Page 22 of Fractured Fates

He goes back to staring at the door.

I adjust my wrist watch, running my eyes over the reading it displays on its face. “Do you think we did the right thing bringing her in?”

“You think we should have let her go?” he scoffs. “Delivered her straight into the hands of the Wolves of Night?”

“No,” I say firmly. “I’m just … It’s different for you.” If the chancellor does as we expect and sends the girl to Arrow Hart Academy, my friend will swan off on his next assignment and never have to see the girl again. Me? It won’t be that simple.

“It only changes things if we let it, Phoenix. Besides, since when did we fall in line with conventions?”

I chuckle. I can’t argue with that. And maybe he’s right.

The bolts on the door clunk and it starts to draw back.

Together we step through into the large office that is the Chancellor’s.

I glance towards my friend, wondering just how much he’ll tell.

8

Rhi

Heavy boots thumpalong the hallway, and I look up to find the man in black approaching. Slowly, with Pip in my arms, I rise to my feet.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

“The Chancellor and Council have been debating your future.”

“Oh, how very nice of them. They didn’t think that I might want to be included in that discussion, I suppose?”

Instead of snapping back at me, he sighs, his face suddenly tired. “A piece of advice, keep your sharp tongue under control. Otherwise, all you’ll achieve is pissing the Chancellor off and he’ll come down on you like a ton of bricks.”

I consider bolting. But not only will the man in black catch me in an instant but all the guards roaming this building too. No, escaping is going to have to be a long-term aim. It’s clear it’s not happening any time soon. That’s fine. I will play along. Make them think I’m being compliant. Then when they least expect it, I’ll run. Hopefully, by then I may have learned more about magic and I’ll be able to look after myself and hide out better.

“Don’t you see how unfair this is? Don’t you think I should have a say?”

He works his jaw. “It’s the way of things. You lost your right to choose when you failed to register yourself.”

I stare at him. We both know that wasn’t my choice.

“Just take me to them, will you? I want this over with.” He opens his mouth to say more, but I’m half way down the corridor, Pip slung under my arm, trying not to appear as petrified as I am. These people I’m being summoned to see will know more than me and will be able to run circles around me with their clever words and superior knowledge.

Then there’s the worry that they really will send me to this stupid school. I’m not good in social situations. It’s rare I’ve been in a room with more than two other people at a time. But I’ve watched enough TV, read enough books, to appreciate the hell that is school. The only consolation I can think of is that at least the others there will be my age and I won’t have the humiliation of having to hang out with a bunch of sixteen-year-olds. Perhaps it’ll be less hormone-fueled and more sensible.

I stop outside the door he entered earlier, but he shakes his head and takes me down the grand staircase, underneath the dragon made of glass and halts in front of a set of steel doors, their surface decorated with a multitude of jewels. The wealth of this place makes me physically sick. It’s literally dripping off the ceilings and the walls, lining the sidewalks. Yet there hadn’t even been enough money back in my hometown to fix the park for the kids when it was damaged in a storm or to fund a decent hospital.

“Why here?” I snarl, knowing it’s because they want to remind me I’m a nobody in the grand scheme of things.

“The Council has been discussing your future in the chamber. They have reached their decision.”

“So quickly,” I say with sarcasm.

His shoulders tighten but he doesn’t rise to my bait, instead banging his fist against the door. The metal clangs as he does, a noise that reverberates around the large space, and a low voice from within announces ‘enter’.

The man in black pushes open the doors and then stands to one side, beckoning for me to go through.

“You’re not coming with me?” I say, alarmed.

“No. This is your fate,” he says, his eyes darting away from me when he says that. “It has nothing to do with me.”