compound.

It was all still so surreal. It had been a week since she had been chosen as Champion—of the *Radiant Eagle* of all Gods—but she still felt as if she was in some kind of dream.

Charley somehow had not even cried when her parents and sister had discovered the news and held her in an awkward group hug when they realized there was a possibility they would never see her again. She had remained too shocked to feel much of anything as she had sat on the private jet that would take her to the Compound, but the anxiety had come to her in waves as she sat in that SUV, hearing Bhumi speaking to her without actually listening to anything she was saying.

It was rude not to listen, Charley knew, and she tried to listen. She caught a word every once in a while, but so many thoughts swirled in her head that it was difficult to keep focused.

“Are you all right, Charlotte?"

Charley jumped at that, and her eyebrows came together as she turned to Bhumi, even though she could not see her.

“Sorry,” Charley said. “What were you saying?”

“We made it. You can’t take the blindfold off yet, but you can get out of the car.”

“Oh.”

Charlotte fumbled for the handle of the door. She found it, but it was yanked out of her hand as one of the men in black opened it for her. His hand gripped her arm, and he helped her out of the tall vehicle. The man tugged her along with him, and he stopped just as she heard concrete and metal scraping against each other.

“You can remove the blindfolds now,” one of the men said.

Charley removed the black strip of cloth over her face. Her chestnut-colored hair flopped into her eyes, and she scowled at it as she swept it out of her face, regretting asking her sister to cut it into a bob before she had left. She froze in shock at the enormous buildings and field of colorful flowers what must have been a half-mile downhill. It was all protected in a massive wall of concrete. Green tree tops peeked over the wall.

One of the men who had been with them in the SUV stood next to her Charlotte, and he handed her the backpack she was filled with a few things she had felt too important to leave behind. She shoved both of her arms under the straps. It was heavier than she was used to with all of the books she had stuffed into it.

A hand settled on Charley’s shoulder, and Charley looked at Bhumi beside her.

“Are you ready to see your room now?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I’ll need you to help downhill, though.”

Bhumi looped her arm through Charley’s, and they walked down the path.

Out of all the weird things that were happening to Charley that day, seeing the million-dollar mansion in front of her was the strangest. Everything thus far had felt so foreign to her, but now she was faced with something she had definitely seen on TV—or could have at the very least. It was like something celebrities bought because they had more money than they knew what to do with, and she was not only staring at one but was about to move into it.

“It’s rather intimidating, isn’t it?” Bhumi asked, and she patted Charley’s arm.

A girl wearing a plain gray T-shirt and pink and white athletic sweatpants rushed down the stairs. She grinned and waved at the two of them before bursting out the front doors.

“You must be Charlotte!” the girl shouted as she ran down the steps, and she threw her arms around Charley, who nearly fell over from the force of it.

The girl was shorter than Charley by at least five inches, and she smelled of some kind of flowery perfume. It was too strong, and it made Charley’s eyes burn.

“Oh, to have that youthful energy again,” Bhumi said, chuckling.

The girl giggled as she pulled away from Charley, and she gave the older woman a kiss on the cheek.

“It’s nice to see you again, Aunt Bhumi,” she said.

Bhumi gave the girl’s cheek a gentle pinch, and then she excused herself for a nap in her room.

“My name is Dawn, by the way,” the girl said, extending a hand to Charley. “We’re going to be training together.”

“Nice to meet you,” Charley said, and she shook Dawn’s hand.

Instead of releasing Charley’s hand, Dawn interlaced their fingers and pulled Charley toward the enormous mansion.

“Let me show you to your room!”

The place was so nice that Charley thought for sure it would be required for her to take off her shoes, but Dawn dragged her up the stairs without stopping. They entered a long, wide hallway full of more doors than she had ever seen in a single residence before. Dawn pointed at the first door on the left.

“This is my room, and I hope you don’t mind that I gave you the room next to mine. Normally we would let you pick, but these rooms are all pretty much the same. And some of the other Champions have already been found, so we had to get everything ready pretty quickly.”

