Page 33 of The Amber Sunburst

Everyone has mentioned that you have to accomplish some great feat to get pulled up past seventeen, but he has no idea what that feat is supposed to be.

“When you started spouting philosophies more profound than anything Plato’s ever written?” Kallias prompts. “Lifted a moped off a basket of dying kittens? Parted the ocean to bring peace to your people?”

“You’ve got a crazy imagination, gorgeous.” Alexander laughs, feeling distinctly caught. In what, he doesn’t know.

“Hey, if you don’t provide me with details, I have to fill in the blanks myself,” Kallias says with a shrug. Then he snaps his fingers. “Oh, I got it. You hosted a feast for all of the poorest in your town, and turned the water into wine like a modern-day Jesus Christ⁠—”

What? Did he just… Was that a Bible reference?

“—or did he turn his skin into crackers? I’ve never really understood the whole thing.”

Alexander looks at Kallias in shock, reassessing him as a much bigger threat than he’d initially thought. Beautiful, smart, and… knowledgeable. About things he shouldn’t know anything about.

Is Kallias from the outside too, then? Is that why he’s so quiet, so guarded? Or does he just have access to information that he isn’t meant to?

And what even tipped him off? It’s like Kallias read his⁠—

Oh.

Oh, Hell.

‘Christ, if I had a nickel.’ Alexander said that. Just now.

Jesus, he’s such an idiot.

Kallias stares at him expectantly, and now Alexander really has gone and screwed this all the way up, standing here, silent, stewing in his own freak-out.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he says, far too defensive to be casual.

Kallias cocks a brow, and Alexander understands the expression completely. He’s starting to get the hang of reading this guy. It asks, Do you really think you’re getting away with that?

But Kallias doesn’t press him on it. He just hums in acceptance and looks away, down the hallway.

“So what did you do?”

An unexpected display of mercy. This olive branch can’t be out of kindness, though. More likely, Kallias is just waiting for a strategic time to confront him.

Alexander still clings to the return to banter like a lifeline. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Kallias rolls his eyes, visibly fed-up—an expression he seems to have reserved only for Alexander.

Alexander smirks back at him.

“Goodnight, Alexander,” Kallias says, pushing himself off the wall and turning to walk to his room. His mouth tightens and the message is clear: This isn’t over.

Alexander follows behind until he arrives at his own door, a few doors before Kallias’.

“Goodnight, Kallias,” he says. He hopes his face communicates what he’s desperately trying to project.

I don’t want it to be.

8

OPHELIA

The party tonight is the most interesting thing on Ophelia’s calendar for the foreseeable future. If that doesn’t communicate how boring Priestess life is, she’s not sure what does.

“Ouch!” she yelps when Aika yanks too hard trying to pull her long, tight curls into a bun.