"What about the assault?" Aurie asked hesitantly.
The professor soured. "There will be a punishment. But only for the sake of appearances. Given your actions to retrieve the Rod, I cannot truly punish you."
"Semyon told you?" asked Aurie, shocked.
"Semyon?" asked the professor with a tilted head. "Are we on a first-name basis now?"
"Patron Gray, I mean," said Aurie.
A soft smile that contradicted the hard lines around her mouth appeared on Mali's lips. "It's okay. I think you've earned it. Yes, he told me. It's my decision whether or not to pass you, but he wanted me to know the truth of your actions. The fact that you kept his trust meant a lot to me, and will to him when I tell him."
"So I get to stay in Arcanium?" asked Aurie.
"My dear, of course you get to stay. You have advanced understanding of truth, and exceptional access to faez. Though you are correct about your abilities and lack of control. It is a real worry. It would behoove us to ensure that you are properly trained. Not keeping you in Arcanium would be a danger to society."
"What will I do?" asked Aurie.
Professor Mali patted her hand as if she was a favorite aunt. "We'll save that for next year. For now, I'd like to hear more about the Tomb of Kings. Semyon only told me a little before he had to go."
"I...um...can I tell you later? I think Pi's going to need me after she gives up her place at Coterie, and then I really need to get to Golden Willow," she said.
The professor pulled her hands back into her lap. "You do that. But promise me a long visit before you go home for summer break."
"I will," Aurie said brightly.
"Before you go," said the professor.
"Yes?"
"Make sure you look properly admonished for your behavior. I have a reputation to maintain." She winked.
Aurie agreed, but there was no way it was actually going to happen. So she ran out of the hall before anyone could stop her, her boots barely touching the ground.
She'd made it. She was finally, truly a member of Arcanium. She'd never been happier in her life. The only thing holding her back from yips of joy was the thought that Pi would be hall-less and would have to go through the trials and the first year again.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
The inside of the Obelisk was as cold as space. The warmth from the sun faded from Pi's arms as she hugged them against her chest.
Doubt. It lingered in the back of her mind. She knew she needed to leave Coterie, but would Patron Malden Anterist let her?
"Pi!" said Ashley in a girlish scream from the balcony. She ran down the carpeted steps, a look of supreme worry on her face. "Where have you been? The whole place has been mad with rumors."
"Nothing," said Pi. "Visiting my sister, I mean. What happened?"
"Professor Augustus is missing. Someone stole a bunch of runic switches from the storeroom. Alton Lockwood's in the hospital. Did you have anything to do with it?" asked Ashley.
"Why would I?" asked Pi.
"Not the other stuff," said Ashley. "But Alton. I was worried when you weren't around. Then I heard he was pretty messed up. I thought of you."
"Wasn't me," said Pi, trying to control her emotions. "He never bothered me after the Smoke & Amber party."
Ashley threw her arms around Pi. "I'm so glad. I was worried sick. But now that I know you're safe, we can go celebrate surviving our first year! We made the cutoff!"
Pi had forgotten. She'd been so focused on the Rod of Dominion that she'd overlooked worrying about her finals.
"Wow," said Pi without any enthusiasm. "That's great."
Ashley held her at arm's length. "What's going on?"
"I'm leaving Coterie," said Pi.
"What? After all you've worked for?"
Pi bit her lower lip. "I can't stay here. It's not me. It's not you either, Ash. Quit with me. We can both retest next year."
"You know I can't do that. My grandfather won't pay for anywhere else, and I can't imagine doing my first year over, or those damn trials," said Ashley, in visible pain.
"I'm sorry, Ash. It was unfair of me to ask," she said.
"No. I'm glad you asked. I would have been mad if you hadn't. But you know I can't," she said.
Pi sighed. Choices were never easy. "I feel like I'm leaving you alone with a pack of wolves. We looked out for each other here. It's a cutthroat place. Who's going to watch your back?"