Dawn pulled Charley to the second door on the left, and she finally let go of Charley’s hand. She motioned toward the door, and she smiled.

“Go right on in.”

Charley opened the door. It was a larger space than the one she had been forced to share with her sister back home. There was a large bed beneath a window overlooking a large pond in the middle of the massive courtyard. A full-length mirror was on the door of what Charley assumed was the closet.

“May I come in and show you around?” Dawn said.

Charley glanced at the girl, eyebrows raising in surprise.

“Yeah, sure,” she said.

Dawn grinned, and she skipped into the room—actually *skipped* like an overexcited child, Charley marveled. She went to the door with the mirror. Charley joined her, dropping her backpack on her bed.

“If you’ll recall,” Dawn said, “you were asked to order a bunch of clothes and shoes over the Internet before you boarded the plane. They purposefully delayed your flight a couple of days so there would be enough time to get it all here before you arrived.”

Charley assumed Dawn wanted her to look at it, so she slid open the door. It was a walk-in closet. She had expected a space with a single rack for her to hang her clothes, but no, it was an actual room. It had more clothes in it than she remembered ordering, and she thought she recognized some of the clothes she had worn at home, as well. There were more shoes than she was certain she had ever owned in her entire life.

“You’re a fan of wearing black, I see,” Dawn said, peeking into the room.

“Yeah, I don’t really like to wear colors,” Charley said, giving a nervous chuckle.

Charley realized she was wringing her hands, and she forced them to her side.

Dawn abandoned the doorway of the enormous closet, and Charley followed her. She noticed for the first time that there were two large bookshelves full of books and a desk with a laptop resting on top. Charley got a closer look at the things on the shelves, and she realized they were all the books and manga she had had at home.

“This is the stuff that your parents wanted to make sure you had,” Dawn said. “They gave the staff here some of your clothes, too.”

Charley had brought her favorites with her already, but it was nice to know she could read these as well. She followed Dawn to the desk, and the girl patted the laptop.

“This is yours to do just about anything with,” Dawn explained, "but you’ll be monitored to make sure you don’t leak important information. You’ll also be able to take online courses to earn your high school diploma and any college degrees.”

Charley nodded. She had heard that already. It was annoying that she would have to continue her schoolwork, but she also understood that it was necessary to continue her education just in case they failed the Trials.

“I read in your files that you like video games, ” Dawn continued. “Uncle Makani likes them, too, so if you feel like playing console games, you’ll have to fight with him for the TV in the recreation room.”

Makani Manunui was a rather large man, if she recalled correctly, and she imagined she would lose that battle often.

“The bathroom is just through there,” Dawn said, pointing at a door across the room from the closet door. “We have to share it, unfortunately, but on the plus side, you’re not being forced to share it with everyone else in the house. I also tend to wake up pretty early, so unless you’re an early riser, too, it shouldn’t be a big deal.”

“Okay.”

“When you want someone to show you around the rest of house, you can just find me in the kitchens or in my room. You can just barge right on in through the bathroom if you want. Both of our rooms are connected to it.”

Charley raised an eyebrow at that, but she nodded.

“Okay, thanks.”

Dawn gave her a smile and a nod.

“Is there anything you want to ask me before I leave to let you get settled?"

Charley glanced around the room, but no questions popped into her mind. She shook her head.

“None that I can think of right now.”

“Okay, well, if you have questions later, you can ask just about anyone here.”

“Right. Thank you.”

Dawn waved, and she left Charley alone in the room.

Charley sighed, and she sat on her new bed. She took a look around the room.

Charley had had a room to herself before, but she had been too young to remember it. She should have been happy about it, but instead she just continued to feel numb—or perhaps confused. It was difficult to fathom what had happened in the last few days.

There was a sudden sharp pain in Charley’s lip, and she realized that she had been chewing it while she had been lost in thought. She licked her lip, and she tasted iron. With a sigh, she went to the bathroom to check her face.