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 reasonto 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 foracceptance.
“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.
PART 2
CREATUS