Ashley made a sassy Southern oh-no-you-didn't pose. "I've survived these people longer than you have. The guys just rate my looks on bangability and forget me. The other girls think I'm a ditz. They'll underestimate me. They always have."
Pi threw her arms around Ashley and squeezed like she would never see her again. Which was a possibility. Coterie discouraged fraternizing with other halls.
"Be good. Be safe. I'll see you on the other side," said Pi, then nervously added, "Kheyli dooset daram, azeezam."
Ashley's smile widened. "Awww, that's beautiful. What does it mean?"
"I love you, dearest," said Pi.
They hugged again. "I love you too, Pythia Silverthorne. I'm glad I got to meet you, even if you're leaving me alone here." Ashley winked.
"I'd better go. I need to get this over with," she said.
The Coterie patron was in the grand study. He was in the Obelisk to attend the fifth-year graduations.
First years were not allowed in that area of the Obelisk, but Pi marched in, ignoring the offended stares she received. The patron was unmistakable in his shimmering shield, surrounded by fawning fifth years who were getting the opportunity to interact with him for the first time in their history at Coterie. Pi had a moment of pride that she'd met him twice already, until she remembered it'd really been Professor Augustus.
A fifth year in formal robes moved to stop her. "Hey, you can't—"
Pi clamped his lips shut with a cantrip, turning their well-manicured group to chaos. Before things got out of hand, the patron raised his hand, silencing their protests.
"I need to speak to you," she said.
A collective gasp permeated the study. Even though the shield shifted, creating perpetual motion, the man beneath it stilled to dangerous levels.
Doubt returned like a punch to the gut.
A shake of the hand and the attending fifth years shuffled out of the study. Heavy double doors thudded shut with all the gravity of a tomb.
The words tumbled out of her mouth. "I'm giving up my place in Coterie. I'm sorry I've wasted your time this year, but it's not for me. Thank you."
Pi held herself as if she were a piece of glass balanced at the edge of a cliff.
When the reply came, it was full of curiosity and command. "Why?"
Pi could have said a lot of things, but she kept it simple. "My sister needs me."
"I see," he said, his tone meaning anything but.
She cleared her throat. "Is this a problem?"
The shield shifted. "While it's not unheard of that potential members of Coterie give up their spots, this would be the first time that a top student with multiple sponsorship offers has turned down my Hall."
"Multiple?" asked Pi, genuinely curious. She wished she hadn't heard this. Part of her wanted to stay. Her year in Coterie had been exhilarating and she'd learned so much. Pi worried that Arcanium, or one of the other halls, would be too stifling.
Beneath the shield, he steepled his fingers. "Not just multiple, but some of the most sought-after sponsorships. Which, given your family history, is quite impressive."
The last comment was a knife to her elation.
"My family history?" she asked with disdain.
"Please understand I offer no insult. I recognize my Hall has a hidebound view of breeding and grooming. It's a viewpoint I wish to change to something more meritocratic," he said. "Which is why I ask that you reconsider your choice. I don't think you understand what you're giving up. Your potential sponsors are the titans of industry, and world leaders in their rights. You're giv
ing up an opportunity for power and influence. A seat at the table, so to say. If you give it up, you'll close the door for many like you."
She felt swayed by the offer of mentors, about getting an opportunity for power, until she really thought about what he'd said.
"Many like me?" she spat, not caring. "There's only one person like me, and that's me. If you can't recognize that, or understand it, then that's why Coterie is not my Hall. You say you want a meritocracy, that you'll ignore my breeding and grooming, but the fact that you even use those terms means you think in categories and boxes. That you only see me as a means to an end."
She realized she'd gone too far when she sensed his faez. Pi swallowed her rage, lest he punish her while he was still her patron.
"What if I don't release you from the link?" he asked, the implications like a fist around her heart. "No one would ever know. I could just tell your sister that you changed your mind. You've not yet seen even a hundredth of the mysteries of the Obelisk. They'd never see you again."
