“Like Basil?”
“Yes, but also different. It is a rare thing to hear.”
“Can you and Nahn hear it too?”
He only smiled before his face turned serious. “You mustn’t share this gift, little one. You and your brother must only trust each other with the secrets of our family. Many might try to use us to their advantage. Scary people from the Academies might try to separate us. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”
“Never.” I shook my head adamantly. “But Pahn, you teach at an Academy and you’re not scary.”
“No, but it is how I know this, little one. Now keep reading aloud about the goddess Artemis…”
“Do you hear it?” Basil asked me in the present.
I managed a nod, sniffling as my heartbeat returned to a normal rhythm. Once the panic finally subsided, Basil guided me back to my feet.
“You haven’t had one of those in a while,” he noted. “What sparked it?”
Head spinning from all the ale I consumed in a short amount of time, I gripped Basil’s forearms. The wooden door swung open behind us. A stumbling couple spilled out into the alley where we huddled.
“What else could she possibly be good for, if not a wife to my son?”
I didn’t know what was worse—to live stifled as the wife of a brutish man, or forever burden my family with my complacency.
Basil folded his arms across his chest. “You’ve had too much to drink. I knew this was a bad idea. We should return?—”
“No.” I shook my head vehemently. My fingers dug further into the sleeves of his tunic, damp from the mist we’d encountered while departing our skyland. “Not yet.”
“Then what in the stars is going on with you?”
I waited until the couple’s silhouettes disappeared. Only as my mouth widened, my voice faltered. There seemed no good reason for what I was about to ask of him. Without thinking and still fueled by my lingering perturbation, I slid out the pocketknife Basil made me tuck inside the tall shaft of my boot.
The starlight above illuminated the confusion in Basil’s thick brows. Holding my breath, I sliced the tip across my pointer finger then sheathed the blade back into my boot.
“What’re you…?” Basil trailed off. When I held my finger between us and waited, he staggered back a step. “No.No, Rahz.”
“I’m not sure how much is needed?—”
“I amnotusing Blood Sight on you,” he hissed, swatting my hand down. “What the fuck are you thinking?”
“Please, Baze, I?—”
“Nothing good ever comes from using Blood Sight by those who are not Chosen or acknowledged acolytes.”
“Says who?”
“Says everyone!” Basil exclaimed. He cast a nervous glance about the empty alley before settling back on me. With a hand running through his hair, he bit out a curse. “The books I’ve read on it say it is the most powerful form of divination possible for those gifted. The last thing I need are the Astrals’ eyes on me right now, Rahz, seriously. Least of all their wrath for dabbling in something off-limits.”
“And the last thingIneed is to be manacled to Jere for the rest of my life!”
Basil reared back. “What are you talking about?”
The alcohol burning through my veins did little to settle the nervous intensity swirling inside me. “They mean to betroth us.”
“Betroth who?” Basil searched my eyes. “You andJere?” He uttered something to himself before turning abruptly. With hisback to me, it was impossible to gauge his thoughts. I bared my feelings for the world to see, whereas Basil battled his own storms quietly.
“Are you honestly surprised by this?”
Even through the dark, a sadness befell him. “It’s always been the four of us. Pahn and I reading while you run around pissing off Nahn, and Nahn threatening to marry you off in return. I never thought things would change, or that you would ever leave us. Despite knowing how stifled you are here,” he added gently. I didn’t object. “Marriage to the right person could be good for you. You need protection and stability. Someone who loves you for your flaws, not in spite of them. Jere… he’ll ruin you.”
