Page 105 of Daughter of No Worlds

“Maybe.”

I heard what Max wasn’t saying aloud: that it seemed too easy. And as much as I hoped otherwise, I couldn’t help but think so, too. I’d gotten plenty of attention last night, yes. But it still felt like the first step of a larger struggle, not a victory all its own.

A wrinkle of thought formed between my eyebrows as I revisited my memories of the night before. “Maybe there is something else.”

“What do you mean?”

One sentence kept snagging in my mind. One thing that Zeryth had said during our dance that imbued me with a small, tentative hope. “Last night, Zeryth said he had to test me. And that I passed. I thought he meant the evaluations. But maybe he meant something else.”

A second of silence.

“Test you,” Max repeated. His voice was odd, quiet.

“Yes.” I was lost on thought as I began to scale the steps to the Towers’ entrance. “Maybe because of what I asked for, they—”

“He said that they had to test you?”

“Yes. What—”

A yank on my arm interrupted my thought. I turned, and one look at Max withered the rest of my question on my lips. In a matter of seconds, all of the color had drained from his face. A spike of panic leapt in my throat.

“What’s wrong?”

He said nothing. Just stared at me.

“Max—”

“He said that they had to test you,” he said, again.

I nodded, confused, and Max just stood there with his hand still around my wrist, brow lined, mouth tight, looking as if he had just made some terrible realization.

“What’s wrong, Max?” I pressed.

But his gaze flicked back to me, eyes wide and piercing.

“Don’t go, Tisaanah.”

He said it so fast that the words blurred into one desperate sound. I didn’t even know if I heard him right. “What?”

“Don’t go to the Towers. To the meeting. Don’t go.”

“I—” The expression on his face, the sheer terror of it, gutted me. “I have to go.”

He shook his head, once sharp movement. “No, you don’t. You don’thaveto do anything, Tisaanah.”

“But—“ I was so confused. This was everything I’d worked for — wasn’t it? “I don’t understand.”

“Listen to me.” Max’s fingers tightened around my wrist. He took a step closer, his eyes bearing into me with desperate intensity. “No matter what they offer you. No matter what they give you. Whatever they ask you to do. Say no. Alright? Even if they send an army to Threll today. Even if they give you everything you want. Say no.”

His voice wasshaking.

My lips parted, but it took a moment for the words to follow. “Because they will not fulfill their promises?”

He let out a sound that was almost a laugh, but uglier, rougher. “It’s not about that, Tisaanah. None of this is about that.”

I opened my mouth. Then shut it. Finally, I could only choke out, “Then why?”

Max looked at me in silence, jaw tight.

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