Knowing didn’t make hearing it easier.
I pressed my thumb into the center of my palm until the pressure became something I could understand.
“The Council killed her,” I said.
Juno held my gaze.
“Yes.”
One word.
No cushion under it.
For a moment I wanted to be angry that she had said it so plainly. Then I wanted to be angry that no one else had.
I rubbed both hands over my face, then dropped them before she could tell me to stop touching my eyes like a child.
“And Delphine?”
Juno tensed.
That was the place she had hoped I would not step.
Too bad. I had been stepping wrong since I arrived.
“What happened to Delphine?” I pressed.
“Her Mark dimmed.”
“I saw that.”
“Then you saw the part they wanted witnessed.”
My stomach turned.
“Is she dead?”
Juno’s gaze moved to the basin.
“The school has not recorded her death.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“I do not have access to what happens once a student is brought out through the west door.”
I stood because sitting still had become impossible.
“She sat across from me at lunch. She told me about her brother. She was scared, and everyone watched her get taken through that door like it was just another ordinary ceremony or something.”
“Astra.”
“Don’t say my name like I’m overreacting.”
Juno’s mouth closed.
Good.
I gripped the back of the chair.
