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Alight tapping woke me up. At first, I thought it was something dripping. I tried to go back to sleep, but it happened again. The third time I got out of bed to see what was going on. Nari murmured in her sleep when I slipped out from under her, but she didn't wake. Rubbing at my eyes with one hand, I found my pants from the day before, and the tapping came again, making it clear that was our door. People really needed to understand what a week off meant.
I managed to get my pants over my hips before yanking the door open, but I hadn't gotten to the buttoning part. There, on the other side, was Anver. He sucked in a breath as the door flew wide, then his eyes found mine. Slowly, he looked me over, his gaze slipping all the way down to my still mostly-open pants.
"Tishlie's asleep," he said. "That's the only reason I could get away, but you need to know that there's a group working to get Nari retested."
"Mhm, knew that," I grunted.
The look on his face softened a bit. "I woke you up, didn't I? No coffee yet?"
Fuck if I didn't adore how well he knew me. "I literally managed to get out of bed and get my pants on this far. And we already know they want to test her again. It's been chaos here for the last few days."
"Yeah," Anver said, "but here's the part you probably haven't heard. The High Priest just promoted Tishlie's school-year mentor. The woman was on the Path of Action, and now she's being allowed to test for the Path of the Word." He lifted a brow. "Thatdoesn't happen, Eladehl. And she's not the only one. Ciella - who is now Tish'sbestfriend, so you know - was over late last night talking about how they have nine priests filing complaints. That means the testing is happening. Not if, butwhen."
A door across the hall opened, and Wraythe stepped out. Immediately, he paused. "Anver?"
"Long story short," he said, waving Wraythe over, "is that the High Priest seems to be bribing obscure and rather unimportant priests to file a complaint against Nari. He probably made a blanket offer, because nine have, which exceeds the threshold. She will be tested. The downside is that he can strip her marks before testing her again. Loophole: it will only be the High Priest and Nariana in the room. If she says she wasn't allowed back into the water, who's going to believe her?"
"Fuck," Wraythe growled.
"Yeah," I said, "but Nari has a god on her side."
"And gods are often thwarted by people," Anver said.
"No, you idiot fuck. Not her faith. She has a real fucking god whispering in her ear. One who shows up in her bathroom to wash her hair. Supposedly he's hot."
"Ela?" Wraythe said calmly. "Shut the fuck up until your brain kicks in."
"It'sAnver," I told him. "Yeah, he was an idiot to walk away from us for that bimbo, but he's never once stabbed her in the back. Even Nari will admit that. Never mind that he didn't have to tell us, and his own ward doesn't even know he's here."
"Or," Wraythe countered, "he's trying to get on Tishlie's good side, so he's desperate."
"For what?" Anver asked. "A blow job?" His look asked if Wraythe was an idiot. "Never wanted one. And the thingnoneof you can seem to wrap your heads around is that when I fucked up? I waseighteen years old.I had someone paying attention to me over everyone else in the world, and it made me feel all big and important. I had no idea that when she said Nari was busy, or Nari didn't want to see me, or how you guys were laughing about me in the bath, at dinner, or any of those things, that she was lying her ass off. I was naive enough to think that you were jealous because I had a girl all to myself who wanted to stop and just talk. But that's not at all what she wanted, ok?" He huffed out a frustrated breath. "I was a kid. The only relationships I'd ever had were with the three of you - whatever we had, Wraythe. I didn't know what the fuck I was doing, and Tish lies so well."
Wraythe just leaned into his face. "You made Nari cry."
"She made me cry. So did Eladehl.So did you." He took a step closer. "So you tell me which of us is more wrong. We all made the same fucking mistake, but I'm the bad guy? I tried to get you to hang out with Tish, but you wouldn't. You also made exactly as many attempts to talk to me as I made to Nari. Only she gets a pass there, and I fucked it up, ok? But here's the thing, you know what I'm trying to get out of all of this?"
"What?" Wraythe asked.
"Her safety. That's it. I get that I fucked it up, but I still love all of you, and I miss the fuck out of you, but I'll suck up my fucking pride if that's what it takes to make sure she's not blindsided."
I lifted a hand to shut my best friend up. "You know what happens if she fails? Because I have a feeling they're setting this up so there's no way she can pass."
"She'll get kicked out. The two of you will be moved to the initiate wing with the rest of us. Her guardian? I have no idea. They can't dump him in Obligation because of his family." Anver looked from me to Wraythe and back. "Listen, according to Ciella, they think the four of you are planning a conspiracy."
"They're right," I told him. "Well, somewhat. I wasn't shitting you earlier. She talks to Zeal. Kicker is, Zeal talks back. Nari told me you heard him in your Choosing? Well, it seems the five of us are the only ones."
"Yeah, Tish said I must've fallen asleep. Pretty much when I started doing the bare minimum with her."
I hooked his chin with my finger, forcing him to look at me. "Stop thinking, and fucking listen to me, Anver." His pupils flared, and not with anger. I was pretty sure that wasn't even surprise. It was recognition of my contact. "At orientation, when Priest Ghale called her out for talking to Talin? She wasn't talking to him. She was whispering toZeal.He was in our room afterward. The guy's starting to be a fixture around here. He calls her his Chosen. From the look on her face, he flirts. Now, either she's losing her mind, and I don't believe that, or this shit is really happening, and we're all stuck right in the middle."
"Why us?" Anver asked.
Wraythe sighed. "Because we were there when she needed us. Doesn't matter when. We proved ourselves, and I'm not sure if that's to Zeal or to her, but it's starting to sound like those things are getting blurred into being the same."
"Ok," Anver said, sounding like he was trying to wrap his mind around that. "Regardless. Now you know what's going on. I need to go get some food and make sure I have a reason why I'm not in my room when Tish needs some stupid shit again."
Wraythe huffed. "She made you feel real special, huh?"
