Chapter 2 #2
A dark shadow caught the corner of my eye.
I peeked over my shoulder to find the blue-eyed assassin staring down at Morrow.
He was a few inches taller than the boys.
Much taller than me. My pulse quickened, and I had the urge to look away, but I didn’t.
I hadn’t even seen him move from his spot way back on the platform.
Not a word was spoken but the message was clear—shut up.
The longer the silence lasted, the more nervous the energy became.
Finally, Morrow’s eyes dropped, submitting like a beta wolf to the alpha.
Then the assassin’s steely gaze shifted to me; my body involuntarily shuddered.
I had a strange urge to see the face behind his mask, and wondered again what he’d said about me when it was my turn to drink from the goblet.
Was he commenting on my strange eyes? Maybe it was only a coincidence he’d spoken to another assassin for the first time at that moment.
He glided down the steps and slipped behind the tapestry. The charge of electricity in the air pulled away with him.
“Come forward, please.” I jumped, not realizing the line had moved and Taewyn and I were next.
I hurried to the stone archway in the tapestry where a mage on either side waited.
The woman pushed an oak staff with a white crystal encased at the top into my crippled left hand, and I quickly switched it to my right. “Grip it tightly,” she instructed.
I curled all my fingers around it and waited.
Was I supposed to wave it around? I lifted it and gave it a swirl.
She watched the crystal, so I did too. My chest fluttered with excitement.
If I was a mage, I wouldn’t want Kace or my father to bring me home.
Magic over men, sorry Kace. But my stomach started sinking, and the elation that had momentarily given me hope faded when the crystal didn’t change.
The woman cleared her throat and held out her hand. I reluctantly gave her the staff. “Move through the tapestry, please.”
“Does that mean—”
“You’re not a mage, dear,” she answered and gestured for me to keep moving.
“Oh.” My shoulders sagged in disappointment.
Taewyn fell into step beside me, and we went through the tapestry where the crowd could no longer see us.
The guild leaders were gathered in different areas, already assessing initiates in various tasks.
To the right was a grassy area roped off in a large square and a brick wall lined with swords, daggers, axes, and bows.
I wanted nothing to do with that. I’d gotten into a few scuffs when I was younger with some village girls for picking on Kayda—even if she and I didn’t always get along, we stuck together against anyone else—but nothing I’d faced at home was a serious fight.
The last thing I wanted to do was go up against a vampire in combat.
“How do I become a scholar?” I asked Taewyn. “Can you help me?” I sounded desperate, but at this point I was.
He frowned and opened his mouth, but Morrow slammed his shoulder into him. “Tell her, Roach. Tell her that loths don’t get to become scholars. That’s only for those raised in Nighthaven and schooled here. See, scholars don’t accept savages and farmers, you actually have to be intelligent.”
My heart fell to my toes. “Isn’t there a test I can take?” I breathed.
Taewyn sneered at Morrow, took my arm and moved us a few steps away. Morrow and his two buddies laughed and said, “The weird ones belong together.”
“There is a written test,” Taewyn began, rubbing the back of his curly copper head. “But you have to pass an exam, and since those outside can’t read or write, they don’t get to—”
“I can read and write.”
Over in the roped-off area, Morrow and a few others started fist fighting.
The four assassins who’d been on the platform watched them.
The warrior leaders stood together on the opposite side.
One pointed at Morrow’s large-statured friend and the sword he swung.
That thing was half as tall as I was and had to be heavy.
“That over there,” I waved at the fighting, “that’s not me. I don’t want to fight. Give me a book. I’ll plan strategies to kill vampires, I just don’t want to do the actual killing.” Or dying.
Morrow’s fist crashed into a boy’s nose and blood spurted out. Oh, holy mother, no, no, no.
Taewyn looked just as nervous watching them as I did.
“My father isn’t here and even if he was, unless you know details about our history and vampires, mathematics and more, you won’t pass that test even if you can read.
I studied for months, and I don’t think I even did that well.
All of us from Nighthaven took it months ago.
The scholars have already gone through the tests and have seen our studies for years.
They know who they want. Still, everyone has to go through the physical trial in case an assassin or warrior wants the initiate as well, then the initiate gets to choose. That almost never happens.”
