“Fine, be that way.” His jaw hardens, the storm in his expression clouding over as if to say:if that’s how you want to play it, I can be vindictive, as well.“But if you aren’t back exactly when you’re supposed to be, I’ll be telling Professor Lyons everything I know. Akari, too, since you’re too much of a coward to tell her yourself.” The threat lingers long after he’s shimmered out of the classroom.
Everything he knows is enough to get me expelled from the Academy.
It’s enough to get my magic bound early and ensure that I’ll never see the future again.
So go fix it.Instead of indulging the panic, I shake off the guilt and rid my face of the dread.
If Akari and I come back with three Hues in tow, nothing Killen can say will matter.
If we do the impossible, my magic will remain safe.
CHAPTER 9
RAYA
When you spend your every waking hour in the Gray, you forget how beautiful the world looks in color. The shadows don’t just dull the rainbow of its vibrance, they charge the air, change the texture of breathing. And while the absence of pure magic can blunt the edge of our gifts, there’s a crispness to the physical realm that makes the two planes of existence hard to compare. The Gray is comfort, and power, and safety, whereas leaving the shadows feels like jumping into a kaleidoscope of vivid flowers, swimming in a lake of mottled ink.
The portal deposits us at the Academy interchange, an imposing junction house that’s lavishly gilded and adorned. Where the typics have to mine their splendor, Yellow Shades can charm it into being, turn flint to marble and mica to gold, chalk to onyx and shingles to precious stones.
If only they could charm away the iron. The moment Akari and I leave the grounds, I begin to taste the metal in the air. A faint annoyance at first, like an irritating tickle, but the weight of it slowly builds in sharpness as we snake our way through the streets, growing increasingly suffocating in its might.
The Council’s bane, we call it.
The one natural element that can sap our magic of strength.
In small quantities, the effects are more irksome than they are dangerous, but when it’s laced into every roof tile, flagstone, and wall, it can kill a Shade dead. Spend too long around too much of it,and we don’t just lose our ability to cast, we lose our ability to phase. Which is a problem since phasing into the Gray is the only way to replenish our magic once it’s been stripped.
“Gods, the Church is getting brazen,” Akari says as the swell of nausea reaches her, as well, the sick, unsettling feeling that starts in the blood and churns our stomachs raw. “They must really be encroaching on Council territory for it to hit this hard so quickly.”
Much quicker than it used to, I can’t help but think as we carve a path towards the color district, the sole place in Sarotuza where we can still go to escape the hate. In other cities, the divide between Council and Church runs far neater, a west versus east divide, for instance, or fully segregated rings. But Sarotuza is a stubborn mistress and the faithless here have been fighting the spread of religious reform tooth and nail. They won’t give up their homes—or their access to magic—just because the clergy say so. They like the convenience a Shade can offer them, the way that spells, charms, and talismans do a better job at accomplishing a task both fast and well. Because why would they pore over tedious texts when that knowledge can be easily imparted by a Violet? Or spend months tending to their orchards when a Blue can accelerate them to fruition in days? A Green can cure their cancer instead of treat it, a Red can enhance their appearance with a glamour, and with a sprinkle of Orange, their houses will withstand a storm instead of flooding come the summer rains. They have no intention of forsaking those luxuries for the Gods, nor do they intend to let the Church drive all the charm houses into a single borough. The result is a city that’s constantly threatening to erupt with violence. A hazard for both typic and Shade.
“So now that we’re safely out of the castle, are we going to talk about what happened back there?” Akari asks in way of distraction, fixing me a pointed look.
“You mean with Killen?” I know damn well she means with Killen. And Akari knows I know it, too.
“Yes, Raya, I mean with Killen.” She jabs an elbow to my side. “That boy has been a ghost for six months and now he’s suddenly waiting for you outside the portal hall? That doesn’t feel random.”
That’s because it wasn’t.
“So . . . I may have . . . run into him this morning at the archives,” I hedge, not yet sure how much of this story I’m ready to recount. “And we may have gotten into a fight.”
“About . . .”
“The real reason we broke up.”
“Oh, Ray, you didn’t.” Her face fills with a mix of disappointment and understanding, like she’s both mad at me for doing it, but worried about me at the same time.
“I didn’t mean to,” I say, sheepish. “But he was pressing my buttons and it just sort of slipped out.”
“So that’s why you looked so upset in the court chamber,” she mutters, filling in the rest of the blanks. “I’m guessing he took it badly?”
“Can you really blame him?”
“No, I suppose I can’t. But maybe it’s for the best.” Akari rallies, turning her wince into a shrug. “Maybe now he’ll finally stop hoping you’ll forget about that vision, and move on.”
“Maybe.” I’m grateful that she leaves it at that. “Areyoufinally ready to move on?” I nudge the limelight in her direction, prodding at the Saleen-shaped wound she ripped open on my behalf.
“Yes. No. I don’t know.” Akari tenses, the admission escaping her in a nervous rush. “I thought I was, but then, last night, she was right there, and we were talking a little before you came in, and it almost felt like we were . . . us again. Like maybe this whole ‘happy and over it’ thing she’s been doing is just an act. But then I went to try and talk to her after the trial and she was as cold as if last night never happened. She wouldn’t even let me in the door, Ray, told me to go away because she was tired. So now, I don’t know what to think anymore, except that there’s something going on with her—has been for months. I just can’t figure outwhat.”
