Page 49 of Bone Year

I’ve never seen this many eidolons in one place. I haven’t been around many upperclassmen, and maybe they wait until after this ceremony to let them be seen, some kind of rite of passage.

But if that’s true, how does Draven already have a wolf? He’s only a bone year like me.

I file the question away for later.

“Your eidolon will become one with you.” Nestor’s voice pulls my attention back. “It will know you inside and out. And you will know it, for it is partly an extension of yourself. It will assist you when needed. It can help you and protect you.”

He pushes his glasses higher on his nose.

“Your eidolon is not a pet but a permanent part of you. The closest relationship you will ever have with another living thing. Your love for your eidolon will know no bounds, and the same in return.” His pale eyes scan the crowd. “The eidolon revealed for you tonight will not only speak of the creature. It will speak of you. What’s inside of you. What you’re made of.”

Jace holds me a little tighter. I lean into him without thinking.

“Wolf-marked healers are built to withstand what breaks others.” Nestor shifts his weight, rocking slightly as he speaks. “They are not always elegant. They are not always gentle. They keep people alive long enough for miracles to happen. Endurance is their gift.”

I glance around the room. White and gray wolves are scattered throughout the crowd.

“Serpent-marked healers are decisive and precise.” Nestor starts to pace in front of the covered mirror. “They excel where others freeze. Control is their gift.”

The serpents on the man’s shoulder near me turns its head, and its red glowing eyes look right at me.

“Bat-marked healers are defined not by what they touch but by what they notice.” He tilts his head to the side. “Bats are drawn to anomalies, things medicine does not yet understand. They often save lives before a blade is ever needed. Understanding is their gift.”

Jace will get something powerful. He wants this, deserves it, has the current to call something forward. But me? I might step in front of that mirror and find nothing at all but glass and silence and proof that I don’t belong here.

Nestor steps away from the headmaster and moves toward the covered mirror again. His fingers brush the black drape, ready to pull it off.

“One by one, you will be called upon,” Ashmoor says. “You will approach the mirror and wait for your signal. When the mirror is finished with you, you will go stand with the upperclassmen on the other side of the room. Once all students have completed the ceremony, you will be dismissed.”

I swallow. A knot of unease forms in my chest. It tightens with every breath.

Jace must sense it. His hand slides to my arm, rubbing slow and steady, up and down, like he’s trying to soothe something he can’t see.

I don’t think he can protect me from what’s coming. Maybe Draven was right and I shouldn’t have shown up tonight.

“Jace Seravin,” Professor Bale says, reading off a piece of parchment as Nestor pulls the drape off the mirror.

I can’t see it clearly from where I stand, and it appears to be made of bones. It’s a tall, rectangular thing, large enough for someone as tall as Jace to stand in front of and still tower over him. The border is thick and ridged, twisted together like something grown rather than built. I think I see an entire ribcage protruding from the bottom of one side. The whole frame is bones, human and creature alike woven together. I spot a pair of antlers curving out near the top. A skull I don’t recognize jutting from the corner.

Holy fuck, what am I getting myself into?

“Good luck,” I say as Jace releases me.

I squeeze his hand before he goes. He squeezes back then turns and walks toward the mirror.

Professor Bale nods, and Jace steps to stand in front of it. Why did he have to get called first? Now I have to sit here through all one hundred first years alone. The headmaster made it clear that once you had your eidolon you went to the other side of the room.

Jace won’t be able to tell me what it’s like. If it hurts. What happens inside.

Okay. Relax, Maelis.

I think I’m starting to spiral. I take a deep breath and force myself to stare ahead as Jace stops in front of the mirror. The liquid surface ripples even though nothing has touched it.

It knows he’s there.

Chapter Thirteen

“No one knows who made the mirror. The prevailing theory is that no one did. It formed at the site of the first cycle, where Veilguard and creature died together in such numbers that their bones became one. That site is now the core of Ashwell. The school was built because of the mirror, not the other way around.”