I stood too and walked to the door. Before I reached it, she stopped me with my name.
“Astra.”
I turned.
“What?”
“Delphine is not a lesson.”
My chest pulled tight.
“I know that.”
“Good. Remember it when everyone else tries to turn her into one.”
The words hit harder than I wanted them to.
I nodded.
Juno opened the door.
The corridor outside was empty.
For now.
I stepped out and the door closed, leaving me standing in the corridor with my sleeve still pushed up and my Mark uncovered.
Untethered.
My mother had carried the word before me.
Delphine had been taken by the same hands, even if the school had used a different name for the taking.
I pulled my sleeve down.
This time, it didn’t feel like hiding.
It felt like keeping one thing to myself while I still could.
16
The second summons came before I made it back to Room 114.
Apparently Hale had bought me one conversation, not a pardon.
The basin at the end of Juno’s corridor lit as I passed it, silver-white and impatient. I stopped because my body had begun to understand summonses before the rest of me finished resenting them.
Words formed across the water.
Verita.
Headmaster’s office.
Three o’clock.
The water went dark.
So.
