That tower had given me a kiss.
This one would give me whatever Cosima Verraine knew and wasn’t telling me.
The room got colder as the afternoon went. So did I.
By seven, anger had outlasted humiliation.
I would go to the east tower. I would stand at the door. If Cosima Verraine wanted me gone, she could say so with her own mouth.
I wouldn’t sit here in my room and brood about it.
The east tower was a corner of the building Hale hadn’t shown me. I found it anyway.
By the second turn, two students had seen me. By the third, one of them had started walking faster to reach their destination ahead of me.
Good.
Let the room know I was coming.
They could let me in or tell me out loud that I wasn’t wanted.
The hallway ended in a common room with a high ceiling, three tall windows, and chairs set in a circle. All the first-years who had been called at the reading and passed were already sitting.
Two upperclassmen stood at the window with their backs to the room.
One was Kieran.
He saw me without turning. I knew because the air aroundhim changed, quick and slight, like a hand closing around a match.
No faculty were present. The small lens belonged to the students.
Cosima reigned here, and she stood beside the chair across from the door, setting her small notebook on a table. Caspian sat at the chair beside hers, a leather book open on his knee.
He didn’t look up.
My Mark noticed him anyway.
A thin warmth moved under the lines on my wrist. I closed my hand into a fist to still it.
Caspian’s eyes didn’t lift, but his body stiffened just slightly in his chair.
Cosima looked up.
For two beats, she said nothing.
Then, to the room:
“The session is open to first-years who received a clean reading today. Verita did not receive one. Verita is not invited.”
The room went still around her words.
For one second, I wished I had let the trick work. I wished I had stayed in Room 114 and let the door do the refusing from a distance.
Then the second passed.
I glared at Cosima.
Just enough to make sure she knew I had heard her.
