Page 120 of Entranced By the Basilisks

“It is…” Armand trails off.

It clicks once I think it through. “The permission is so that they can be sure that you weren’t made to bond. That we didn’t exert undue influence.”

“They didn’t,” Emilia says to Armand.

“It isn’t for me to decide, Chosen.” He looks at me. “Come, I have a portal that we’ll take to the gate.”

Running will do me no good.

“No! I won’t let you take him,” Emilia says.

I turn toward her.

“I wouldn’t dream of separating a Chosen and their bonded,” Armand says. “You are welcome to come with.”

I frown. “Emilia—”

“I’m coming,” she says.

I don’t want her to be at the Circle’s mercy. They’d never hurt a Chosen, but I still worry. I don’t have friends in our society.

“Someone must tell Ari what’s happened—” I start with the excuse.

“I will.” We all turn toward my father. “Apologies, I meant to give you two privacy. I only arrived as you were beating the tar out of Dietrich.”

There’s a shine of pride in his eyes that warms me.

Armand clears his throat. “Now that it is settled that Zeyad will be told, we must go.”

Emilia presses near me, glaring at Armand. “If we have to face this, we face it together,” she murmurs.

I swallow and take her hand.

“Together.”

50

EMILIA

“Where are we going?”I ask no one in particular. There’s a giant portal in front of us. It’s easily twice the size of the one we walked through to get here. The experience of walking through a stone surface and appearing in what must be a basement has already frayed my nerves more than I’d like to admit.

Jasper squeezes my hand in reassurance. He’s here. We’re together. That fact helps my breaths slow. I glance at the portal the big guy called a gate.

Stones frame it, and the surface looks darker than pitch. Flickers of color that look like stardust come and go.

“I don’t know,” Jasper says. “The Circle moves its base of operations every decade.”

“It’s in Mexico this year,” the man apprehending us says.

“I don’t have a passport,” I blurt out.

Jasper tries to hide his smile but is unsuccessful. “We won’t be going anywhere outside the building. Don’t worry, Emilia.”

I notice that he doesn’t promise that everything is going to be fine. It’s what tips me off to the seriousness of the situation. That and the grim nature of the man who now gestures for us to enter the gate.

“You could stay here—” Jasper starts.

“No way! Let’s go through the spooky portal thing and get this over with.”

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