Page 153 of Architecti
Interitus’s hands shove hard.
The warmth of her fingers seeping away as I tip back.Into nothingness.
My wings automatically spread out, but they’re useless, unable to flap against the pressure of a fall to the underworld.
The sun streams, warming my cheeks, a sharp set of thoughts accompanying me as my consciousness slows.
How could my own flesh and blood push me?Make me a fallen angel?Perhaps it is selfish, but there is a fleeting moment in this long, long fall where I think: at last, I am free of her.No longer do I have to bear the responsibility of protecting the world from her.
A shadow passes over me.
My blood freezes.
I blink my eyes open.
The shadow grows larger and larger.Wings spread.A face full of teeth and a glint in her eye more vicious than I’ve ever seen.
She may have pushed me.
But she chose to jump.
Oh my gods, she jumped.
As my eyes roll shut, an infinite number of futures, possibilities, and fates drifts through my mind.
All of them ending in chaos and destruction.
My last thought is but a whisper, a hope, a final prayer.
Interitus, what have you done?
46
Midnight
Thirty-Six Hours To Go
Icome to standing in the courtyard of Finis Tower.
“You okay?”Lex says.
“Yeah, you were away with the Fae for a hot second,” Bastien adds.
“What?”I say and try to shake off the vision.I don’t even know how I got here.Did I finish the exam?
“The results are going to be here any minute,” Lex says, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
The courtyard is crammed.Every student waits with bated breath.
Lex, Bastien and I stand hand in hand as Alistair and Thalia pin the results up.
We rush to the wall with everyone else.All of us fighting to reach the grading lists.Whoops of joy and celebration echo around the tower and slowly the crowd thins enough we can push to the front.
This time, I don’t torture myself.
Bastien and Lex hold my hands so tight my fingers go numb.Lex is top of her class and fifth overall in the cohort.Bastien is second in his resurrection class and seventh overall.
All of us inhale in synch and hold a collective breath as we come to the Veil results.
