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 heelsof 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 butignorant. 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 Shadowrealmhas 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.
