Page 48 of Bone Year

“You didn’t have to wait up here for me.” I peek up at him, and he shakes his head.

“Lux and Ellavee are nice, but they’re a lot to be around for long periods of time,” he groans. “Especially without you.”

I giggle, glad he can still make me laugh after the day I’ve had.

I stay bundled up next to Jace as he leads us along with a handful of other students down a long, winding stairwell. We started in the headmaster’s tower, but now we are deep beneath it, winding down until the air thins and the walls change from normal interior stone to something colder and rougher, a cave carved out of the earth centuries ago.

“This isn’t creepy at all,” I whisper.

“There’s so much current down here.” He leans down near my ear. “I wish you could feel it.”

I want to ask him to describe it, but we reach the bottom, and the words die in my throat.

The entire space opens into a massive cavern, not a claustrophobic underground chamber but something gigantic and ancient. The ceiling disappears into darkness overhead, so high I can’t see where it ends. There are no seats down here, just a giant room with walls lined in torches, all of them alive with fire. All except three across from us in the distance. Those burn different colors. Amethyst. Crimson. Icy blue.

Bone. Blood. Breath.

Below the colored torches must be the mirror everyone’s been talking about. It’s covered with a black drape, and as large as I expected it to be.

“I see Lux’s pink hair. Come on.” Jace pulls me through the crowd of students and faculty.

Everyone really is here tonight.

I spot Draven as we pass by. His gaze locks on mine then flicks up to Jace. Something hard passes through his expression before he looks away. I don’t think Jace notices him at all.

Gods, it’s not fair that all the vampires are so hot, especially that fucking jerk.

We reach Lux and Ellavee, and Jace unwraps me but keeps his arm around my shoulder. I don’t fight it and don’t care what Ellavee thinks. He’s warm, and it feels good to be like this with him.

The room is quiet. I can hear the faint drip of water somewhere in the distance. The air smells of damp earth and something else I can’t place. Maybe current has a scent.

Everyone waits.

I don’t know if I should be excited or anxious right now. I’m assuming since I’m human I won’t get an eidolon. It’s a mirror. How scary can this thing be after all?

“Welcome to our annual Mirror Ceremony.” Ashmoor’s voice echoes through the cavern, and I glance up at him through the people around me.

I see Professor Nestor fiddling with the drape over the mirror. I realized I have no idea what bloodline he is. Definitely not fae. No pointed ears. And I can’t imagine him being a vampire, plus most of the vampires seem to have some shade of golden eyes. I could see him being a shifter and shifting into something funny like a scruffy fox or coyote.

“The ceremony is simple. You will approach the mirror and know what to do. Ashwell will decide your fate. The eidolon you are given will be telling of your future and your strengths.”

This is what they were talking about in class earlier. The school decides. The school knows. The school is fucking creepy.

“There are three possible eidolons, and Professor Nestor will go into further detail for you.” The headmaster steps aside.

He doesn’t seem as scary tonight as he did at orientation. That’s a relief.

“I’m sure all of you know the symbols for each year by now.” Nestor’s reedy voice carries across the cavern. “Bone year has the wolf and ribcage. Blood year has the serpent and heart. Breath year has the bat and pair of lungs.”

He clears his throat and tries to project louder. It echoes off the stone walls, bouncing back at us from the darkness above.

“One of these creatures will become your eidolon after tonight. The wolf represents endurance. The serpent, control. And the bat, understanding.”

As he speaks, I start to notice that animals are everywhere.

Upperclassmen around me are letting their eidolons out, pulling them from somewhere deep inside themselves, from their current or their soul or whatever.

A man standing next to me has a yellow serpent coiled around his arm, its scaled head resting on his shoulder, tongue flicking lazily at the air. I spot Elizabeth near the front, her bat circling her head in slow loops. A massive gray wolf sits at the feet of a woman with sharp cheekbones and sharper eyes.