“Will he be back soon?” I asked, watching the shadows dance in the gleaming marble columns.
Roslyn nodded, her deep crimson curls on fire in the candlelight. “I’ll stay until he is back. You should get some rest. Tomorrow morning, we will take you to the Aurkai’s meeting chamber.”
I swallowed before nodding and relaxed my mind.
As I drifted into a deep state of meditation, my mom’s face was vivid in my mind. I could’ve reached out and touched her. Her fear had been real and paralyzing. I’d felt it as if it were my own. This was why. She feared a being with power far beyond the threats of the world I knew. I couldn’t comprehend the level of threat from someone that wielded energy like this.
Her smile faded as the image changed to Derrick standing on the stone tiles of the training grounds. There was no doubt in my mind anymore.
It was painfully clear now.
All of this was very, very, real.
And they’d all lied to me.
I twisted in the sheets.
Blake was the only one who trusted me with information. Everyone else wore masks of lies disguised as secrets meant to protect me. But none of it had kept me safe.
No one, but Blake.
The second semesterwas quickly approaching as I stood in the Aurkai’s chamber. It was exactly as it was the day I broke into it.
Except this time, all the Aurkai were here.
The energy in the chamber was absolutely truculent.
Blake shut the door behind us; the firm click was a resoundingly alarming sign that I was now trapped in this suffocating tension.
Ezreal Kalmont sat in an armchair by the fire. He watched me with an unblinking stare that unnerved me immeasurably. Of all the Aurkai, he seemed to be the one most disconnected from the rest, aside from Roslyn.
Roslyn stood by the window, her arms folded across her chest and her body rigid with discomfort. She was focused intently on something beyond my vantage point, pointedly not angled or looking in Ezreal’s direction.
Saryna sat in one of the chairs beside Caelan at the long wooden table in the center of the room. Her long blonde silky hair was in perfect place, her blue eyes shining like gemstones asshe watched me curiously, as if she hadn’t nearly died the night of the ball. Caelan, however, eyed Blake with such deep disdain I thought he might launch himself across the table at any moment toward him.
Melanie leaned against the wall behind him, her arms locked over her chest just like Roslyn’s.
When the door clicked shut, Ezreal looked up, first at Blake, then at me.
“Anna,” he said. For a moment, I was relieved, if only a little, and his lips curved into the faintest smile—it wasn’t effortless, nor bright, but an acknowledgment of my presence there within the chamber. “Welcome. Please, have a seat.”
I did as he said and sat near Saryna and Caelan.
Blake did not sit. The room was churning with potent energy. It was strange because I’d been feeling it my whole life and now that I understood it, I wasn’t sure if I feared it more or less. Blake’s everi wrapped protectively around me in layers of warmth. It was all that kept me from fleeing.
Blake did not once look in Melanie’s direction.
Something had happened.
Roslyn shifted her body toward the table but did not enter the main space to join us.
Ezreal stood up, his presence commanding the attention of everyone in the room.
“Congratulations,” he said, his voice low and quiet, but heard with ease. “Adepts are highly valued at Nightfall and rarely acquired. Your lineage is strong, given how quickly you have awakened the everi that flows in your veins.”
I stared at him, recalling Melanie’s taunting words.
“And what lineage is that?” I asked. “It seems you once knew my mom.”