Her feet felt like they were sinking into the floor. "I doubt you would convince my sister, but you certainly wouldn't convince the man I work for."
He scoffed. "Radoslav? He's a small-time player who couldn't even hack it amongst his own kind. He'd sell you for a bauble if I asked."
Pi let a grin rise to her lips despite the quivering of her knees. "I don't mean him. I'm talking about Hemistad. My sister and I help him tend his Hunger."
For a moment, the shield winked as if his concentration had been broken. Pi didn't get a good impression of the man beneath the shield, the moment went by too quick, except that Hemistad's name had caused him concern.
"You know, Miss Silverthorne," he said tensely, "I now understand why you're giving up your place in Coterie. It's not because of your sister, or you don't like the way you were treated, it's because you've realized you're just not good enough. And that, and that alone, disqualifies you from being in the Coterie of Mages. There's a reason that Coterie is the most exclusive Hall in Invictus, that the heads of state and titans of industry come from here. It's because we're an organization of winners. And clearly you are not."
He made a gesture, severing the link. She gasped in agony, falling to her knees. It was like a giant icicle had been yanked from her soul, or a vat of dry ice had been dumped down her throat.
Before she could do anything else, he cast a second spell. Pi was certain he was going to kill her, until the rooms of the Obelisk flashed by in an instant and she tumbled onto the street, right outside the boundary of the Hall.
Pi rocked on her rear, basking in the sunlight, trying to get warm before she even tried to move. The cold had burned her from the inside, breath forming to mist before her lips.
Eventually, she climbed to her feet and began the long trudge back towards the twelfth ward, rubbing her arms. If she was lucky, maybe she could get her same apartment. It wasn't like there was a waiting list to get into that shithole.
Pi lamented not getting her stuff moved out before she went to the patron, but decided that surviving the encounter, especially after she'd insulted him, was probably as good as it was going to get.
When a black Lexus with tinted windows pulled up beside Pi, she started to summon her faez, but remembered she was patronless. She stopped.
The back window rolled down revealing the handsome dark face of the Arcanium patron.
"Pythia Silverthorne," he said with a nod.
"Yes?"
"Would you like a ride?"
Pi climbed inside. The backseat was brown leather with lacy seat coverings. A tea set steamed from a center table. The car moved without a driver, or at least without one that she could see.
"Tea? It might help soothe the nerves. A severed link can be rather soul chattering."
She held the cup between her hands, relishing the warmth. Each sip renewed her faith in the world, brought a little color back in.
"What are your plans now?" he asked. "In the Halls, of course."
"Spend the summer working at Freeport Games. Take the Merlins in the fall. Hope for the best," she said.
"And what halls will you put on your list?"
"Arcanium," she said. "I'd like to be reunited with my sister."
"Very good," he said. "We would love to have you."
"I guess I'll need to do well on my Merlins," she said.
"No," he said, confusing her. "I mean, we'd love to have you. Right now."
"You can do that?" she asked.
"You put us second on your list, we have a spot in Arcanium, so yes, I can bring you into Arcanium, today, if you'd like," he said.
She didn't know what to say. Then she did. "Yes. Double yes. Oh, thank you. I can't wait to be an initiate in the fall."
"Oh, you won't be an initiate," he said. "You've earned the right to be a second year. Professor Mali has volunteered to work with you this summer to get you caught up to the other students."
If it weren't for the tea set, and the fact that he was a powerful patron, she would have thrown her arms around him.
"Thank you, Patron Gray," she said. "Aurie is going to flip when she finds out."
"She'll get to 'flip' soon enough. I'm picking her up next and taking you both to Golden Willow," he said.
"But she's not allowed in?"
"I'll speak to the administration and get the restriction removed. I think that's only fair, right?"
A maelstrom of emotions roiled inside of her. It'd been a whirlwind last few days.
"Absolutely," she said. "How is Emily? Did they get the Rod to her in time?"
Semyon looked out the window while rubbing his fingers along the edge of the table. "I do not rightly know. When I left they were rushing her into the curse removal room. Even if it works, she might not survive."
