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“Thank you.” Zari smiled widely. “I heard congratulations are in order.”

She blushed. “I didn’t realize news could travel so fast.” She paused then reached for the girl’s hand, squeezing it as she said feelingly, “Thank you for your warning. You were completely right. It made me think of the right place to die, and who knows? Maybe if I hadn’t chosen that place, things would have been different—-”

Zari was visibly bewildered. “I don’t understand.”

“The shade of blue you saw in your vision,” Soleil reminded her. “Do you remember now? All those blue shades? I was in such a room last night, but the curse was thankfully lifted.” She squeezed Zari’s hand again. “So thank you.”

“I’m g-glad to help.”

Soleil’s smile faded. “You don’t sound like it, though.” In fact, Zari’s face appeared too pale, she realized. Elation over last night’s events completely forgotten, Soleil slid into teacher mode and asked in concern, “Are you alright? Do you feel anything?”

“It’s not that.” Zari shook head. “It’s just...I messed up. I thought you knew, or I thought I told you. I—-” She bit her lip.

Unease skittered down her spine. “What is it?”

Zari inhaled sharply. “In my vision, there was nothing about a curse, Soleil. There was just you, fighting for your life, becausesomeone– and not a curse – was trying to kill you.”

TO TREAT EVERY THREATlike it was real, to never assume anything was a lie or a truth, to always search for clues—-

These were some of the first rules she had learned when studying in ANEX. These were rules responsible for keepingSoleil and her team alive, and she would never risk breaking any of them. Lives depended on her, too many of them, and no risk was too little to take when it came to saving and losing lives.

But if it was only Soleil’s own life concerned—-

Perhaps it was because she felt giddy and overwhelmed by her first taste of love, Soleil found herself breaking all the golden rules with Zari’s warning. It was possible for soul seers to be wrong, couldn’t it? After all, only God was perfect, only God who was omniscient.

And so she decided to ignore Zari’s words of caution even though they never stopped to niggle at the back of her mind. Despite this, Soleil still couldn’t concentrate on anything but the soul seer’s warning. She thought about it over dinner, thought about it while chatting with Ilie in her mind, thought about it while she tossed and turned on her bed, feeling like she was missing something so obvious.

Will you just sleep,the marquis growled in Solei’s mind.I can hear you thinking all the way from here.

Then it’s a good thing you’re not here,she returned,or else you’d be deaf by now.She rolled her eyes. Grumpy, ancient—-

I can hear you, milady.

Attractive, intelligent—-

Ilie chuckled. It almost rhymes perfectly, I will give you that.

She blurted out,I miss you.But actually what she wanted to say was,Come back to me now.Because without Ilie by her side, the world was just a little bit darker, drearier, and scarier, especially when the soul seer’s vision continued to play in her mind.

I miss you, too.

She drew a shaky breath and willed her tears to go away.Come back soon.

I will.

And then the connection between them slowly faded.

She, too, slowly drifted to sleep, only to hear someone rousing her.

“Wake up, Soleil! Wake up!”

It was Aurora, calling out from below her window. Her red hair was wet a straggling, and her blue dress created a puddle of water around her bare feet.

Wide-awake now, she threw the window open and said urgently, “Come back inside—-”

Aurora shook her head and interrupted her, saying, “No, you have to be the one to come out. I need to show you something, and we don’t have much time.” There was a crazed look in her sister’s eyes as she gestured for Soleil to come down. “Come on, hurry!”

Sliding her feet into her slippers, she hurried down the stairs and opened the front door. “Won’t you dry yourself first—-”