Page 63 of Wings of Ebony
I let go.
“Now, where was I?” She’s all smiles again, pulling down a plum-colored box with a single gold belt around it. “Oh yes, we can’t magick youintothe neighborhood because that’s, of course, prohibited. But you can magickyourselfand slip past the lot of them.” She digs through the chest, folds of fabric flying in every direction. “Ah! This one’s perfect.” She tosses it to me.
“A costume?” It looks like a bodysuit in all black with gold thread sewn into the seams. Costumes are pricey here. It’s not like running through Walmart around Halloween and grabbing something on sale. Ghizonis pay solid gold for costumes, because they’remagic.
Slipping into a costume is like slipping on a new layer of skin. They wear off after a while, but when you’re wearing it you literally look like something or someone else.
“You ever try one?”
“Once.” At a party with Bri. I don’t know how I let her talk me into going. Everyone still knew it was me with Bri. I was there all of five minutes before I’d had enough with the whispers and stares and insisted we leave.
“Pays to know the best costume designers in all of Ghizon, my dear. Don’t let the caste fool you. Zrukis are brilliant. Go ahead, try it on.”
I hustle open the legs of the costume. The bunched-up black fabric is tough to get into. I slip one leg inside and then the other and zip up the fabric. The gold cuff in my pocket digs into my side as the fabric cinches around me. The zipper clicks in place and the tingling starts to sting. I bite down, trying to ignore the fact that my entire body feels like it fell asleep.
“Now walk a bit, go on,” she says.
I pace. And with each step, the fabric melts into my skin, meshing to conceal my hoodie and jeans. I catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror and I’m covered in an all-in-one bodysuit that looks like it’s made of black scales with tips dipped in gold. And my face is all made up, exotic looking, with smoky eye shadow and sculpted hair. Gold filigree is woven into a headpiece resting on my hair like a crown.
“You look fearsome, dear,” she purrs. “And completely unrecognizable.”
She’s right. The mirror agrees. You’d never know who’s under here. This costume is really dope. And probably super expensive.
“I-I can’t take this. I don’t have the money to—”
“Don’t be silly child. Helping you is… my civic duty.”
“What does that—”
“You best get going.” She shoos me toward the door. “You have everything you brought with you, dear?” She looks toward where my pocket should be.
I pat and the cuff is still there. “Y-yes.” When did I mention the cuff? I didn’t.
“Good luck,” she whispers as I slip out the door. Back on the street, the crowd has settled and I walk by another screen with my face big as day. And this time people pass without a second glance my way.
My watch vibrates.
Bri: You almost here? Aasim is on his way. You okay?
Me: Yeah
I silently mourn Ms. Totsi’s with one more glance back. Outside of her bookstore, I didn’t have a place to justbein Ghizon.
I didn’t have a place here, because I don’t have a people here.
That’s what it boils down to. Now, I’m the unruly creature they don’t understand. The girl who won’t be confined by their rules about what I do, how I should act.
Now, I’m a threat—more of an outsider than ever.
Sprawling trees from the edge of Bri’s street peek at me from up ahead. My calves burn and my soles ache.
I’msoclose to Bri’s.
Soclose to getting answers about how to fix my magic.
Soclose to making a way out of no way.
I pick up speed as the last words I heard the Chancellor say sludge through my memory.You shouldn’t have brought her here. She’s far more like them than us.
