Chapter Nineteen #2
Leland nudged my leg with his thigh, but I still couldn’t find my words.
“Do you plead guilty? Or do you plead innocent?” asked Aurora. “It’s one or the other. This shouldn’t be that hard.”
“I plead guilty,” I blurted.
I thought I saw Helen smile. Then a loud scrape echoed through the room as Leland pushed back his chair and stood. I felt the tension in him as if it were my own.
“What is this, Truth-Teller?” said Aurora. “Has the girl lied?”
“No. She’s not a liar. But she’s . . .” He crossed his arms and looked down at me with an unhappy expression. “She’s nervous. Her words require more explanation.”
Velleza Luna raised the high arch of a perfectly penciled eyebrow. “Is he still not impartial, Starvos?”
“He is guided by his gift,” Starvos mused.
Leland sat back down.
“Go on,” Aurora said with a derisive look my way. “Explain then.”
I needed water. A cold water bottle to the back of my neck.
What was there to explain? Would they care if I said I’d made mistakes and was sorry? None of them looked interested, except Starvos. He was nodding encouragingly at me as Leland nudged the back of my leg again.
“I lost consciousness at the Circle of Seven. I’d been given a sedative the day before, my sleep was affected, and I had motion sickness from porting.
What I’m trying to say is . . . I wasn’t in control.
The soil was disturbed when I woke up from the Blessing, but I don’t know how.
I woke up without magic, besides my gift.
But it can’t do that. I can’t uproot anything. I never meant to be destructive.”
Everyone’s eyes swept to Leland.
“Truth,” he said.
“Please address the remaining charges.” Aurora sounded like she was reading from a script.
“I was with Trist before her disappearance because she Healed me after Leland sedated me. After, she helped me with the transmitter, then left. I don’t know what happened to her after that.
The other two disappearances happened when I was at the Blacklight.
” I didn’t want to implicate Jaxan, not when Libeling an Echelon was another crime I could be convicted of, so I said, “I didn’t see who took them. Someone obscured my vision.”
My eyes strayed to Jaxan. I couldn’t help it.
Starvos continued nodding. Helen scribbled wildly on a scrap of parchment. Jaxan tilted his head in interest.
“The temple — no one told me the street in front of it was trespassing. And as soon as they did, I left. As for the theft, it was an accident. I was in withdrawal. I ran out sick. And I was told the items would be paid for afterward, by Leland.”
“Truth,” Leland said, then he held my chair steady as I sat. I hadn’t been given leave to do so, but . . . neither could I stand.
“Exquisite,” Starvos declared. “I think we can all agree that none of this makes the half witch Unfit. She is a mere stranger to our land, and we must give her time to learn about it. Ms. Blackburn will assimilate in time.”
Velleza Luna parted scarlet red lips, her warm-toned, brown skin radiant.
I waited for her to speak, unable to take my eyes away from her mouth.
“I, for one, cannot ignore the harm she’s caused already,” she said, every word luring me in deeper.
“Imagine how disruptive she would be Selected. She is brave and bold. Rebels will follow her.”
I almost nodded —
“Hey,” Leland whispered. “Look at me.” He grabbed my hand, and I twisted to confront him. “She’s Charming you. Can you hear me?”
My tongue was too heavy to lift. I could hardly swallow around it. Leland clenched my hand in a tighter, bone-crunching grip.
“They will,” I said softly, just before the Charm ended.
“Velleza. Enough.” Jaxan sprang to his feet, digging the heels of his hands into the tabletop and hunching toward Velleza in a primal stance as a tirade poured out of him.
“She is a half human girl. A dull girl. Not brave and bold but ignorant. I see no threat there. Not if she selects dark magic.” He eyed me fiercely.
“She’ll be no more than a shadow as a Dark Witch. ”
Helen straightened, something darting through her brown eyes as she folded her hands neatly in front of her. “I would vote for that,” she said. “If the half witch declares a commitment to dark magic, I see no need to cast her out as Unfit.”
Jaxan took his seat with an unsettling grin.
“What do you say, girl?” asked Hector Ambrosia. “Do you swear to select dark magic?”
Was this the choice Sabrina spoke of? I don’t know what it was, a feeling, but I knew the right answer. I couldn’t say yes. Selecting dark magic was wrong.
“No,” I said, my voice breaking. “I can’t.”
Leland went still. I stared straight forward, too ashamed to look at him, but I was very aware of the fact that I no longer felt his breath or him shifting. He just . . . stopped.
I no longer saw the craftsmanship in the trim around the room, the stateliness of the raised bench, or the elegance of the white coffered ceiling. My vision blurred, the room was stale and spinning, and Leland, saying nothing, drifted away from me.
I was Unfit.
Would I even have time to deteriorate, or would the ether claim me first? And who would die because of it? Who did Leland pledge?
“It’s time for the vote,” Aurora said, her long hair seeming as alive to me as slithering pythons. “Those in favor of declaring the half witch Unfit, please raise your right hand.”
I closed my eyes. But there was no gavel, no ruling to tell me it was done. Only silence. Then throats cleared, chairs swiveled, and I opened my eyes to see what was happening.
Four hands were raised. Four Echelons in favor of eradicating me, just as Skye had predicted. Aurora Gallatine. Ydris Ledoux. Velleza Luna. And Dashell Eldridge.
“Goddess explain this to me!” Velleza Luna cried to Jaxan. “You called for this trial! Now a change of heart?”
“I have listened to the Truth-Teller and the accused and made my decision. Do not mistake me, the girl must be handled, punished. But she is not Unfit. Not yet.”
Velleza opened her mouth to speak.