For the sake of her sister, Pi hoped Emily pulled through. It'd been a difficult semester.
Semyon reached out to her.
"Now let's make you a member of Arcanium, as you should have been in the first place."
Chapter Thirty-Nine
The Golden Willow Clinic for the Sick and Infirm glowed from within like a mage light. As the ER room doors whisked open, the shouts of desperate nurses and doctors shot into the cool evening air. Aurie rubbed her arms and stared at her feet.
Patron Gray had gone into the hospital to get the restriction removed. A big ball of worry had collected in her chest, making speech, or even thinking, difficult.
Pi squeezed her arm. The reddish-purple highlights in her sister's hair had faded.
"She's going to be okay," said Pi. "We got the Rod in time. You saved her."
Aurie looked at her sister's earnest face and realized that after all that had happened, she hadn't really talked to her sister since they'd been studying for their Merlins. Or at least about the important things.
"Do you remember when we were little and Mom would read to us in bed?" asked Aurie.
A wistful smile christened Pi's lips. "You always hogged the middle. I always felt like I was about to fall out of bed."
Aurie chuckled. "There was something magical about hearing Mom read to us. My favorite was that one book where the little pig keeps getting into trouble. Mom would do that little piggy voice that sounded a little bit Irish. I'd lay my head on her arm, just breathing in her smell. It was like she was made of lilacs or something. And you'd lay your head on my arm, with your hand around my chest—"
Pi interjected, "Yeah, I was trying to hold on."
"Eventually Dad would wonder where we all went, and he'd find us and sit at the end of the bed, just gazing at us with his big green eyes. At that moment, I felt like the luckiest person in the whole world. That nothing, nothing, could ever touch that.
"Then Mom and Dad died, and I thought it was my fault. That I'd never deserved that feeling in the first place, because I'd been mean to you, or did something wrong. Or just been a bad person."
Pi grabbed her hands. "I never blamed you."
Aurie shook h
er head. "No, just listen. I blamed me. I thought I'd caused it. So I made sure that I did the best for you. But that's the thing. I wasn't doing it for you. I was doing it because I felt guilty. Which is the worst kind of selfishness. Mom and Dad's death had affected you too, but I never asked how you were doing, I never asked what you wanted to do, hell, I didn't even believe you when you told me about the guy in the street. Worst of all, I haven't let you be yourself. I've been trying to control you this whole time, using my guilt as the justification, which only drove you to Coterie. I see that now. Mom and Dad loved us unconditionally. They gave of themselves, read to us, cared for us, listened to us. But I did none of those things for you. I did them for me. I see that now. I'm sorry."
By the time Aurie looked up, tears were flowing down Pi's face. She wiped her nose with her sleeve, then punched Aurie in the arm, hard.
"You were selfish. Always trying to control me, fixing my hair the way you thought Mom liked it best, or yelling at me when I did anything wrong, even if it was just not looking both ways before I crossed the street. You tried to make me into some perfect ideal because Mom and Dad died. You used that as the worst kind of guilt trip, and I hated you for it for a long time," said Pi, sniffling.
Then Pi jabbed her finger into Aurie's chest. "But don't you ever think for one second that I didn't love you, and didn't appreciate everything you'd done. I mean, it's only natural that I was going to rebel, and without Mom and Dad there, you had to be the poor sucker that had to take the brunt."
Aurie blotted away the tears with her palm.
"Why couldn't we have said this at the beginning of the year before the Merlins? It would have saved us a lot of trouble," said Aurie, sighing.
"I still would have tried to get in Coterie," said Pi with a raised eyebrow. "I'm serious when I said that I didn't do it to get away from you. I really thought it would help protect me, protect us better."
"Yeah," said Aurie, slowly coming to that conclusion. "You're right. But don't get any ideas that I'm still not going to try and be your big sister."
"As long as you don't forget that I'm better than you at magic," said Pi, then she stuck out her tongue.
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