My head snapped back in his direction. I knew some things about the history of Nighthaven and vampires from Grandma Thora.
The wall was finished—a hundred years ago, or was it more?
The Sorting Rite started soon after the wall was fully finished.
She told me stories of the ducai being gifted from the gods to fight the vampires.
There was mention of a powerful vampire queen that sent them to attack us.
The memories of her tales were hard for me to remember.
I’d forgotten so much of my life from before the day she died. My stomach slowly began to sink.
“Aren’t there exceptions for us from outside? I’m a bonecarver, not some backroom brawler at the tavern. I can learn quickly.” Taewyn chuckled, then grimaced as Morrow hit another initiate, a woman this time, and sent her flying straight to the grass. My jaw dropped open. “He just punched her.”
“Damn, and hard too. Both the warriors and assassins look interested.” He turned back to me, not at all shocked like I was.
Men did not punch women where I was from.
I saw Baker Alison take a frying pan to her husband once after he’d slapped her.
Everyone laughed and then Chieftain Eric knocked him around for it, too. I don’t think he ever hit her again.
“Oh, and mages are the only exception. If you have magic, you are a mage. Period. They don’t have to fight.”
My stomach twisted, and I felt like I was going to vomit. Why couldn’t I have magic?
“Can you and I go in there, and promise me you won’t hit me too hard?”
He smiled. “Sure, we can spar. I won’t hurt you too bad. But I have to at least show my skills. I’ll just use takedown moves, no closed-fist punches, promise.”
The blonde girl I’d seen earlier with the twists in her hair and black war paint on her face ducked under the rope and walked over to Morrow.
“She isn’t going to fight him, is she?”
“Nah, they’re... lovers with issues, I guess you could say.”
Morrow leaned down and said something to her, then smacked her ass. She shoved him and threw up a middle finger while trudging out of the square. That proved Taewyn’s point perfectly.
Then she headed our way. I braced myself for whatever angry thing she was about to say, but she smiled. “Hi, I’m Celine.” She stared at my eyes for a moment. I waited for the question or the taunting to start, but it never came.
“Um, hi.” It came out sounding like a question.
“Hey, Tae. Glad you made it through.” She punched his shoulder lightly. “Is Morrow harassing you again?”
“Always,” he answered and crossed his arms. I glanced between them, confused by the comradery. She was the one who’d told us to shut up after all and said I wasn’t much competition. And if she was Morrow’s lover, I’d expected her to be... different.
We watched as more people picked up weapons or wrapped their knuckles with thin strips of black fabric.
A handful moved over to the stuffed straw dummies with bows and arrows.
I started to wish I’d taken a few more hunting trips with my father.
If I had skill with a bow, I could at least be an archer and stay on the wall like Taewyn suggested.
“So, new girl,” Celine started. “My ex-boyfriend was checking you out earlier.”
Before I could even think of a response, Taewyn butted in, “He was being a jerk to her, Celine, no need to get jealous.”
“I’m not jealous. I said ex-boyfriend. I was just going to warn her he’s a”—she raised her voice—“big asshole!” She turned back to me.
“We were together for a year, then he said he wanted to be free to explore other women during our training year.” She rolled her eyes.
“I told him not to expect to come back to me after he ‘explores’.”
“He’s a fool,” Taewyn said.
“I know,” Celine agreed.
“How do you all know each other?” There were only about five others from outside the wall, and they’d all gathered together in the corner by a weapons rack.
Part of me wanted to join them for the familiarity, but instinct told me to stick with the people who knew this place and its rules.
It would be the blind leading the blind if I made friends with the other outsiders.
“We went to Nighthaven Academy-West,” Taewyn answered. “There are four major academies in Nighthaven.”
“And you are all taught not only to be scholars but to fight before this?”
Celine giggled like it was a stupid question. “Obviously. We’re training to defeat an army of rabid vampires that want to enslave us all or eat us.”
“Enslave?”
Celine furrowed her brow. “Didn’t you know they take people as blood slaves back to Nocturnus?”
Nocturnus—I knew that name. My grandmother spoke of it, although I wasn’t sure what or where it was. People disappeared all the time, but I assumed they were killed swiftly.