Legendborn: Chapters 26–32

“Same old mistruths. Gettin’ uppity with some white woman on the street, talking back to her or some such nonsense.”

Abby’s voice is a reedy whisper.

Her skirts are bunched around her waist, her hands wrapped like vises around her bent knees.

“Give him to her, Kath,” Betty says quietly. Katherine obliges and passes the newborn to his mother.

Whoever they are, they have placed themselves strategically, pausing right where the imposing landmark shields them from late-night passersby and blocks the dull orange glow of campus lampposts.

A low howl begins out of sight, the garbled sound growing clearer, louder...

There’s a sound I can’t quite parse. An “—ee” sound.

“You know, don’t you?”
“Know what?” he says blithely, reaching for some paperwork.

“Sel's mother was a Merlin and his father is human. You’ve heard of incubi and succubi, yes?”

The chapter has commandeered the entire back wooden porch of Tap Rail, the streetcar turned biergarten on the far end of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill’s downtown drag.

The surly bartender mixes a shot of bourbon with soda until it’s a deep red-purple and smells like spiked candy.

The gala is a big formal event at one of the campus clubs. Dinner, dancing, champagne everywhere. Every year, Vassal families come and schmooze with Page and Legendborn families to celebrate the end of the tournament.

Greer looks chagrined.

“This is a bad idea.”
I can’t tell if he means our leaving the porch or our holding hands, and Nick’s stormy expression says he notices the ambiguity too, and doesn’t appreciate it.

Sel's mouth curves into a sardonic smile.

Nick is so incensed I can hear his teeth grinding together.

“If Onceborns witnessed and were attacked by a corporeal pack, the Regents would do everything in their power to bury it. Work with the Vassals or former Pages in the university’s administration to keep it quiet on campus. Facilitate bribes to any outsiders in the town’s government to keep it off the news. Pay off any Onceborn families if their children were injured or killed. Mesmer them if they had to.”

“If Onceborns witnessed and were attacked by a corporeal pack, the Regents would do everything in their power to bury it. Work with the Vassals or former Pages in the university’s administration to keep it quiet on campus. Facilitate bribes to any outsiders in the town’s government to keep it off the news. Pay off any Onceborn families if their children were injured or killed. Mesmer them if they had to.”

Microfiche, carrels, stacks abound, and yet on this floor, there's not a book to be found.

“Planting an uchel demon in our ranks disguised as a naive Onceborn is a perfect way to sow discord, but it won’t work with me.”

I stomp away from him, tamping down my frustration before it turns into something I can’t control.

He studies me languidly.

“Goruchels are said to be consummate mimics, when it facilitates their human ruse.”

I don’t think I’ve ever heard him express anything other than carefully aimed barbs, seething irritation, or dry sarcasm.

His left eye twitches in silent reproach.

The graveyard is poorly lit by intermittent lampposts, and the wide hedges and hills make it slow going.

Each time I check over my shoulder, Sel is there, a silent figure blending into the shadows in one moment, limned by golden light in the next.

“Because I’m tired, Briana, of your Shadowborn lies and the fun you must be having at our expense. Planting your brethren at our Oath, sending the serpent to take Nicholas under my nose, taking part in our trials."

We both know the First Oath never took, that you sloughed off our sacred commitment like it was nothing.

A hellfox scream rends the night air.

l can hear the petulance in my own voice, and I hate that, too.

“My mother was a Merlin and an aether scholar. She studied demonology, Gate aether, runes, ancient texts, you name it. I was a precocious child, so I often snuck into her office to read her gramarye and those of Merlins before us.”

Something tells me that with Nicholas’s obnoxiously earnest assistance, you’ll find some loophole out of your Page status and the chapter as a whole.

No one in the chapter has spoken of the Regents without a touch of fear, or at least deference, in their voices.

Fight-or-flight responses are inherently draining, and after an hour or so, vitals return to standard ranges.

“In past centuries, some courtiers wanted nothing more than for an eligible king to ‘accidentally’ see them naked.”

Early morning light streams through cracks between clouds, diffusing the open, quiet foyer with sleepy sun.

I blink, startled by his vehemence.

He allowed his anger and fear to twist his perception of facts and turn him into his worst self. If he succumbs to—

I’m almost at the dining hall doors before it dawns on me that, out of the two of us, I’m the only one who has a reason to hide some of what transpired last night.