CHAPTER 37 EZZO
EZZO
Escaping execution three times in as many days is more luck than a Hue should have. Then again, most Hues don’t survive a trip to the Academy, or get sprung from prison by a guild master, or offer a Shade their hand. It’s safe to say that the future knocked me onto a wholly unexpected path.
Raya’s mother doesn’t prolong their goodbye, nor does she acknowledge my presence any more than she has to, other than to issue me a stern bid to treat her daughter right.
“Are you okay?” When she finally phases away, Raya’s face is awash with too many emotions to count.
Love, grief, gratitude, doubt, longing and pain and an uncertainty at what’s to come.
For all that’s happened this past week, my life won’t actually change much; I’m still a Hue, still illegal, still perpetually on the run—but that’s been true forever so it’s hardly an adjustment.
But for her, today marks the end of everything she’s ever known and loved: her home, her family, her chance to become a seer—that’s all lost to her now. She’s no longer the same Raya Wryvern.
“Let’s just go find the others,” she says in lieu of answering my question. “I really need to see that they’re alright.” And judging by the welcome we receive when I trail them to a secluded alley a few streets over, that feeling is mutual.
“Holy shadows—your giant stick of a mother did it.” The moment we blink out into their midst, Akari sweeps Raya into her arms.
“Turns out, you’re pretty convincing,” she says, then our next few minutes are lost to the story of our latest brush with justice and their unlikely escape from the castle.
“Once the void lifted, the portals were back in action.” Every line of Chase is still drawn with exhaustion, the stolen magic he’d wielded having exacted a heavy toll. “Which was lucky since I couldn’t have held that In-Between much longer.”
Just long enough to get the initiates back to Sarotuza and stop the riots from burning too hot—though the violence raging through the city is far from over.
From where we’re stood, we can still hear the anger and smell the smoke, taste the tension lingering in the air like a grudge.
And once those kids recount their torture, the Church’s ire is only likely to get worse.
I’d be surprised if they allow Adriel’s followers to continue preaching their blasphemies; for once, they even have a common enemy with the Council.
“I still can’t believe you went to my mother,” Raya says when Akari reaches that part of the telling, her head shaking and her pupils wide.
“I mean, it worked, didn’t it?” Akari shrugs, leaning back against the alley wall.
“And besides, it’s not like you two left us much of a choice.
There was no way we were getting you out on our own—it’s kind of a miracle we managed to get out ourselves, to be honest, but seven screaming typics stumbling around the Academy interchange did prove quite the distraction.
” She grins with her whole body. Whatever my views on Akari, she’s taking her transition from aspiring tracker to exile much better than I would have thought.
Seeing Saleen on that table has clearly shed new light on her priorities.
“So anyway, once we realized you’d been caught, we had to get creative,” Akari says, speeding the story along. “And your mother did send in the cavalry like you asked her to, so I figured it was worth a shot. But don’t worry, I had Sal there with me, just in case she couldn’t be convinced.”
“What’s one more illegal spell, right?” It’s actually Saleen who looks a bit overwhelmed by the turn the night took—even now that she’s regained most of her color.
She’s the one who still has to explain this mess to her parents, and given their position as trackers, they’ll either be forced to double down on the lie and start hunting their own daughter, or join her in going rogue.
Her decision to help me has come at a pretty massive cost. For all three of them.
Cemmy and Chase took some big risks, too. As Raya thanks her friends for what they did for us, I realize it’s high time I do a little thanking of my own.
“Forget it, Ez—” But since Cemmy’s no better at forgiving herself than I am, she immediately makes to cut me off.
“No, please, I—I need to get this out,” I tell her, forcing myself to go on.
“I’ve not been fair to you this past week”—this past year—“and I’m sorry for that.
I’m sorry for being so angry that I blamed you for something that wasn’t your fault—or my fault, or Chase’s fault.
” I nod an acknowledgement at him, as well.
“Eve’s death didn’t just happen to me; it was a terrible thing that happened to all of us.
” And if the last few days have taught me anything, it’s how easy it is to put everyone you care about at risk with a single choice.
“So I guess what I’m trying to say is: we’re even, okay?
I don’t want to be angry at you anymore, and if the two of you are planning to go back to Isitar, then I think that maybe I’d like to join.
” The words aren’t as hard to say as I expected—they actually come as more of a relief.
“We’d like that, Ez.” Cemmy seems equally relieved to hear them, and happy—though that doesn’t stop her arms from crossing or her eyes from narrowing to a playful glare. “But only on one condition.”
Oh good, we’re already back at conditions. “Which is . . . ?”
“You have to be the one to tell Novi about the Shade.”