Chapter 8 #2
I blinked away the water from my eyelashes, already knowing what she’d say. I’d felt it the moment I’d looked at the gates – I’d known in my gut. “House Phoenix?”
She nodded.
“Well, that’s unexpected.” Liam rubbed a hand over his forehead. “There have been restrictions in place keeping students from being sent to Phoenix for decades. Same as at Neverthorn. I don’t understand why it wouldn’t work now.”
Caterina took Ellie’s hand and helped her out of the shallows. “Maybe Thalienne took the restrictions off after you left to come to Neverthorn for some reason?”
“I guess there’s a chance that Tarquinius asked her to do so in an effort to find anyone else from House Phoenix to join you all.
” Liam said the words, but his expression was dubious.
“Ross and Marina had no issue being reassigned to new houses, so it’s hard to say.
Just in case, let’s get the rest of you through before Thalienne gets back. Come on, Gary. Quick, quick!”
Quick, quick? Like any of them would want to face that gate down after seeing my injuries. I wouldn’t blame them if they turned tail and ran –
“Let’s do it.” Gary strode to the front of the pack as we hurried back toward the gate, and he didn’t hesitate before stepping through.
The lightning hit him, Ellie gasped and clutched mine and Caterina’s hands as we stood near the shallows of the loch. But Gary was not picked up and tossed around like a leaf in a windstorm. He touched the pendant and showed it to Liam.
“House Wolven. Fac fortia et patere. Do brave deeds and endure.” His blue eyes lifted. Since when did he speak Latin? “Where are the Wolven dorms, Liam?”
Who was this Gary? Had the pendant given him a whole new personality, too?
Liam nodded. “To the right. Sign the contract and get in there.”
Gary gave a quick salute and hurried to the right.
Caterina went next and was marked with Kirinash. “Ad altiora tendo.”
“I strive for higher things,” Liam instructed. “To the left, sign your contract, go.”
Ellie let go of my hand and stepped through the gate. The lightning seemed gentlest with her, and she barely had a reaction to it. “House Unicorna, bono malum superate.”
“Overcome evil with good. To the right.”
Ellie nodded, and ran after Gary, signing her contract as she went.
“Fable.” Liam motioned for Fable, who hesitated. “We have to do this now. It won’t be like it was for Harlow, I promise you.” Liam held out his hand and she shook her head.
“I can’t.”
“You have to.” I stepped up next to her, wobbling. “We can’t do this without you, you know that.” I took hold of her shoulder and squeezed it tight. “Please.”
I did understand her fear, given what the gate had done when I’d gone through, but there was no way around it. We’d never be able to continue our mission if she couldn’t even set foot on the school grounds.
She scrunched her eyes, going completely still. And, for a moment, I thought she would stand there forever. Then she turned, looking at me one final time as she took a single step forward, right through the gate.
The lightning caught her, and she had the mildest reaction of any of us going through. Barely kissed by the lightning.
Trembling, she touched the pendant with a shaky smile that showcased the charming little gap between her new persona’s two front teeth. “H-house Felinita. Audeamus.”
“Let us dare.” Liam smiled and clapped a hand on her shoulder. “Be brave, Fable . . . or should I say, Fiona. Your dorms are to the left. Go, before Thalienne gets back!”
She glanced over her shoulder at me. The worry in her new gray-green eyes evident. “Okay. I’ll see you soon?”
“Pinky swear,” I said with a reassuring nod and a shiver. My hair was dripping, and with the adrenaline draining away, the cold finally made itself known. Again. I wrapped my arms around my middle and stepped forward. “What now?”
Liam grabbed my arm and dragged me through, bending and scooping up my locket with Calypso in it as he went, shoving it into my hands, rough, almost mean.
“Hannah, I told you to wait! You need to be able to at least listen if you want to learn anything at Heathermoor.” He glanced past me, adding, “Not only did I ask you to wait, but your Sage asked you to wait!”
My jaw dropped and he half spun me, so I faced Heathermoor to find Sage Thalienne walking toward us, her lips twisted into a tight scowl.
Fear sent my thoughts skittering, and it wasn’t hard to play along with what Liam was doing – making it look like I wasn’t a friend, but that he’d only just met me, a disobedient new student.
“I’m sorry, I just . . . I was so excited, and I thought it would be okay since you were here and all.”
