Page 56 of By the Orchid and the Owl
The Predators & Prey portion of the test would be a one-on-one examination, then. I tried to shake away the tremors in my arms.
“I wonder what he’ll ask us to do.”
Emelle tracked Pierson Kadder’s trek to the door, where he followed Mr. Conine through and shut it behind him.
Rodhi bounced the ball to Gileon across from him, who just barely caught it.
“I’m kind of hoping for some more crocodiles so grease-face over there gets a nice fat fail.” Rodhi nodded toward the other end of the waiting room, where Fergus had an arm draped around Jenia’s shoulders while she said something to Dazmine that made the girl laugh. Only… I wasn’t sure I believed that laugh was real, not after the warning she’d given me between staircases that one day.
I continued to study her bronze-tinted face as the minutes leaked by. Was she happy? What was going on behind that firm, rather tense guise of hilarity?
“Dazmine Temperton.”
I jumped, as if the universe had caught me thinking about something I wasn’t supposed to and was manifesting those thoughts now for everyone to hear.
But it was just Mr. Conine again, poking his head into the waiting room to call on the next person.
I sagged in my chair again, then noticed Pierson Kadder hadn’t returned.
There had been another door in that classroom. Had Pierson been told to go through it to whatever lay on the other side? Maybe for another test?
“It’s your turn, Dazmine,” Mr. Conine repeated.
Dazmine hopped up and followed him into the classroom.
And didn’t return.
Slowly, the room emptied.
Mr. Conine called name after name, until I was the only one left among my group of friends. Just like during the Branding, the name calling seemed completely random, so I had no idea when I’d be summoned.
No one returned, and my nerves began clenching extra hard when, suddenly, the only four left in the room were me, Norman Pollard, Fergus, and Jenia.
Norman, bless him, sat between me and the other two, blissfully ignorant of how his very presence acted as a blockade between two mutually hateful parties.
I hadn’t found myself alone with either Jenia or Fergus since the incident, and I sure as hell didn’t want to be caught alone with both of them in the Testing Center, so when Mr. Conine stuck his head out for the fourth-to-last name, I prayed—
“Norman Pollard,” he called. “Come on, Norman, let’s see what you’ve got.”
Shit, shit, no.
I hunched into myself, crossing my legs and arms as if I could protect my core from the awkwardness that was surely about to dawn between us.
The door to the testing room slammed shut behind Norman and Mr. Conine.
Silence for a beat.
Fergus lifted his head with a savage half-grin, his arm still slung around Jenia’s shoulder.
“Hey, Drey. It’s been a while. How are you doing?”
The words—they were casual. So, so casual, I might have missed the ire squeezed between each syllable.
“Fine,” I answered, and did not ask how he was. The shorter this conversation was, the better for all of us.
“Learned any upper-division magic lately?” Fergus asked. “I mean, like, beyond the ant thing?” He gestured at his own body to remind me of the damage I had inflicted. Jenia, still tucked beneath his arm, twisted her perpetual pout into a leer.
“No,” I said.
