Page 85 of The Amber Sunburst

“Come on, honey. We can’t be back after your sister. She doesn’t know where we’ve gone,” Ophelia says, drying Arete’s hair with her robes before putting them back on.

“But I’m sure she won’t mind,” Arete whines.

“Do you even know your sister? She’s stressed when nothing is wrong; can you imagine how she’ll feel if you’re not home when she gets there?”

Arete kicks up some sand and crosses her arms. “I guess.”

“You don’t want to put her through that, right?” Ophelia says, shepherding Arete to the door and reaching over her shoulder to open it. “We need to be thoughtful and kind, especially to the people we love.”

Arete is dead silent on the walk up the stairs.

Ophelia boops her nose to get a smile, but all Arete does is turn to her with a grave face.

“Ophelia, I did something bad—” Arete starts, before—oh, Forms—a pair of footsteps sounds loudly, coming down the steps.

She snatches Arete’s hand and pulls her out of the spiral stairwell, walking swiftly along Eudoxia’s hallway. The footsteps still echo, foreboding.

Please, Forms, say this person isn’t on Eudoxia’s floor. Please, please, please⁠—

“Ophelia,” a voice shouts after her, and it’s far too familiar. Ophelia breaks into a jog, trying to keep Arete hidden from the Auxiliary in pursuit of them.

“Ophelia.”

The voice reverberates across the hall, getting closer until a hand wraps around her bicep and spins her around to face away from Eudoxia’s door.

Kleitos’ face is a picture of childish frustration, but his expression melts into curiosity when he notices Arete standing behind her.

“What do you want, Kleitos.”

He ignores her. “Who could this be?” he asks rhetorically. Eudoxia and Arete’s personalities are different enough that Ophelia forgets how similar they actually look.

“You lost, little one?” he continues. “Looking for your brother?”

Arete’s face turns to stone. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Really? You don’t?” he asks, sickly sweet. He tries to take a step closer, but Ophelia pushes him aside and takes Arete’s hand.

“She’s a Priestess,” Ophelia says. “I was just showing her the dorms because she was curious.”

Kleitos smiles, looking very unconvinced. “Mhm. Well, I should go start studying—calculus exam tomorrow,” he says before spinning on his heel and entering his room.

Ophelia just watches him go. What else is she meant to do?

Really. What is she meant to do?

Arete covers her mouth, and her crying is far from the puppy eyes she was giving Ophelia earlier today. “Xia’s going to be so mad at me,” she whispers.

Ophelia scrubs at her face and starts again toward Eudoxia’s door. “No, she won’t, sweetheart. This was my fault. I’m the adult.”

“No, but⁠—”

“We were doing something that you do all the time. The only difference is that I was the leader, and I wasn’t careful enough. But it’s going to be okay,” she says, but she doesn’t believe it. Eudoxia will forgive Arete, but her?

“Ophelia—”

Arete’s tears break her heart, the sound of them unbearably sorrowful.

When she pushes the door open, she expects an empty room—dinner hasn’t ended yet, after all—but she’s surprised to hear a relieved gasp. Eudoxia jumps off the bed toward both of them, picking up Arete in her arms and wrapping a hand over Ophelia’s shoulders.