Page 128 of Rite of Unity

When an eternity had passed, a buzzer sounded.The door clicked, and Rakel and Lydia stumbled through.Lydia was deathly pale, and she sank heavily into the chair beside Sera.Rakel sat stiffly in the chair next to me.

“You left her to die,” she whispered, brows low, slashes over stormy eyes.

I laced my hands together in my lap, thumb tracing over broken nails and faced the open door.

***

Vera was a welcome sight, but her rebuffs weren’t.

“What do I do with a bum knee?”

I huffed a loud sigh.

“The world will watch you trip and fall on your face, and then we’ll both go to our fates.”

“I did my best.”

“I doubt it,” Vera grumbled, pointing to a chair.“Sit.I have an idea.”

I eyed Vera’s dress.“No.”

She tossed the gown in my lap.“You don’t get a vote.”

A knock sounded at my bedroom door.“Is she decent?”

Paul fluttered in, not waiting for a reply.“Oh no no no.This won’t do.We need stills.Date night is coming.”

“I can’t wear this.”I held up the two-size-too-small dress.

“You can and you will.They’ll blame the dress.”Vera’s eyes narrowed.

I stood, and Paul let out a little gasp.“Vera, honey, you’d better find her longest gloves.Those bruises won’t film well at all.”He tsked, circling me to take in all scrapes and cuts that had begun to purple.

Vera disappeared through the door, and he shook his head, following.

Then it was just me and the dress.

***

Walking was a challenge.Dancing tonight would be another.I pushed the thought aside—I’d come in second, I was still here, and whatever the fertility test had revealed, it hadn’t sent me home.

I climbed out of the car, my chaperone in tow.Before us, a home stretched into the sky: the most breathtaking piece of architecture I’d ever seen.

Rakel stepped out behind me, staring up.

“Magnificent, isn’t it?”

I wrapped my fingers over my arms.So close to the water, the wind was like ice pelting my skin.I glanced at Rakel.Her words from the trial sat heavily on my shoulders.Had I been wrong to leave Lydia?

Rakel moved to my side.“We should go in.”

I darted a glance over my shoulder.“Are we not waiting for the others?”

“This is Sera’s house.They’re inside.”

Ice slid down my spine.

Rakel slid past me, heading up the long walk to the set of double doors thrown wide.