Page 38 of The Amber Sunburst

“We will be best friends, Eudoxia. For so many evers. Just, all of the evers.”

Eudoxia gasps again. “Oh, I’ve always wanted a real best friend. I mean, I have a best friend but he’s… things are complicated with him.”

“Oh my Goodness, do you have boy drama?”

“No!” Eudoxia yells. “Well, maybe?”

Ophelia grabs Eudoxia’s hands and demands, “You must regale me with the tale. Spare no details.”

Eudoxia laughs, and they talk and talk until most people have filtered out and sobriety—plus the hangover it comes with—hits them like a hovertrain.

“We should probably leave,” Eudoxia says, words sure now that the alcohol has mostly left their systems.

“That might be wise.”

“Just… could you not tell anyone what I told you tonight? We’re drunk and—I guess I just really needed to get it off my chest. I like you, Ophelia. I want to be friends.”

“I won’t tell a soul,” she says.

Eudoxia sighs, and pulls her in for another hug. There’s something about being around her… that feeling when you’ve found someone you’ve been looking for.

“So, you’d like to be friends? I meant it when I said I missed being around women. It’s hard. And isolating. To pretend for so many hours of the day.”

“I can imagine. I hate being around men. Having to act as one? No thank you.” She pauses. “And, yes, I’d like to be friends. You’d love my Priestess friends too. They’re like my sisters. Even though sometimes it’s hard. I don’t know if they really… get it. I think you and I have a sort of drive that others don’t really understand. You know?”

“Some people are blessed with ignorance. Others with knowledge that they are meant for more. Neither is better or worse. You’re just the latter surrounded by the former.”

“That was very profound.”

“Whatever you say.” Eudoxia checks her ring. “Forms, it’s late.”

“Oh, the journey home is going to be a nightmare.” She already feels a migraine coming on.

“I forgot you have a long way to go,” Eudoxia says, eyes narrow like she’s deliberating with herself. “You could sleep over if you want,” she continues finally.

“Really?” Ophelia asks.

“If you’d like. And, Forms, this is probably really stupid because I’ve known you for like five minutes, but I feel like I was meant to find you here.” Eudoxia releases a breath like she’s surprised at herself. “There’s something else. Another secret. And if you tell anyone, I will not hesitate to kill you.”

There is no joke hidden in those words. “I won’t. Unless it’s putting you or someone else in danger.”

“No, it’s more… protecting someone from danger,” Eudoxia responds, shoulders falling. “Only one person knows about this. Zeno—the boy I was telling you about. But it’s killing me, handling it all by myself. And I need someone else to bear this with me and something about you makes me want to trust you.”

“You can, you know. I don’t spill secrets. And we’re best friends now. Why would I betray that unbreakable vow?”

Eudoxia nods, but doesn’t laugh, the blunt seriousness Ophelia’s been noticing all night out in full force. She takes Ophelia’s hand and leads her out of the cellar and to a spiral staircase attached to the dining hall. Right when they turn into what Ophelia presumes is Eudoxia’s hallway, Kleitos walks out of the bathroom with a toothbrush still in his mouth.

Eudoxia ignores him, but Ophelia gives him a mocking wave before being pulled through Eudoxia’s door. Kleitos looks positively murderous in that brief second before the door is shut behind her.

Ha.

“Xia, I’ve been waiting up for you, you said you’d be home hours ago—Who are you?”

Ophelia stops in her tracks. She isn’t sure what she was expecting but this is not it. There is a child—like a ten-year-old, tiny child—sitting on the floor. She looks like Eudoxia but with brown ringlets instead of black waves and little freckles brushed across her cheeks.

“This is Ophelia. Ophelia, my sister, Arete.”

Arete’s eyes jump from Ophelia to Eudoxia and back again, like she’s wondering if Ophelia is holding Eudoxia hostage or something.