I covered my mouth with my hand to stifle a laugh. “Good thing everyone else is asleep, or else you could face treason charges if anyoneoverheard that.”
Brietta scoffed. “I tower over most of the Duke’s guards. I would like to see them tryarresting me.”
Brietta’s radiant optimism put a smile on my face. She would never even speak out against Annalisa, but pretending she would stand against the Duke himself was still funto imagine.
I glanced out the window at the thin blue haze on the horizon—the dreaded morning was coming. Brietta squeezed my hand one more time and I crept out of the Junior dormitory to slip into myown bed.
The first moment of daybreak flowed through the dormitory windows and cast the other three sleeping girls in a soft glow. In mere hours, we would become adult women dancing the night away with the suitorsof Lycaster.
I reached under my pillow and retrieved a small, folded-up piece of parchment. I looked over the room to ensure the other girls were fully asleep before unfolding the note and reading Derrick’s words in the light of thefateful morning.
Dearest Birdie,
Next week, we will finally be reunited. The men participating in Selection Night this year are Sir Myles Amberfield, next-in-line to the Amberfield baronage, Sir Gerond Pebblebrooke, a minor noble, whoever the top cadet in my uncle’s military academy is, and myself. As I am the “top student” of my class, I will select a bride first. The Duke’s heir is always “top student” and no one, not even the richest foreign prince, chooses a bride before the heirto Lycaster.
I will select you, Birdie. Without hesitation. I cannot wait to see you. I cannot wait to touch you. I cannot wait tomarry you.
—Midnight
I folded up the letter as small as I could and tucked it into my fist—holding Derrick’s heart in my hand like Brietta had said. I smiled, letting myself trust in my seven-year-long plan, and closed my eyes. Derrick’s assuring words played over and over in my head like harpsong until they lulled me into ashort sleep.
I danced in a dream with the crown of Lycaster on my head and a Ravenwood free from giants, but a jolt of barbed truth forced myeyes open.
If I had lied to Derrick for seven years, Derrick could also lieto me.
The Great Sorceress’s purity examination was the last obstacle between me and theSuitors’ Ball.
I held my knees together and shifted in my wooden chair as all four Seniors waited in the main lecture hall for the examination to begin. The Great Sorceress had sworn fealty to the House of Hyton centuries ago, so it was her honored duty to ensure Lycaster’s brides were chaste before she attempted the magical marriage bond.
Every second we waited was agony. Annalisa’s fingernails clicked as she picked at them under her desk, Dinah tapped her foot, and Camille twirled a strand of hergolden hair.
I glanced up at Duke Hyton’s portrait hanging at the front of the room—painted right after his coronation when he was thirty and still handsome. Instead of the dreamy hopefulness that used to fill my stomach while imagining Derrick in the portrait, a vortex of acid churned at the thought of seeing him at theSuitors’ Ball.
My palms started sweating and I forced myself to calm down. I wrung my hands together to dry them out instead of wiping them on my skirt and staining my damn uniform. The Ashmore uniform was all white from neck to ankle except for a black thread trim around the wrists of our sleeves, the collar, and the hem ofthe skirt.
The all-white ensemble was a burden to keep clean, but the Ashmore founders wanted it that way. Not only did wearing white force us to have impeccable hygiene standards and table manners, it also deterred us from participating in un-ladylike activities such as sitting on the floor, running around, or rolling in the grass with a handsomeschool guard.
As if any of the guards would ever touch us. Allegedly, the Great Sorceress had placed a curse on each of the Duke’s soldiers that guarded the school. If a guard’s skin touched ours, his blood would boil until it roasted him to death fromthe inside.
I picked at the black trim on my sleeve and squeezed my thighs together even tighter. The Great Sorceress was only minutes away from entering the lecture hall to inspect us. If she had placed a deadly curse on simple guards at a girls’ school, what would she do to someone who posed a real threat to the Dukedom? Like someone who had manipulated the heir forseven years?
I had nearly torn out the trim to ease my panic when Headmistress Blackiston entered thelecture hall.
Our unreasonably stern Headmistress kept her silver hair tied back in a tight bun and her hands neatly folded in front of her as she walked. Her shoulders were set back and her spine was as straight as a pin—modeling the perfect posture she expected each Ashmore student to carryherself with.
“Ladies,” she said in a lofty voice, “please welcome our exalted guest, Fraleigh, the Great Sorceressof Nordingaard.”
Her delicate footsteps echoed outside like powerful whispers. Everyone kneeled and looked down in reverence for the only sorceress in the Dukedom. Duke Hyton had outlawed all magic and attempts at sorcery after his mother’s death, but the deathless and all-powerful Fraleigh was the sole exception.
Fraleigh’s footsteps entered the lecture hall and only then did I dare lift my eyes. She looked exactly as I heard she would—tall, dressed in rich, blue robes, and her long black hair cascading to the floor. She wore a golden collar around her neck and rings on each of her sharp fingers. No one could mistake her for a mortal with her bright golden eyes and her pale skin shining with an iridescent glow that shifted from blue to green as she moved. Her cheekbones were even sharper than mine and her thin eyebrows arched upinto points.
“Rise,” she commanded in a voice like the croon ofa dove.
We obeyed and adjusted so we stood shoulder-to-shoulder in a line facing the sorceress. Fraleigh eyed Annalisa, the first in line, who trembled under her piercinggolden gaze.
“What are your accomplishments?”Fraleigh asked.
“Drawing and painting, your majesty,” Annalisa said quickly. “I also haveperfect pen—”
