“And,” she added, “he told me I wasneverto come in here by myself.” She gave me a roguish wink before turning a dazzling smile on the bartender. “We’re mortals, if it wasn’t already obvious. We might die at any second during the Trials, so could you spare us a drink? One that, obviously, isn’t poisonous. I’d hate to cut my time in Lomask short over a cocktail. You can put them on Septimus Mori’s tab.”
The bartender surveyed Lana appreciatively. “For a pretty thing like you, I’ve got as many drinks as you want. Take a seat over there.” He pointed to an empty booth I hadn’t noticed before, in the corner of the tavern. “I’ll bring them over soon.”
It was hot inside, and I slung my cloak over the side of the booth before sliding in, careful not to touch the greasy table.Loud music pumped throughout the room, and it was hard to think over the noise. Which was fine. I didn’t want to think about anything.
“What prompted this?” Lana shouted across the table.
I wanted to tell her everything. I really did. But this was not the place to do it. “I just needed to get out of the house. It was suffocating me.”
“I know what you mean.” Lana leaned forward as our drinks came. They were bright blue, and the shimmery powder swirling within made them glow in the dim light. The side of the glass readThird’s Whiskers.
I didn’t bother asking the bartender what was in the drinks before lifting one up to Lana and clinking the side of my glass against hers.
“To surviving the Mortal Trials,” she said.
“To surviving.”
I lifted the cup and drank deeply. The cocktail was deliciously cool, and tasted of fruit and summer. It did something wonderful to my insides, turning them warm and fuzzy. The music no longer felt as loud as it had when we had entered the tavern and Lana, beautiful Lana, fractured into a kaleidoscope of colors before me.
Before long, Lana ordered a second round.
“I’m so sorry.” I clasped her hand after she had placed our order. “For being such a shitty friend. I was wrong about Septimus. He’s a decent elven.” I meant it, too. The drink, as much as it had made my insides fuzzy, had given me alarming mental clarity. Septimus had been the only one to actually tell me the true purpose of the Mortal Trials.
Lana beamed at me. “Iknewyou’d like him once you got to know him. And, oh my gods, Lirah, can he kiss! I swear I nearly collapsed the first time.”
“Thefirsttime?” I squealed. I felt so blissfully free, talking to Lana about trivial things. Worries had escaped me, the weight of the Trials, Anama’s death and Kilian’s secrets a distant memory. It was just me and my friend.
I sipped on the sweet liquid, savoring the taste of the alcohol on my tongue. “What was it like?”
Lana cupped a hand beneath her chin, a dreamy look on her face. “You know when you’re asleep and you have that dream where you’re falling but then you suddenly wake up?”
“Ye-es,” I dragged the word out. “That’s a bit of a scary dream, though.”
She nodded. “It feels scary. Because I’m not waking up, I’m just falling.”
I stared at my friend in astonishment. “You’re fallingin lovewith him?”
Lana scrubbed her face with her hands and then took another deep drink of her cocktail. “I know it’s crazy. He’s elven and I’ll probably die before the Rite. But gods, it just feels right. It’s fucking pathetic, and don’t ever let Moric get wind of this, but I want to smush my face against his all day.”
I tipped my head back and laughed. For the first time in nearly two weeks. And it was like a burden lifted off my shoulders. I raised my second drink toward her in cheers, because, gods, it took courage to admit what you felt. “To Solana, the bravest person I know.”
She blushed, angling her glass toward me. “To Lirahna, the kindest, most loyal friend I’ve ever had.”
The next few hours were a blur of drinks and laughter, tears from Lana as she explained how painful Anama’s death had been for her, and tears from me as I apologized profusely for accusing her of not caring. Lana had leaned across the table then to hug me tightly, her cornsilk hair smelling of strawberries and pine. She slid out of the booth afterward, dabbing at the corners of her eyes. She proclaimed that this was all entirely too heavy for a girl’s day out, and that as soon as she returned from the bathroom, we were going to try another drink.
I grinned as I watched her retreating figure swaying toward the bathroom. I had barely turned back to my drink when the seat beside me dipped. I looked to my left to find an elven male seated beside me, recognizing his forest green eyes immediately. He was Moric’s instructor. He looked me up and down, ran his hand through his dark hair and blew out a low breath. “Kilian’s going to be pissed when he finds out you’re here.”
“I don’t give a shit what Kilian thinks,” I responded coolly, taking another sip of my drink.
“Is that so?” His gaze tracked the curve of my lips around the straw. “I’m Ayden.”
“Lirahna.”
“Oh, I know who you are. Your reputation in the first challenge precedes you.”
I scoffed. “I nearly died.”
“‘Nearly’ being the key word. You killed the monster.”
