THE TAMER WHO REWROTE EVOLUTION

The Resonance Stone stood in the middle of the Great Hall like a giant gray egg. It was taller than three men. Its surface was smooth and cold, and every year, on one special morning, it woke up and decided the future of every eighteen-year-old in Haven City.

Ethan Cole stood in the third row of students, trying not to shake.

"Stop bouncing your knee," someone hissed beside him.

Ethan looked down. His knee was bouncing. He pressed his palm against it. "Sorry, Darius."

Darius Reyes grinned at him. He was broad-shouldered, with warm brown skin and a smile that made teachers forgive him for being late. He kept tugging at the collar of his brand-new uniform, and Ethan noticed it. Darius always fiddled with something when he was scared, and he never admitted it.

"You're making the whole row nervous," Darius whispered.

"You're pulling your collar off." Darius let go of it fast. "I'm warming up my neck." "Sure you are." "Shut up, Cole." But Darius was still smiling. "Whatever happens, we both get a beast today. That's already better than most people get in life."

"Everyone gets a beast today." "Exactly. So relax."

Ethan tried. He really did. But he had been waiting for this day since he was ten years old, since the morning his mother sat him down at the kitchen table and told him his father was not coming home.

Since then, every kid in the neighborhood has said the same thing. Coward's son. Today was his chance to prove them wrong. At the front of the hall, a tall woman in a dark green coat tapped a metal staff against the floor. The sound rang through the room, and the whispering stopped.

"Quiet, please," she said. "I am Dean Maren Okoye. Many of you already know me, and the rest of you will learn to fear me by the end of the week."

A few students laughed nervously. "That was not a joke."

The laughing stopped. "Today, each of you will place one hand on the Resonance Stone," the Dean said. "It will measure your Bond Talent and call your first beast. That beast will stand beside you for the rest of your life. Treat it with respect, no matter what it looks like."

She paused, and her eyes drifted across the crowd.

"Rank does not make a person good. Remember that. Now, my first name." A girl at the front stepped forward.

Ethan watched with his heart in his throat. The girl placed her hand on the stone. It glowed soft yellow. A small, fluffy bird appeared in a puff of light and landed on her shoulder. "Talent Rank D," the Dean read from a glowing screen."Beast Rank Common. Well done. Next."

The line moved on. A boy with a Rank C talent got a salamander. Another boy got a stubby little badger and almost cried with happiness. Ethan counted the names ahead of him, over and over. "Twenty more," he muttered.

"Eighteen," Darius said. "You counted wrong again."

"How do you know?"

"Because I'm not busy panicking." Ethan almost laughed.

Then the Dean said, "Seraphina Linden." The whole hall seemed to hold its breath. She walked to the stone like she owned the floor beneath her feet.

Sera Linden was tall, with silver-white hair pulled into one tight braid that swung behind her as she moved. Her eyes were pale blue, like ice on a winter lake. A thin scar ran across her left palm, and she did not hide it. "Is that the Linden girl?" a student behind Ethan whispered. "The one whose brother was a famous tamer?"

"Was?" another voice said. "Don't ask. People get weird about it." Ethan didn't turn around. He watched Sera stop in front of the stone. "Take your time, Miss Linden," said the Dean. "I don't need it," Sera said. She placed her scarred hand flat against the gray surface. For a moment, nothing happened.

Then the stone exploded with light.vIt wasn't yellow or green. It was a blazing, freezing blue, and a wave of cold air swept across the hall. Students gasped. Ethan felt frost prickle against his cheeks.

A shape stepped out of the light. It was a wolf, huge and white, with fur that sparkled like snow under moonlight. Its eyes were the same pale blue as Sera's. It lowered its head and pressed its forehead against her hand.

"Talent Rank S," the Dean announced, and her voice cracked just a little. "Beast Rank Legendary. A Frost Wolf."

The hall erupted. "An S!"

"I've never seen one in person!" "Did you see the size of it?" Sera didn't smile. She just scratched the wolf behind its ear and said quietly, "Good. You're here." The wolf's tail swished once. "Wow," Darius breathed. "That's going to be a problem for the rest of us." "Why?"

"Because the teachers will compare everyone to her now."

"Then compare me to a rock," Ethan said. "I don't mind."

Darius snorted. "Don't say that. The stone might hear you." The line crept forward.