Page 117 of The Amber Sunburst

“Ma’am?”

She tilts her head up so she’s looking down her nose at him. “I said you’re dismissed.”

Lazarus doesn’t ask anything else. He stands from the chair and leaves Apollonia’s office.

When the door is closed behind him, he exhales roughly. He must have been holding his breath.

But, seriously, what in the Forms was that meant to accomplish? Of course he knows the stakes. Those stakes have been hammered into him since he was born.

It’s all too fast: his heart, his mind. Even his body as he sprints to the dorms.

Please say Kleitos isn’t in their room right now.

He’s almost reached the stairs when someone catches his forearm and pulls him to a stop.

“I’ve been calling your name for, like, five minutes, Lazarus,” Eudoxos says, twisting Lazarus around to face him. He’s breathing hard like he ran to catch up.

“I—” Lazarus starts, trying to calm the rabbit pace of his heart. “I didn’t notice, I’m sorry.”

Eudoxos’ eyes squint, and he rests a hand on Lazarus’ shoulder.

“Are you okay?”

Forms, he is really sick of people asking him that. “Why wouldn’t I be?” He shakes Eudoxos’ hand off of him.

Eudoxos shrugs and says, “No reason.”

“What do you need?” he asks maybe a little too bluntly.

“I came to warn you of something.”

Oh, Forms, what else could possibly be going wrong right now?

“It’s Kleitos.”

“What?” Lazarus asks.

Kleitos presents no threat. He doesn’t even want to be the Educator. If he did, Lazarus would be afraid of getting his throat slit every night and he’d probably have a heart attack in his sleep.

“He wants to be the Educator.”

He’s definitely getting his throat slit.

“Oh?” he asks, and it comes out desperate and exhausted and definitely pathetic.

“It seems like he’ll do anything to make it happen. And, look, we’re all rooting for you: me, Zeno, Alexander, Kallias. We just wanted you to know so you aren’t blindsided.”

“Okay,” Lazarus says on a sigh. Of course Kleitos is out for his head—why wouldn’t he be?

“Good luck, Lazarus,” Eudoxos says, turning to leave. But Lazarus calls Eudoxos’ name before he can go.

“How did you know? About Kleitos, I mean.”

Eudoxos spins around back to him, brows furrowed like he’s weighing his options, then says, “He threatened me. Well, blackmailed me, more accurately.”

“Are you serious?”

Not that Lazarus is completely shocked, but he thought that there was a code amongst Auxiliaries. A mutual respect for honor and a fair fight.