Page 91 of The Amber Sunburst

“That’s not possible, Kleitos. I can’t watch out for you the whole time, and Lazarus is not going to let you win easily. You know how badly he wants this.”

“You could take the Ring of Invisibility,” Kleitos taunts.

The Ring of Invisibility: a small agate ring that sits in a tiny temple in the center of the Academy’s lawn, begging for someone to steal it. It allows the wearer to commit illegal and treasonous acts without detection. No one knows how it works, but everyone knows that just in stealing the ring, you’re failing the test it poses. The whole point is that it’s in reach but not meant to be taken. And no one would be desperate enough to steal that thing and risk getting branded or worse.

“You know I’m not going to do that.”

“Well, then I’m glad it’s not my problem anymore. It’s for you to figure out how I’ll win.”

“You’d be a shit Educator.”

“You should be more careful with your words, Xos. Maybe I’ll just forgo mercy and rat you out right now?”

“No,” she growls without thinking. The satisfied smirk Kleitos gives her makes her skin crawl. “I’ll try, okay? I’ll try. But I can’t guarantee anything.”

Kleitos pats her on the head. “Just believe in yourself, little guy. Or face the consequences.”

“Screw you.” She stomps toward the exit.

“Goodnight,” Kleitos sing-songs behind her.

Eudoxia sighs, finally looking up from her hands to Zeno and Ophelia. Her voice is ragged from recounting her meeting with Kleitos. She’s despondent, but that’s better than breaking down crying.

Zeno wraps his arm around her waist before she can say anything else. Somehow, even now, it gives her butterflies.

“What’s the plan from here, Xia?” he whispers into her hair. They’re in his room, trying to keep Arete in the dark.

Looking back, Eudoxia should have seen this coming; Arete was going crazy stuck in her room. But what is it they say? Hindsight’s 20/20.

“Make him win, I guess,” she says.

“That can’t be a sure thing,” Zeno remarks gently. “How will you watch out for him in the duo challenge? How will you explain defending him to Alexander? To Lazarus?”

Good questions. Eudoxia really doesn’t want to hear them right now.

She tugs out of Zeno’s arms with more force than she intends, and his face goes sheepish. “I don’t know, okay? I don’t know. What do you want me to say? I give up? It’s over? No! I have to make this work,” she yells.

“But, Xia,” Ophelia says, “what happens when you do it? Then Kleitos will pick the next thing for you to do ‘or else he’ll tell.’ It doesn’t matter how much you help him—there will always be more.”

Eudoxia jumps to sit on Zeno’s bed and lets her head fall into her hands.

“Then what? I can’t just send her away.”

“You could,” Zeno says, and Eudoxia has to throw him a betrayed look. Does he really know her so poorly as to think she’d abandon her sister after years of keeping her safe? “You could send her away,” Zeno repeats, “if you went with her.”

If she left?

It’s not like Eudoxia hasn’t thought about leaving. But she wouldn’t make it far even if she did manage to slip out undetected.

“Where would they even go?” Ophelia snaps.

“We would have to figure it out along the way, I guess,” Zeno says, determined.

Eudoxia’s jaw drops. “We?”

Zeno looks confused. “Yes, ‘we.’ You, Arete, and I.”

Her mind turns inside out with longing, but she can’t be that selfish. “Zeno, you have a life here. What you’re suggesting is insane in the first place, but you coming along? It would ruin all three of our lives.”