Page 32 of A University of Betrayal

All the memories came flooding back to me, shattering my concentration on the present. My hands began to tremble.

No, please not now.

I immediately felt a hand on my right forearm, warm and reassuring. I looked to the side and spotted Margot, but I couldn’t look at her for long. That would have been noticeable. So, I slid a little closer to Grace, away from Margot. Her touch had confused me so much that although my hand trembled less, everything inside me began to move. My head was in chaos.

What had just happened? Had she touched me on purpose? How had she noticed? Had someone else perhaps seen something? I looked up again, as I should. Had Gloria noticed? I couldn’t turn around to face this woman now.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

I wanted to die.

“Don’t be a disappointment, not again!”

Her words flashed through my head. The effect was the same as upstairs in the salon.

I noticed Grace’s gaze on me, looked to her and wished her the best with my expression. She looked straight ahead again and broke away from the circle to step into the center.

“Step forward,” she ordered loud and clear, without letting her nervousness show.

Bayla obeyed and walked through the circle to the altar in her simple white transitional robe.

Grace then removed her hood and hung a necklace with a clear crystal around Bayla’s free neck. The ritual then continued, with Bayla lying down on the altar, Grace smearing the clay on her forehead, and finally taking the dagger with the four elemental runes into her hand.

“Nos sorores coniunge,” Grace said, and the runes in the dagger lit up. She brought it to her palm, slit her skin and came over. But instead of giving the dagger to Amara, she handed it to me.

I looked at her in confusion for a moment, but did as I was told.

“Nos sorores coniunge,” I repeated shakily and raised my hand. The attention on me was too enormous for me to bear it at all.

Royalty

Egzod, Maestro Chives, Neoni

I tried to bring the dagger to my hand, but my trembling was too intense. And then something happened that triggered pure panic inside me. The temperature in the hall dropped noticeably. I gripped the dagger tighter and tighter as it seemed to slip out of my hand.

“Julie... the dagger...” Grace whispered. Her eyes glowed greenish, but her unsettled look penetrated through the glow.

The temperature seemed to drop further, which others now seemed to notice too, as a murmur went through the crowd. Their breath rose visibly.

When I looked at the dagger, I knew why. The entire tip was frozen... still freezing. I was holding a shimmering reddish ice stick in my hand.

At that moment, panic exploded inside me. I dropped the stick and a loud clatter sounded as the ice that had collected shattered. The Circle members in my immediate vicinity jumped to the side, and the murmuring turned into a terrified uproar.

I could only feel the chaos inside me gradually beginning to take control of my body, flowing through my veins until it filled every pore of my body.

I looked at my hands, which were no longer blue. Instead, you could see my veins...glowing.They were an icy shade of blue, almost whitish, and made my already pale skin glow.

My heart was racing.

I looked at Grace, who was staring at me in horror, even more horrified when I took off my hood.

“I’m sorry...” I whispered, overwhelmed.

She only stared at me in more horror. And all I could see in my cousin’s eyes was... fear.

Then everything happened very quickly. Grace was pulled away from Amara, in the background I saw someone pulling Bayla off the altar, probably her mother.

I noticed hands touching me left and right with firm grips, determined to keep hold of me.A mistake.

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