Page 51 of Bone Year

The headmaster probably put my name last on purpose to torture me. Or maybe he won’t call me at all. Maybe humans don’t get to participate. Maybe I’ll stand here until everyone leaves, and then someone will escort me back to my room and tell me it was all a mistake.

Nyra steps into the mirror. The liquid swallows her whole, and the waiting begins. Silence presses against my ears. I count the seconds again.

This is taking too long.

Nestor shifts his weight. Bale’s jaw ticks, and they exchange a grim look. A full minute passes.

The mirror starts to vibrate.

I take a step back. My eyes stay locked on the rippling surface. Something is wrong.

Nyra Fenwick falls out of the mirror, hitting the stone floor with a crack that echoes through the cavern like a bone snapping.

She doesn’t move.

Whispers break out. Someone gasps. Someone else makes a sound like a sob.

Professor Nestor rushes forward and drops to his knees beside her. His hands move over her chest, her throat, her face.

Then he stops, looks up at the headmaster, and shakes his head.

Two professors I don’t recognize step forward. A woman and a man wearing belts filled with medical supplies. They lift Nyra’s body between them and carry her toward a door I hadn’t noticed before guarded by Felix, the demon assistant of the headmaster. He pulls the door open as they approach with her body.

She’s limp, pale, empty-handed. No eidolon.

She’s dead.

The door closes behind them, and the cavern goes silent. The headmaster doesn’t address it. Nestor doesn’t explain. They stand there, waiting for the ceremony to continue like a girl didn’t just die in front of us.

I knew they said bone years would die, but I thought it was a scare tactic, something to keep us working hard and staying sharp.

I didn’t think it would happen like this or that I would see it.

“Maelis Rose.”

Professor Bale’s voice startles me.

I can’t move. My feet are frozen to the stone. My lungs won’t fill.

She just died. She walked into that mirror and died, a fucking angel, and whatever happened inside that mirror killed her. And now they want me, the human, the one everyone says doesn’t belong here, to go stand in front of that same fucking thing.

No way. There is no fucking way.

I turn away from the mirror. My eyes find the stairs. The way out. I could run. I could leave right now, and no one would stop me. No one would blame me.

Then I see Draven.

He’s standing at the bottom of the stairwell, his black wolf sitting beside him like a shadow with teeth. His arms are crossed, and his face gives nothing away.

But his eyes are locked on mine.

I remember what he said in the alley. That I don’t belong here. That I’ll freeze when it matters. That I won’t make it out. He’s waiting for me to prove him right.

Something shifts in my chest. Something hot and stubborn and angry.

Fuck no. Draven Alucard, you absolute asshole. You don’t get to be right about me.

I will not show fear. I will not run. This mirror can’t give me any more pain than I’ve already endured in this life. It can’t show me anything worse than what I’ve already done.