“We’ve tied, Velleza,” Jaxan said. “Only the Allwitches can break it now.”
“Then we re-vote,” Helen said.
“We know what the Allwitches will decide,” roared Dashell. “They’ve suffered withdrawals. They’ll never condemn her to a life without spellcasting. Helen, Ambrosia, raise your hands.”
They didn’t, though I think Helen tried.
“I know,” said Starvos, enlightened. “What has occurred here is this. We have been too narrow in our thinking. You see, there is not only the matter of Fit or Unfit, but what we must do with her. What must be done to secure the realm. I believe this could easily be solved with a more creative solution.”
Ydris nodded his agreement. “Helen,” he said, “the girl’s wish was to return to her human father, wasn’t it? Why not let her? Jaxan can renegotiate the treaty. He’s done it twice before. She’ll have no more magic than humans need to know about, and Everden will be safe from her.”
“Home?” My chest pinched as I breathed in pine and remembered the woods behind my house. My eyes glassed over, and for a second, I thought I might cry with relief at the proximity of it.
The double doors burst open so suddenly I felt their wind. An out-of-breath messenger entered, hurrying down the center aisle. “Echelons, a fourth attack has occurred. The Shadowrealm has taken another.”
Jaxan rose. “Who? Who was taken?” Concern etched his brow line, his hand white-knuckled where it gripped the tabletop, the reaction the total opposite of how callously he’d said, I know no other witches you care about who haven’t already gone missing.
“Tally,” said the messenger. “Tally Leslie. Another Aspirant entering fourth year.”
Hand over mouth, Dashell Eldridge looked like he was going to throw up. “She was one of mine. A Quantum Witch.”
“Alert Farrah to put it in the papers,” Jaxan ordered the messenger, who looked to the rest of the Echelons for further instruction, not seeming to understand that was his cue to exit. “Immediately!” Jaxan flung a hand in dismissal.
The messenger’s feet scampered back to the double doors ahead of the rest of his body.
“This is no longer a question to me,” Hector Ambrosia said definitively. “The girl must stay in our realm. Aspirants are being taken every day now. If we let this go on much longer, Alchemia won’t stand for it. They’ll come out of exile for another war. You seek to banish our one hope — ”
“The prophecy,” Dashell Eldridge whispered loud enough for me to hear.
A few members of the Council looked outraged by the outburst, Helen the most. I pretended to be too wrapped up in my fate to notice.
“My friends,” Starvos said. “I believe it’s time we put this to an end.
Why should we declare the poor child Unfit today when we can always declare her Unfit tomorrow?
I’m happy to take her under my wing, in my jurisdiction.
No, hush now, I’m not promising to give her creation magic.
Not yet. Though I see no reason why she can’t attend my academy without it.
If, at the end of the year, she has proved no trouble, which I have no reason to believe she will, we select her.
Not this year. Next.” Leaning forward, he assessed the rest of the Echelons.
“Unless someone else would like to take her on?”
No others besides Jaxan showed any interest.
Starvos addressed me. “What do you say? Will you move to Creatus? Or would you rather go home?”
I stood and Leland stopped breathing.
I wanted to go home. That was the truth. I wanted to return to Dad. But I didn’t know what that meant for Leland, and after seeing Helen with Dashell, part of me thought something else was going on.
Mostly, I had to do it for Leland, for what it might cost him. “I’ll move,” I said. “I’ll move to Creatus. I’ll attend the Creation Academy while I wait for next Selection, if that’s what it takes to stay here.”
Leland breathed out, his visible relief not yet clouded by the fact that the Dark Deal he’d made to ensure I was Selected would now hang over him for an extra year. An entire year of him being my handler.
“That settles it.” Starvos clapped.
Reluctant nods passed between the Council, along with a few sighs of resignation and half gestures. Almost all seemed appeased. All except Helen, who raised her long, graceful pointer finger.
“I want a three-strike policy,” she said bitterly. “If she makes three more mistakes, she cannot be permitted to stay. Three more mistakes, and we send her home.”
“I think that’s an excellent idea!” said Starvos, and no one on the Council disagreed.
“Ms. Blackburn will move to Creatus tomorrow, where she’ll be assigned to my most promising teacher.
” He winked at Leland, and Leland made a small, unhappy grunt from the back of his throat.
A sound that maybe, if I hadn’t been sitting so close, could’ve been mistaken for acceptance.
“The trial concludes with the half witch Ember Blackburn assigned to the creation magic jurisdiction until the following year’s Selection, or three strikes accrued, whichever comes first,” said Aurora. “The Council may resume regular business, and all are free to leave the trial room.”
The Echelons filed out a back door as I was still grappling with what had happened.
Under Starvos’s plan, Leland and I would get even closer, attending the same academy, living under the same roof. And Leland would be my instructor.
“I need to leave before I’m summoned,” Leland said, rising, and with a short-lived glance that could’ve meant anything — relief, misery — he donned his backpack and strode down the long aisle and out of the trial room.
I trailed after him on trembling legs, down the palace stairs and across the grand reception hall. Only when we were outside in the fresh air did he slow enough for me to catch up to him.
“Wait!” I shouted.
We still hadn’t spoken about the abductions — the Shadowrealm, they were calling it, who I was pretty sure was Jaxan — and that Helen might or might not be in on it, but she was certainly up to something.
Leland turned, coldness in his stare as he kept his eyes trained on Odessa Hall.
“Thanks for sitting with me in there,” I said.
“It wasn’t for you,” he said. “Not completely.”
“Right,” I said, my gut twisting. “Well — ”
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
A plume of shadows in the distance caught my eye, or tricked it — because I blinked and they were gone. And so was Leland.