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“Down to work?” I mutter. “I did what you asked me to do already.”
Julita dismisses my hesitation in what I’m learning is her usual coyly self-assured way.I simply want to check my dorm. It’s possible my murderer broke in to go through my things after cutting me down. If he left any evidence, we can pass that on to the others too.
“That wasn’t the deal.”
We’re alreadyhere.The hard part is over. It’ll only take a few more minutes.
When I still balk, Julita sighs.Ivy, I lost my entire life yesterday, to villains who are hoping to destroy a lot more lives if they get away with it. This is my last chance to do everything in my power to ensure they’re brought to justice. You’ve been fantastic so far. I know you won’t get into any trouble.
I run my thumb over the missing stub on my right pointer finger. Every inch of my skin is already itching with the urge to sprint out of this place as fast as I can, to trade the clinging faux-silk dress for my hooded tunic, to duck back into the shadows where I belong.
But I can see her point. And Iamalready inside, past the security measures. No one’s badgered me about my presence so far.
What kind of a monster would I be if I ignore her plea?
And just how insane will I go if I have to listen to her complaining about my refusal for however long it takes until I figure out how touninvite her from my head?
I exhale sharply. “Fine. But we do need to be quick about it. Where’s your dorm?”
Julita’s voice brightens with so much relief I feel a jab of guilt over hesitating.One floor up. If you head around the next corner in the hall, there’s a smaller staircase down there that isn’t used very often.
I don’t run into any of Julita’s schoolmates in the narrowing hall or the even narrower spiral of the staircase. When I step out onto the second floor, a bunch of male students are just ambling through one of the nearby doorways.
One of them looks me up and down with a leering curl of his lips that has my fingers twitching toward my hip where I’d usually have my favorite knife stashed.
Since stabbing him wouldn’t be any better for my whole incognito mission than sticking it to Stavros would have, I settle for pretending I haven’t even noticed him. Or the chuckles that follow in my wake as Julita nudges me in the opposite direction.
Are they laughing because he made some crude comment about me, or because they can tell I don’t quite fit the mold?
A lot of pricks in this place,Julita remarks in a darkly wry tone as I follow the bend in the hall.It makes figuring out who’s just an ass and who’s actually evil rather difficult.
I have to restrain a snort of unexpected amusement.
For a couple of minutes, I walk on past rows of doors spaced several paces apart. Each wooden surface holds an intricate etching of some scene from history: Silana’s, the continent’s, or that of the gods themselves.
As I stride past them, Julita fills me in on the details of our destination.This half of the second floor belongs to the leadership division. We room in clusters. Everyone gets a private bedroom, of course, but they’re in clumps of ten around a common leisure room. Room assignments switch up once per term. They want us to have a chance to interact with everyone in our division.
Wonderful—so there are nine potential witnesses tomebreaking into Julita’s dorm.
I allow myself a grimace and drop my voice to the barest whisper so no one beyond those doors can hear me. “And how do I get in?”
The bracelet is the key there too. All students and staff have an ornament attuned for the access they need—that’s mine. I’ll tell you what to do once we get there. If anyone’s around, you can tell them I sent you to pick something up while I was busy with a project out of town. We’re almost there…
She has me stop outside a door carved with an image of a stately woman who I guess from her crown is King Konram’s late grandmother. The artist has given her the same prominent nose. Creaden’s sigil slashes through the wood above her head.
Press my bracelet to the ring on her right hand,Julita says.
I tip my wrist, and a rasp sounds from inside the door. When I test the knob, it opens.
I slip into the common room cautiously. A gust of mingled perfumes assaults my nose.
Elegant upholstered chairs and settees fill most of the space, along with a card table in the corner and a built-in bookcase next to it. Heavy velvet curtains drape the sides of the broad picture window at the far end of the room.
No one’s using the space at the moment, thank the gods. My gaze darts over the relatively plain doors to the individual bedrooms along the side walls.
Left side, third one down. Let’s see if it’s still locked.
That knob jars when I test it.
