Chapter 44
I reenter the ballroom in a cloud of uncertainty to find it emptying of students, each being directed toward the exit for their respective ceremonies. The parents leave with drinks in hand, passing through a set of doors at the far end, where they’ll wait for their kids until the pledging is over.
I’m pointed toward the left, where I hover on the edges of the Aria crowd. My lips burn with the memory of Rook’s kiss. My knees have become jelly.
“Where have you been?” Trinity asks, walking over and taking my hand. “I heard what happened with your parents. Well . . . everyone heard. Are you okay?”
“Not really.”
She squeezes my hand and gives me a sympathetic look.
While we wait, I search for Rook, but before I can find him, I’m whisked through a door and into another room, this one smaller and a bit darker but just as grand.
A modest, elevated platform sits in the center, illuminated by a spotlight.
Our group comprises about fifty people, and we’re instructed to form a wide circle around the perimeter.
Once we’re arranged, we all fall into silence by some kind of tacit agreement. I find myself standing between Trinity and a girl who keeps glancing at me and then quickly looking away. I hold in a sigh, wondering if this will always be my reality.
Hopefully, everyone will soon grow used to me and forget that I don’t belong here.
Of course, I just caused another scene. No matter what Rook said, I’ve been humiliated by my parents’ very public rejection.
I scan the room, finding him on the far side of the circle. I spot Domino about a quarter of the way around and catch her eye. She gives me a little wave just as another door opens.
Surreal Beaufort is as impressive as her name suggests. She’s shorter than I expected, but she gives the impression of being taller with her straight spine, her shoulders thrown back, and her chin tipped up.
Her dark, white-streaked hair is sleek and shiny, cropped into a perfect blunt bob. She wears a three-piece black suit with a waistcoat that flares out from her hips, short black leather boots with impossibly high heels, and carries a long black cane that thunks along the floor as she walks.
Slowly, she approaches, and the circle shuffles apart to allow her through. I wonder what’s happening in the Fiama room. Does my father make this kind of dramatic entrance, too? It doesn’t seem like his style.
I shake my head and try to put him out of my thoughts.
My father, House Fiama, and everything they do is no longer my concern.
Scion Beaufort takes her time examining our group. She stalks the inside perimeter of our circle and tips her chin to those she must recognize. A few times, she reaches out to squeeze someone’s hand. When she arrives at Domino, she pauses and assesses her up and down.
“We have cogs joining our ranks,” Scion Beaufort says, her voice echoing around the room via a small microphone pinned to her lapel. “How . . . delightful.” Her tone is cool but polite, yet I don’t think anyone misses her buried subtext.
“Yes, ma’am,” Domino says, dropping her head and dipping a little at the knee. “Thank you for welcoming us.”
Scion Beaufort’s smile borders on simpering. “Well, I really didn’t have much choice.”
Domino blinks at the insult, and it takes every ounce of my willpower not to speak out on her behalf. I need to remember I’m no one here.
Scion Beaufort continues her examination of her new pledges, and my neck grows hot with nerves and anticipation.
If she singled out Domino, what will she do with the two of us who switched Houses?
Slowly, she makes her way closer, and her eyes pass completely over both Trinity and me as she saunters down the line. I exhale the breath trapped in my chest, relieved she isn’t planning to draw attention to our presence.
At least not yet.
She finishes the circle, briefly stopping at the far end, where it’s difficult to make her out in the dim light. But something tells me she’s arrived at Rook’s standing place, thanks to several nervous shuffles.
“A Solitude,” she says softly, confirming my hunch. “Remarkable. Absolutely remarkable.” She steps back as if to admire him. Or more likely to judge.
“I’ll be curious to see how you manage outside the Wastes.”
In Rook’s case, she doesn’t sound disgusted.
She almost sounds amused, perhaps even delighted by his presence. It sends a trickle of uneasiness spreading across my scalp.
Finally, Scion Beaufort makes her way to the room’s center, where she ascends the platform one slow step at a time. Her heels and her cane thump in alternate rhythms along with the wild, erratic beating of my pulse.
