“Don’t tell me you’re not, Ray. This is like . . . the mother of all opportunities. A month away from guild selections and there are three prizes running around the city? Imagine how grateful the Council would be if we were to round them up? I bet they’d let us skip trials altogether. Hells, they’ll probably even give us a reward.”
It’s a nice fantasy—and not unlike the one that drove me to chase after the Hues in the court chamber. A way to knock my future onto a brighter path.
Or you could make things worse, the more cautious part of me is screaming.Play right into the future’s hands.
Except that’s not how it works. I remind myself of the same truth I’m constantly telling others. You can’t stop the future from happening by burying your head in the sand; you have to do something—changesomething—or else you’re deliberately leaving your fate to chance, and I refuse to sit around and do nothing when there’s even the slightest possibility that this Sapphire and I might wind up falling in love. I should not, cannot, andwill notlet that happen.
“Getting out of the castle won’t be easy,” I say, starting with the obvious obstacle to this plan. “The portals have been on lockdown since the escape and I doubt we’re the only ones who’ll think to ask for an exception.” Because if Akari had this idea, then every other ambitious Shade in the Academy is likely having the same one, and the last thing the trackers are going to want is a bunch of acolytes interfering with their hunt. And even if none of that were true, we’d still need to come up with a good reason for why we should be allowed to leave the castle. Ever since the Divine Meridian started bleeding Shades, the portal keepers have been strictly controlling our comings and goings, and that leash has only grown tighter as his number of victims climbed into the double digits. For the same reason itshouldhave been impossible for two Hues to get into the Academy, it’s going to be impossible for us to get out.
“No . . . but we have something the rest of them don’t,” Akari says, waggling her brows.
“Which is?”
“Yourfaaamousssparents.” She stretches the word like gum. “I’m sure they’re justdyingto congratulate their daughter for breaking through that glamour so fast, seeing what no one else did.”
“Argh, I promise you they’re not.” The prospect is downright nauseating. The only kind ofseeingmy parents have ever wanted me to do is the kind that takes place in a tower. So while they may be glad to hear that I did something right for once, their interest in my triumph will dissipate the second they realize my power wasn’t involved.
“I mean, I know that—and you know that—but the portal keeper doesn’t.” Akari’s smug to the point of giddy. “If we say you’ve been summoned, he’ll believe us.”
Yes, he probably would. That’s the upside to having powerful
parents: you get away with bending the rules. The downside is that if I tell the portal keeper that I’m off to visit my parents, then I would actually have to go visit my parents, or else the lie would get back to them in the end. It always does.
“We’ll be in and out, Ray,” Akari promises, as if reading my mind. “You’ll show your face, give them the highlights, then I’ll step in, make some excuse, and we’ll be on our way. Simple.”
I guess it would be simple.
Unpleasant, maybe—depending on my parents’ mood—but simple.
And you could ask them about theotherpart of your vision.A more pressing agenda suddenly takes root. I’ve been so consumed by the path that leads to a Hue, I’d all but forgotten about the one that leads to my death—to every Shades’ death. If there’s anyone who could shed light on that impossibility, it’ll be the two most decorated Indigos the seers’ guild has ever trained. That alone makes this a trip worth taking.
Once the decision is made, Akari and I don’t linger. Our chances of beating the trackers to the Hues are slim to non-existent as it is, and they only grow slighter with each minute we delay, so we quickly pack away the books we’ve been studying and speed off to put this escape plan to the test.
“Erm . . . Ray . . . is there something you’d like to tell me?” We’re almost to the portal hall when Akari spots the problem waiting forus outside the door, the Blue Shade tracing our approach with narrowed eyes.
Oh, fuck. Killen. Every part of me sinks, the memory of our fight searing through my veins like acid. I can still see the hurt I inflicted in the lines of his face, hear the echo of my words thunder between us.I ended things because I didn’t love you.He didn’t deserve to learn that truth quite so callously—or at all, if I’m honest; he was better off not knowing it. That way, he could keep laying the blame for our split at my feet.
“I don’t know why he’s here,” I say, though I do have my suspicions. Killen always was good at seeing the big picture, and if there’s anyone who would benefit from a reward for the Hues’ capture, it’s him. He probably spotted this opportunity long before we did. Which makes the real question: why is he loitering out here?
“Give us a minute, okay?” I tell Akari. Then I stride over to Killen and drag him out of earshot by the sleeve before he can betray my secrets.
“You haven’t told her yet, have you?” He instantly puzzles out my intent. “About the open question?”
“No, I haven’t—and would you please keep it down?” I hiss, shoving him back into an empty classroom.
“Sure, I’ll keep it down.” He shrugs as I pull the door shut behind us. “Ifyou take me with you.”
“Take you with us?” I gape at him. “You don’t even know where we’re going!”
“Oh please, we both know you’re going after the Hues. By way of your parents, I’m guessing, since they’re not letting acolytes out of the castle for anything else.” The bitter edge to his voice suggests that he’s already tried his own luck and failed, stuck around in the hopes that we’d fare better.
“You’re right, wearegoing to see my parents—but that’s it,” I say, because what’s one more lie when I’m about to spin another ten.
“Come on, Raya, you owe me.” This time, Killen’s words are less a taunt than they are a plea. “My spell’s the whole reason you wereable to see through the glamour so quickly, wasn’t it? All I’m asking is for you to return the favor.”
Which he wouldn’t do unless he was truly desperate. Killen needs to chase this reward just as much as I need to impress the Council, and that’s a reality that should sway me. It should blunt my irritation and erode the selfish urge to go after the Hues alone. But the truth is, I don’t see how I could explain his presence to Akari, and the portal keeper is more likely to bend the rules for two Shades instead of three. Especially if he’s already turned one of them away.
“It wasn’t a favor, remember? You were handsomely paid.” So I play the villain, and for the second time in the space of a few hours, I watch my words blow Killen’s pupils wide open and rob him of breath. Hurting him really is the one thing I’m spectacularly good at. “Now, if you don’t mind, we’rejustgoing to visit my parents. We’ll barely be gone a couple of bells.”
