“I’m not trying to break in, I’m seeing if it’s actually locked so—”
“So that you can break in.” His hand heats against hers.
“Well, it wouldn’t be ‘breaking in’ if it was already unlocked.”
“That’s not how that works,” he says, exasperated. “Locked or not—which, obviously, itislocked—the entire wing is condemned.”
She likes that.Condemnedis promising.Condemnedmeans ignored. Infested. Even if Claudia can’t get in, Bishop can, and there are probably lots of rats in there just waiting to be eaten. Creaks and groans echo from beyond the barrier as the tower aches under the weight of a century of neglect.
“What did they do with all the Astrologia materials?”
Cassius, arms crossed, points at the observatory with his chin. “All in there. No point in letting it take up space in the Caedleian or the Lexora.”
“It’s so sad,” Claudia says while Cassius leads her alongthe corridor. “Losing an entire discipline. Seeing it rot. It’s heartbreaking.”
“I disagree entirely. It’s progress.”
They walk in silence for a few minutes. Claudia searches the hall for secret doors or hidden entrances or anything that hints at a way into the condemned wing. There’s nothing but stone.
Cassius comes to a large wooden door and pulls a key from his pocket to open it. A waft of ocean-scented air rushes out.
“This is the chapel for your bonding ritual with Malevimus.”
Peering inside, she sees it’s dark as night with only a few candles lining the craggy stone walls. There is some vague, angular shape at the end of the aisle, but Claudia can’t tell what it is.
“As you know, you’re not allowed to commune with the gods until your second year, unless accompanied by a professor.” He’s too far away for her to see him, but she can track his movements by the direction of his voice. He’s speeding through this spiel that the High Sage no doubt required him to give. “Us Rhetoric students,” he continues, “work with Malevimus. He grants the gift of truth. Very powerful, but never free. No magic ever is. But the bonding ritual is simple. You won’t speak to Malevimus. You’ll only open your mind to allow magic inside. It’s yours to keep so long as you successfully graduate from Cygnus. But fail, and the gods will take it all away.”
Claudia chews on her bottom lip. She already had hereditary magic before her arrival. She didn’t know coming here would put it all at risk.
She could lose her last connection to her mother.
She could lose everything.
He points inside with his chin. “Go on, then.”
Panic drums in her chest. After all that Dorian has told her about Sidarphion, she doesn’t know if she wants to give a god any power over her. What if Malevimus is cruel? What if she ends up in some unbreakable trap, just like Dorian?
She doesn’t move forward. A shaky sigh escapes her.
Cassius scoffs. “Do you realize how lucky you are to even have the opportunity to see the inside of this room, let alone the magic you’ll acquire simply by stepping inside?”
“I do,” she says more quietly than intended. “But luck doesn’t negate fear or reason. I don’t know what the gods will do to me, and I have heard they’re wicked.”
He wears a curious smirk. “Who told you that?”
“A friend.”
“Get better friends who don’t lie to you. The gods are not and have never been wicked. They built this place out of their bones. They sacrificed their humanity for the sake of knowledge. With their power, they could do anything, and they choose to be here, bettering us scholars so that we may better the world.”
“What about Sidarphion?”
Cassius’s nostrils flare. “He’s no god. He never should’ve ascended. That’s why he’s gone.”
“What actually happened to him? How does a god just disappear?”
“There are hundreds of theories, but I suppose no one knows for sure.”
“What’syourtheory?”
