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"You can't know that," she insisted.
"Do you feel it?" I asked. "If so, what does it feel like? I've heard Talin talk about it. I've heard Wraythe talk about it. Grath has even tried to explain it to me. I do not have that sensation."
"Maybe if you tried a little harder?" she asked.
"Or maybe ifyouactually gave a shit?" I countered. "C'mon, Tish. We both know you don't really want to be partnered to Ciella. You're just chasing every cheap and easy trick to make something of yourself. If you'd just try, then maybe you'd be a priestess to remember instead of one people laugh about behind their hands."
"But Ciella's beautiful, and do you know how many men will pay for the privilege of getting us in bed?" she asked. "Anver, you know how this works. If we want to be memorable, we need to make sure the men notice us first!"
"The priestess without the lace?" I asked just as Ciella got close enough to hear. "I think the word for that is whore. Prostitute? I'm not sure which term is currently popular in the city, but I do know that without lace, she's not a real priestess."
"The High Priest says otherwise," Ciella assured me.
"And what did you have to do to make that happen?" I asked. "Kinen is only interested in what's best for Kinen. Not the temple, but for him. What did you give him, Ciella?"
She smiled at me deviously. "Something that means I'm on the winning side," she promised, catching Tishlie's arm and pulling her around me. "Let's go, sweetie. Seems you're going to need a new guardian at the end of the year."
"I'm not going to have to go through initiate training all over, am I?" Tishlie asked.
"No," Ciella assured her. "You'll get bonded to one of the older guardians. One whose ward moved out of the Path, or maybe someone who died."
"I don't want an old man," Tishlie said, her voice fading with the distance.
"Not all of them are old," Ciella said. "Some Priests of the Body can't take it, so they go down to Action. Sometimes people get sick. You'll get a good guardian, Tish. One who won't act like a whiny little titty baby."
Fuck, I hated that woman. I'd just had the best night of my life, and somehow those two had managed to ruin what should've been my afterglow. And yet, there was only one thing that I truly regretted about all of this: I hadn't kissed Nari. Next time. And yes, I was going to make sure there was a next time.
