Clearing her throat, Seren turned around, a forced smile on her lips. “I’d bet a silver lucre he has a few scars of his own from your blade.”
Lily’s eyes gleamed as though remembering. “That is a bet you would win.”
Seren grinned back, taking another sip of her tea only to find that there wasn’t nearly enough sugar in it. She made a face and almost immediately, a small dish of sugar appeared alongside a small porcelain pitcher filled with cream.
“They really get into your head at Calami, don’t they?” Lily murmured as Seren reached for a delicate silver spoon.
“It seems so.” Seren lifted the milk, adding a generous splash and a spoonful of sugar.
“At Dragunreach, we followed the old magick. The root of it. Foraged and prepped our own food. There were no invisible wind spirit servants reading our minds.” She blinked as if coming back, surprised at herself for talking about a life that likely felt painfully distant here. “Anyway, if we drink fast enough, I’ll read the tea leaves. My grandma taught me ages ago. I’ve gotten pretty good at it.”
Seren watched the milk bleed into the dark tea, swirling around until it became a soft shade of caramel. To her, fortune-telling had always seemed ominous business. Lady Bunce read her palm once. Spoken of a dark-haired man who would change the course of her life. Her thoughts flashed to Calder.Could he be the man she’d prophesied?It seemed silly to put stock in such things. But still, she shrugged and nodded at her roommate as she took a large sip that burned pleasantly down to the pit of her stomach.
“Speaking of fortunes, it seems your sister is destined for placement under Olympia. Her ratings have gone up by two spots since our Imperial Magic class this morning, though she didn’t leave happy.”
Seren glanced towards the wall at the rear of the dining hall where the master clock hung, a twin to the one in the grand hall. It seemed to be made of swathes of dark smoke and white mist. Oddly enough, there were multiple hands as opposed to the traditional two, and they moved about, pointing to labeled sections that bordered the clock face.Magical Theory,she read,Enchantments, Herbs & ails 101, Entrance to Alchemy . . .the labels went on and on until Seren’s head was spinning along with the gears and spindles. Beside it, a displayed board of names shimmered with the same mist, ranked to ten. The names on the lower half shifted every few moments. Ariminta Kingston’s name gleamed in the first spot, but since yesterday Arabella’s had moved up from her place in fifth, knocking Pennyweather Smith out of third.
“What do you mean not happy?”
Lily chewed slowly, considering her words. “Witches are whispering about it. Ariminta called her a cheater in front of the whole class. Something about the opening trials? Last I saw her, she headed off alone, holding back tears.”
Seren’s stomach dropped, but she let her shoulders stiffen. “I’m sure she’s fine. She has Roxie now.”
“No, Roxie had to go right to a junior board meeting. Your sister is very much alone at the moment.”
Seren bit her tongue. She wanted to snap that it might be good for Bella to have a taste of her own medicine, but the words became lodged in the back of her throat. Lily watched her with a knowing look.
“Go check on her. We have a free period after lunch, and I’ll save you a seat in Enchantments if needed.”
Seren smiled and lifted her messenger bag. “What would I do without you?”
After swiping one last bite of a roll, she set off toward the foyer. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, reaching for the silver thread she hadn't tugged on since their father’s death. She wasn't sure exactly what it was, that magnetic pull that would shimmer behind her closed lids and lead her to her sister when she wanted to find her most.
That pulling sensation tugged from within her stomach like a fish caught on a hook. She followed it. Up and up, she went, taking the stone steps two at a time. Tracing the winding halls that spread through the tower like the Labyrinth from legend. The feeling grew stronger, as insistent as the pounding of waves on a shore. She was close.
Slipping down a dark, deserted hall only lit with natural daylight from a single arched window, Seren reached the room she was almost certain Arabella had hidden in. For a moment, she felt like a child again playing their Seek and Find game. She reached for the handle, her breath low and even. Any moment Arabella would lurch out, laughing, with tangled hair, knobby knees, and cheeks warm from excitement.
But a feeling like ice overcame her as she twisted the handle and remembered what waited in the dark. Those tender days of childhood were long past.
She stepped inside and gaped at the room around her. A dying conservatory, beautiful but with a deadly, forgotten air. A fresh wave of cold apprehension tickled the base of Seren's neck. She stepped hesitantly over the stone floor, riddled with curled brown leaves and terracotta flowerpots fallen from their perch, cracked up the sides. Their scattered soil was only further evidence of the room's neglected existence. Seren forced herself to keep going, suppressing the fear that coiled in her throat. Deeper and deeper until she came to a fountain with murky green moss lining its stone basin and brown vines strangling the statue so completely she couldn't tell what was beneath. Only a stone hand reached out, as if yearning to break free.
"Bella?" she called, tentative and quiet to avoid waking any spirits that might lurk in the ruins.
A flutter of golden hair and a soft sniffle gave her sister away. Arabella sat on the edge of the other side near one of the spouts that had probably let out clear streams of water in their prime. Now they were coated in thick cobwebs, dripping dust. Seren watched her sister stiffen slightly before craning her neck for an unobstructed view.
"Are you all right?" she asked and forced herself not to gnaw the edge of her lip as she dared another step around the chipped fountain base, bumping a smaller pot with her foot, which rolled off into the shadows and underbrush.
Arabella sat straighter and flicked away the silvery tears that swam in her eyes. Even crying, she was infuriatingly pretty—red nose and all. The sympathetic strings of Seren's heart tugged. She was amazed to find that they still worked.
In an unhurried movement, she sat a few spaces down from Arabella, taking care not to lean too much into the edge, which appeared as though it would crumble under a stiff breeze.
"It's rich finding you in here blubbering," she said, finally, after the solitary silence became too much to maintain. "After all, weren'tyouthe one who taught me not to waste tears on the words of others? Especially words that aren't true, unless . . ." Seren trailed off, prompting, prying.
There was no world in which she could imagine her sister cheating to win, even this new one full of magic and rivalry. But from what she’d heard over the last few weeks about the changes in the woman beside her. About Arabella’s growing ambition, she found herself leaning in towards her sister who still wouldn't look her way, and swallowed against her suddenly dry throat. "Unless they were telling the truth?" She tried in earnest to keep a passive tone, but the syllables shot up at the end. Too curious. Too doubtful.
“Oh, Renny . . .” Arabella’s voice broke around her name. “Do you truly believe that?” Glistening tears flowed like crystals down her cheeks as she turned to Seren, fingers twisting at the hem of her light blue uniform. “That I could—wouldcheat my way to success?”
Seren felt a deep frown on her lips and the careful dance that they had been avoiding since the first day bubbling to the surface. Part of her wanted to smother it here and now, but the ache in her could not resist the urge to prod. To get to the bottom of why her sister had left so readily. “Perhaps that is a question you should answer for yourself, Arabella. Could you?Wouldyou? I remember who you were back in Little Ridge. Here, you are different. I can’t explain it, but it’s a feeling. A distance and a knowing. A sense of our sisterhood lost.”
