CHAPTER 20
A great feast had been spread along each of the tables in the mess hall, but no one ate.
There was a soft scuttling as a rat scurried across the floors. I watched as it wended its way past the legs of the table where Kilian sat beside Septimus.
He looked at me, his face blank. But through the link, gentle sorrow scraped across my mind.
Are you okay? he asked.
Considering the third Trial is in an hour, just dandy.
Eat something.
So I can vomit when I cross the scry? No, thanks.
Right before the feast, Echon had briefed us all on the Trial and announced who we’d be teamed up with. I had the particular joy of entering Cosanus with Caleb, the Grilish alphabet expert.
Lana would enter with Rayna.
Moric with Keila.
And Nox and Mattieu would round up the group.
Food made my stomach churn and my mouth dry. I was nauseous and lightheaded. I stood quickly, and Lana looked up at me.
“I need some air,” I said.
“I’ll come with you.” She set her clean fork on the table.
“Me too,” Moric muttered, pushing his plate away.
I didn’t look at Kilian as I left the mess hall.
I stepped onto the balcony just outside, leaning my arms against the railing for support and looked up at the cold night sky. Starlight winked bright and blue, scattered in constellations that had always fascinated me.
The door snicked shut as Lana and Moric joined me at the railing.
I pointed up at the sky, at a cluster of stars that looked like a network of veins spiraling from a tight core. “That one’s named after Roriola, the Goddess of the Hunt,” I said to them. “They say she sleeps somewhere far away, imprisoned for betraying one of her own.”
Lana tilted her neck skyward. She carved out a sharp, whiplike curve through the sky. “I know that one. Kadax, the God of Cruelty and Malice. They pray to him on Dorisport, even though he sent plagues and forest fires in the past.”
Moric sighed softly. His hand swept across the northern sphere, where the stars scattered in a straight line, arching near the point to split into two branches like a wishbone. “That one’s Adonitis, God of Luck and Fortune. May he be with us tonight as we cross into Cosanus.”
I reached out to link hands with my friends, not daring to point out the constellation that drifted above us forebodingly, shaped like a beautiful spiderweb, stars dotting each corner like gleaming strands of silver silk. Azrael, the God of Death.
We stood like that for a while, until the door cracked open behind us.
Septimus stood at the threshold, his eyes only on Lana. “It’s time, sunshine.”
I grasped my friends’ fingers, squeezing tight. I turned to Moric first. I refused to cry as I looked up into his handsome face, hazel eyes dark in the moonlight. “Be safe. Keep watch. Come back.”
He pulled me in for a quick embrace and pressed a kiss to the top of my head before pulling away to hug Lana. “I won’t say goodbye,” he said. “But… if something happens to me…”
“Don’t,” I said.
He gave me a stern look. “If something happens, will you make sure my brother’s taken care of?”
I nodded, my lip wobbling. Something about this last Trial felt so… final.
Moric turned before the tears welling in his eyes could spill. He brushed past Septimus and hurried back through the mess hall.
Lana took a step toward me, and I held out a hand. She clasped it, pulling me close to her. She wrapped her arms around my neck.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you too.”
We broke apart, and she wiped a hand across her glistening cheek. I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood. I will not cry.
I slipped through the door, leaving her and Septimus on the balcony.
When I glanced back, his hands were on her waist, no amusement in his eyes, only gentle yearning and desperate sadness.
He stroked a thumb across her cheek, lips brushing softly against hers as fine summit snow wreathed them.
The door softly shut behind me. I moved sluggishly through the now deserted mess hall and downstairs.
Kilian waited for me in the courtyard, Calendula perched on his forearm. Silver snow coated his dark hair. He looked like a fallen angel.
The scry had been set up at the arch. It was a wide doorway with a solid base, and was big enough for two people to step though at once.
It glowed blue, its insides swirling with brilliant streams of light and gossamer threads.
The other candidates stood with their instructors and sprites nearby, but I paid them no attention as I crossed to Kilian.
I stared up at him, a wordless conversation passing between us.
Calendula flitted off him as he drew his arms tightly around me. My hands went to his neck. His lips pressed against mine tenderly, like we had all the time in the universe. Trust Kilian Valhan to kiss me like my entire world wasn’t about to end.
He kissed me so thoroughly, so languidly, it left me breathless. But I needed his lips on mine more than I needed air. When he eventually broke away, he stared down at me, fierce intent in his eyes.
“Come back to me. Promise it.” There was urgency in his voice. Terror too.
I swallowed. “I can’t promise that.”
His eyes shuttered. He dropped his forehead to mine, breathing hard. “Remember everything I told you. Keep your eyes sharp. And you make sure you’re out of there before the hour is up, Lirah. I mean it.”
I nodded. “I’ll remember.”
“There’s still so much you need to know. Come back so I can tell you.”
I looked across the courtyard, to where Moric and Keila now stood directly before the scry. It hummed gently, a dazzling aquamarine glow pulsing from it. It was time.
“I have to go,” I told him.
He pressed his lips feverishly to my forehead before clutching my hand and leading me to the scry. Calendula soared ahead, her wings tucked close to her body as she flew in a tight line.
I watched as Moric and Keila stepped through together, the light twisting and undulating around them with a milky haze. And then they were gone. Caleb stood a few feet from the scry, a sour look on his face. A woodland sprite sat on his shoulder, her entire body trembling.
“Are you ready, Aldhur?” Caleb asked.
“As I’ll ever be.”
He gave me a sharp nod and strode forward.
Calendula floated to my shoulder, and I twisted my neck to look at her. “I thought you didn’t like the shoulder perch?”
“I understand tonight is tough for you.” She sniffed. “I’m trying to make things easier.”
I smiled. “Did anyone ever tell you you’re the greatest shadow sprite a girl could have?”
Her chest puffed out proudly and her cheeks tinged gray. Gray. She was blushing.
I faced the scry, stepping up to the solid dais beside Caleb. Heat roiled in waves from within, warm against my cold skin. Tendrils of blue light snaked out, and I wondered whether it would feel as it looked, like stepping into clouds and nothing.
Kilian punched in a set of coordinates on a keypad affixed to the scry, and its whirring increased in tempo.
I looked over my shoulder to where Lana was entering the courtyard, hand in hand with Septimus. Rayna waited for her with Echon, just before the arch. Kilian took a step back from the scry, mouth set in a grim line.
Perhaps it was the ache in my chest, or the pain in his eyes, but words tumbled from my mouth. The promise I was not sure I could keep: “I’ll come back.”
With the image of him branded in my mind, I stepped through.