I didn’t try to catch the sob that built in my chest. I was pretty sure I’d almost died going through that fucking gate.
Opie would have been alone, the potential future of her standing at my grave would have been a surety.
All because I was Nocta’s daughter – something I had no say over.
I covered my face with my hands and let the tears come.
Let the fear out in waves of shaking sobs.
“What is this?” Thalienne was close enough now that I could smell a faint lilac perfume around her. “Why are you yelling at her, Doyen O’Connor?”
“When I got back with the other students, this one decided to make a runner for the gate. Then monkey see, monkey do, the others followed suit. Disobeying, and setting a bad example.”
I slid to my knees, rocking with the grief, fear, and pent-up anxiety that had been building for days. The emotions weren’t just about this moment. It was like everything was coming out at once.
Cutting off Typhon.
Leaving Opie.
Escaping Neverthorn.
My soul separating from my body.
You know, the usual stuff.
“You are scaring the girl, Liam. She had probably twisted herself into an emotional pretzel just waiting for you to get back.” Thalienne’s hands rested gently on my back and warmth flooded through me, the water leaching away from my clothes and hair.
I lifted my head, daring to look up into her face.
“Thank you . . . I didn’t mean to disobey.”
“You’re welcome. I must admit, that whole shellycoat fiasco turned me around a bit.
I should’ve realized after seeing your friend go through and then hearing about what happened to Nocta, you’d be apprehensive.
Leaving you to stew wasn’t my intention.
That said, you must do as Doyen O’Connor says and listen when you’re given a direct order next time.
” Her smile wasn’t warm, exactly, but it wasn’t icy, either.
Good enough for me.
“Now, we can’t unspill the milk, so tell me, what house has the gate chosen for you?”
Her finger went to my pendant and, I had to give her credit, she didn’t flinch, nor did she do more than widen her eyes as she straightened.
“Luceo non uro.”
Liam stepped forward, letting out a gasp that was a little over the top, if you asked me.
“She’s House Phoenix?”
“She is.”
Thalienne’s brows caved, and she lifted a hand.
Shit, shit, shit.
I saw it flash in the air, a symbol that meant nothing to me, but when it hit me . . . I screamed and fell backward, and the pain was immediate, as if my skin was being pinched and pulled at, over my entire body. I couldn’t form words, I just writhed and screamed.
As quick as it hit me, it was gone and I gasped, sitting up, fully expecting to be covered in blood.
Thalienne reached down and helped me to my feet.
My immediate instinct was to start throwing punches, and it took a hot second to remind myself I was supposed to be a teenager, cowed by her, rather than myself and angry enough to work out our differences Dim style, with a good old-fashioned street fight.
“What did you do to me?” I croaked, reluctantly taking the offered hand up.
“I am so sorry, dear. I had no choice. It was a rune to remove any glamors that might be hiding your true appearance. Given the fact that the gate hasn’t placed a student in House Phoenix since the Neverthorn Nine were killed, I had to make sure .
. .” Her eerily shrewd eyes studied my face for long enough that it took all my self-discipline not to squirm.
“Liam, you’re dismissed. Go prep for your classes. I’ll make sure Hannah gets settled.”
I watched him go out of the corner of my eye, wishing I could chase after him. Being in this woman’s presence was unsettling as fuck. It was like she could see through it all. Hell, like she could see through me.
If that was the case, you’d already be dead, my inner voice reasoned. No way this woman was about to let the daughter of Nocta waltz into her school. And yet . . .
As I caught sight of my hand, it was clear that the necklace’s charm was still intact. Whatever she’d done, I was still Hannah, rather than Harlow. Liam’s friend must’ve been a hell of a Dwimmer if these magical pendants were strong enough to withstand a rune of Thalienne’s.
The thought gave me a little more confidence in our chances of getting away with this cockamamy scheme, and I managed to work up a smile for the Sage. “For what it’s worth, I’m really excited to be here.”
She nodded slowly, a light in her eyes that hadn’t been there before. “I am rather glad you are here, as well. You’re a puzzle, Hannah. And we Fae love a good puzzle. Come, I will show you to your new dorm, as you are the first of House Phoenix that we’ve had in a very, very long time.”
We walked in silence for about 3.2 seconds before I asked the question that had been burning at me. “What does my House motto mean? Luceo non uro?” I didn’t have Latin in my back pocket like Gary.