My tears made small dark circles on the crimson carpet at my feet.
“I believe you,” Arabella said, and put a hand on my shoulder. “Be careful.”
That last word was all it took—I was one of them now.
As she stepped back, Sebastian was already reaching for me, and I expected an embrace. But it was a gentle hug from a proud cousin—we were a secret within a secret.
Over his shoulder, Bianca was entranced by my tears. She wore the same expression she had that night in Halcyon Hall, when she’d watched me bleed on the ordinaries below.
53
Three more initiates were led to the Senior Uncommons that night.
Kumar Seth was first, then Regina Lindqvist, then Leopold Wolvaardt. All were asked the same question by their just-graduated cousins.
When did you know our family was wrong?
Kumar didn’t have to think at all.
“My little sister spent two years at a ballet school for ordinaries. She made a friend there—a best friend. The London aunties didn’t approve, and they declared my sister’s friend a rabbit. Her curae task was to break her rabbit’s leg. ‘Make it look like an accident.’ She passed. Splendidly. The friend had no clue it was intentional. Neither of them ever danced again.”
Regina Lindqvist took a moment before answering.
“When I was fourteen, Uncle Mats came back from an assignment. You remember, Bianca, when he stopped eating? Wouldn’t talk to anyone. One night I snuck out to meet a boy, and saw Mats walking in the snow, with no jacket or boots. Which was weird, because he hated the cold. I thought he was going to hurt himself, so I told his sisters. They helped him with his pain, but not how I expected.”
Leopold Wolvaardt simply told Hendrik, “When you and I brought the homeless man to Tannie Aletta—that’s when I knew.”
The older cousins nodded at these answers, and told Kumar, Regina, and Leopold to be careful.
When it was done, we new recruits stood looking at each other.Suddenly, this rebellion of ours had gone from theoretical to real. We had a hidden place, secret rituals, accomplices we had to trust. But we knew almost nothing.
I’d never been in a room full of legacies so overflowing with uncertainty.
Kumar stepped forward again.
“So what happens next? What’s the point of all this?”
Everyone looked at Arabella, the eldest.
“You have three tasks this year,” she said. “The first is, learn to hide yourself. Tell no one about the Uncommons, or who you saw in this room. And never utter our name undisguised.”
Sebastian smiled at this. He’d always hidden himself.
“The second is choosing someone to follow you,” Divya Seth spoke up. “Pick a cousin to tap next.”
“Easy enough,” I said. Gertie was the only Morton in the next class.
Arabella shook her head. “It’s never easy. You have to prepare them to go against everything they know. You have to find out who they really are. Trusting them with our secret will be the most dangerous thing you ever do.”
We new recruits exchanged glances. Could we even trust each other?
“The third task will be an assignment,” Divya said. “A deed, large or small, that makes the world better. Which is the point of all this.”
Sebastian laughed. “Make mine a big one.”
“Patience, cousin,” Arabella said. “Our families have trained us well. We’re good at hiding ourselves, but now we’re hiding fromthem. You should all be scared.”
She let that sink in—the middle word ofscaredwascare.
