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“I’m tumbling even deeper into this insane game. I’d like to make it back out again. If there’s anything you can tell me or show me that will help me through, I welcome it.”
I try to open my mind to whatever his divine presence might want to bestow on me, though my gut stays knotted. My muscles brace in anticipation of a message I won’t actually welcome all that much.
Nothing comes. The temple remains silent.
The tension in my belly creeps to the base of my throat. The memory rises up of the reassuring touch I thought I felt when I prayed to Kosmel in the cave in the woods, and sudden tears prick at the backs of my eyes.
Have I somehow strayed too far from what he wanted from me, and now he’s cast me aside?
I shove down my emotions and reach for one of the dice scattered around his marble feet. A simple yes or no answer. Surely he’ll grant me at least that much.
I ask my question only in my head.Should I keep playing along with the scourge sorcerers?
The die rattles from my fingers. It bounces across the platform… and comes to rest against the side of Kosmel’s boot, tilted at an angle so both the five and the six face equally upward.
I stare at the die for a few thumps of my heart. It doesn’t budge.
A rough guffaw travels up my throat.
He might as well have said, “Fuck off, little rogue. You’ve got to figure this part out on your own.”
I push back to my feet, uncertain of my destination. At the same moment, a prickling sensation spreads across my palm.
Oh, no.
I have to look. I have to watch the three letters gleam against my skin in the instant before they fade away.
Now.
I’ve gotten the call to my initiation.
Thirty-Eight
Ivy
The message didn’t say where to find my supposed co-conspirators, but I’ve only ever met up with them in one spot. They must figure if I can’t work out where to go at this point, I’m not worth initiating after all.
I hustle the last short distance to the campus woods with all the stealth I can bring to bear. My magic unfurls in my chest, niggling at my nerves. Not demanding release yet, but testing me, stirred up by my apprehension.
Julita’s presence is still faint. I don’t know what the godlen who’s pushed me this far wants from me next. None of my allies in the college have any idea I’ve been called on.
I don’t even have the extra knives I meant to bring along for this event.
But theNowthat glowed on my palm didn’t offer any room for argument. I assume they’re giving me a little grace so that I can get to the meeting spot from wherever I was before, but not much.
They could be watching me already, taking note of any diversions.
So I stride straight down the path between the trees, fighting the urge to shiver as the cool shadows swallow me.
It’s windier than usual today. The gusts of breeze whip my cloak to one side and then the other, whirling through the panels of my skirt. The leaves hiss overhead.
Either the male student who joined me last time didn’t make the cut or the conspirators have whisked him away from someplace else. I come to a stop fifty paces in alone. Immediately, one of the shrouded scourge sorcerers steps from the depths of the forest to receive me.
The figure doesn’t speak, only beckons me to follow. I catch a faint rustling behind me that might be another conspirator bringing up the rear. Making sureI’mnot being followed?
But no one has any idea I’ve been summoned. Even if one of my men was going to ignore my protests and try to watch over me, they never had the chance.
We pass through the back wall again and traverse the river on the concealed boat, the second shrouded conspirator joining us there. Like last time, my guides lead me to a cart, though only one other person is waiting—the teenaged girl who was part of our expedition last time.