“It’s so very good to see some of you,” she says, her voice booming over us. “I’ve watched many of you grow into the young adults you’ve become. I know you’ll do me well in continuing a proud Aria tradition through your schooling and once you graduate and represent our Society in the world.”
She waxes on for another moment about Aria’s mandate and their duty to ensure the sustainability and health of our population.
Then she spends another minute extolling the virtues and achievements of the Extinguishers and their duty to protect infected Keepers from becoming a danger to themselves and to us.
I shift nervously from foot to foot, my gaze slipping to Trinity’s profile, and I have to wonder why, if they’re so great, they needed to persuade Trinity to join them?
Finally, Scion Beaufort finishes her talk, and one by one, our names are called to approach and pledge our loyalty to our House. It drags on forever as each person takes their turn, bowing before her and reciting their oath before they leave the room.
I stand there for more than an hour, eventually becoming aware that she has arranged it so that I’ll be the last person to pledge. Despite the lengthiness of the entire spectacle, it feels like time passes much too quickly before it’s just Scion Beaufort and me left in the room.
Is she planning to kill me and dispose of my body right here and now?
She turns around and crooks a finger.
I stare at her, momentarily paralyzed.
“Come. I won’t bite,” she says, though I’m almost sure that isn’t true.
Still, I compel my feet to move. My boots click on the ceramic tiles as I approach and stand at the bottom of the steps. I square my posture and lift my chin while she regards me with all the warmth of an approaching iceberg.
“You’ve made quite the spectacle of my House, Poet Graves,” she says. “And of yours.”
“Fiama is no longer my House,” I say, and her gaze narrows.
“Why?” she asks.
I swallow the iron knot in my throat.
“I didn’t feel that I belonged in Fiama any longer,” I reply, figuring that’s the sort of answer she’s looking for. I doubt she wants to hear about my personal goals and drama.
“You didn’t want to kill a criminal,” she says with a tut. “How very . . . noble.”
Her head tosses back, and she laughs. “That’s all very well and good,” she continues. “But you understand that House Aria is also tasked with a duty? That we hunt down the infected and ensure they are dealt with? That they are one of our greatest threats?”
Slowly, I nod.
Obviously, I know this. I’ve always known this, but I had no other choice.
“Can you do it? Protect your city?”
“That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do,” I answer, and this is the truth.
“As a Storm Guard,” she says. “That’s a very different thing.”
I nod. “I will do what it takes.”
The words turn to ash in my mouth, but I understand this is also what she needs to hear.
Scion Beaufort takes a slow step and then another, stopping just above me. She reaches out and presses a sharp-tipped nail under my chin.
“Your father is furious with me,” she says. “Yet his anger is misplaced.”
“He’s furious with me, too,” I reply, and she nods.
“Your presence in Aria causes nothing but problems for me, do you understand that? You’ve started a war that I had nothing to do with, and I don’t take kindly to that.”
I try to nod, though I can’t move, thanks to her finger keeping my head in place.
“I’m sorry. That wasn’t my intention.”
She makes a tsking sound. “I’ll be keeping an eye on you,” she adds. “I don’t trust whatever’s happening here. Your father and you just put on a very nice show, and I can’t help but think that was for my benefit.”
She leans in close enough that I feel the warmth of her breath on my cheeks. It makes my skin crawl, and I try not to flinch away.
“If you put a toe out of line, you’re done.
Do you understand? If I get the slightest breath of your betrayal, I won’t hesitate to take you out, Poet Graves.
You are no longer under your father’s protection, and every member of my House will be given orders to report anything suspicious directly to me.
“And if they should decide to take matters into their own hands, I will look the other way. Is that clear?”
She pulls up and gives me a hard look.
“Yes,” I say, forcing the word through a leaden tongue.
“Yes, what?”
“Yes, Scion Beaufort.”
Finally, she lets go and backs up, all without taking her eyes off me.
“Then welcome to House Aria, Poet Graves. It’ll be a miracle if you last until morning.”