I sighed. “Time for me to face the music.”
I made it out of the palace alive. In fact, I hadn’t seen Weston at all, and the ball seemed to be continuing without a hitch.
At the end of the night, I now knew a little of how I was alive, and that it wasn’t as strange of an event as everyone believed. Well, not for my people anyway. We were born as humans, rebirthed as a Shadow when we came of the age of ten, in a haunting ceremony of blood and death. I just seemed to be a late bloomer because, well, no one killed me.
The information I found on Shadow magic, was that the people bonded their blood with the land as some kind of offering—it fueled their black and white world, keeping one of the largest territories known to Alyria from fading to color.
They’d always been compelled to do this because, in the Shadows of Dawn, it wasn’t the people who ruled—but the land. The dark feeling inside of me, was an actual entity, the darkest part of Alyria, that I was now tied to till death.
I didn’t have a sudden answer for why the darkness seemed to be gone—nothing in the book had touched on it. But I could only call it a blessing. Because the idea that it was a being that haunted me, had shivers rolling down my spine. I wouldn’t do it ever again—I promised myself right then.
I had some answers for who I was, but I’d barely scratched the surface of that book. And I almost didn’t want to. I’d rather forget that my people murdered their children—even if they did come back—as a tradition and that we were in constant battle with being possessed. I was only glad that it didn’t take me under last night when I’d blacked out for a short amount of time.
As I turned the corner, putting the Royal Affair in view, I sa
w that the girls were trickling in the front door, far in their cups, it seemed, with their giggling and uneven steps. I quickly squeezed into the group, relief filling my chest at the coincidence as Agnes stood in the foyer, watching us return. I’d already pushed her far enough that I thought she was close to turning me into those ‘Superior Sisters.’ Who knew what they would do, but from the rumors the girls had heard, it wasn’t a pleasant experience.
All the girls went silent, sobering up in an instant. Or trying to. Magdalena almost fell over in her jump to attention.
Agnes waited until we were all in the door—and steady—with an exasperated look before going on a spiel about the last gathering for future pledges tomorrow.
“If you want to petition for High Sistership, tomorrow is the last day to do it. If you’ve no desire to be a High Sister, then after tomorrow you and your mother will have a week’s time to contemplate over your pledging before we need a final decision for approval. Sarai is the only one pardoned this year on account of age. The rest of you need to be thinking about your future.”
I sighed all the way up to my room, and when I got there, I fell onto my bed, letting my arms hang off the sides.
Before I realized she was there, I heard Farah’s voice, “I’ve decided what I want in return for you destroying my cards.”
I rolled my head her way, seeing her lean against the doorframe.
“I want you to persuade my mother to give up on her idea of pledging me to that grotesque, annoying Lord Baltimore.”
I grimaced. “Why would she choose him for you?”
“She’s a witch,” she said, then hiccupped.
I laughed. “You had to get far in your cups to ask me for this favor, didn’t you?”
“It’s not a favor. You owe me.” Hiccup.
I smiled and mulled it around. “I don’t know. It goes against Sisterhood rules.”
“You go against the rules every night by sneaking out the window, Girl in Black.”
Ugh. She was the last person I would want to know about that. And now that she did, I didn’t really have a choice.
“Fine,” I sighed. “I shall do it tomorrow at the gathering.”
Without even a ‘Thanks,’ she was out the door.
I lay in bed for a long time after that, turmoil sitting on my chest, my breaths short. I didn’t know what Weston was planning to do, and if it would change now that I’d pushed him over the edge. All I knew was that he did not come. Not that night. And not when the morning sun shined through my window.
It was Sunday, it was noon, and I was just leaving mass. I thought it might have been a different experience now that I was older, more mature, not as ridiculous. But alas, I hadn’t reached that wizened age yet, because I’d only entertained myself by counting down the minutes. With all the uncertainty in my life, I just wanted to be normal for a moment. And I might have gone so that when my grandmother asked if I’d been attending mass, I could tell her yes without feeling like a liar.
The sun beat down on me as I strolled from the chapel to my mother’s. I was going to hound her about where my grandmother was. I’d known she knew her exact location, but neither would tell me, in case I would leave Symbia to go to her. And I would, as soon as I looked into that well, because sometimes you just needed your grandmother, like after pushing a prince to lose his sanity.
Frustration pressed on my chest about the Shadows, the Sisterhood, and my upcoming pledging. I just wanted my grandmother to tell me what to do; though, she’d have to admit the truth of my cuffs before all that.
It was as I kicked a rock, taking a shortcut through the alleyways, that I’d run into the very last person I wanted to see.