Clamping my hands over my mouth, I sprint to the railing—but I'm too slow. Thankfully my stomach is empty of all but air and bile.

A long shadow falls over me as I crouch heaving and trembling on the mossy planks.

"Care for a hand up? Or do you need me to hold your hair back?"

I close my eyes, take a long breath. "No. It's alright," I say, but my legs shake as I rise to my feet. I heave my curls out of my face with one arm and turn to peer up into Kaidin's eyes. They reflect the canopy, their usual dark hazel gone vibrant green.

"Come on. Let's get to Greathall. We won't be leaving for a while, there's still time to get breakfast."

I sputter, heat rushing to my cheeks. Why does it have to be him here? Why does he have to be the one to see me like this? I wave my hands vaguely at the puddle of stomach acid where it seeps into a patch of moss.

"I can't eat."

He touches my arm lightly. "We have a long day ahead, Nik. Please. At least get something to take with you on the road."

I want nothing more than to run back to my room and bury my face in blankets.

"Al-alright. I'll grab something."

Careful to keep my eyes averted from the corpse, I take a few wavering steps toward the stairs. Kai falls into step beside me—his tree cat, Veshti, keeping pace at his side. The tip of his spear flashes as we pass through a pool of sunlight, snaring my attention. Light streams through the translucent bonechrys, illuminating its blue-gray heart.

I stop. "Aren't you on duty?" My eyes don't leave the blade. It takes all of my willpower not to reach out and touch it.

"You're to have a Hunter with you at all times when outside, and it might as well be me."

"What? But you're the one who's an Heir. I—"

"You need it. Nik, what the chasms were you even doing? You were drawing it, weren't you?"

I sigh and rub my forehead, fingers going up to tangle in my hair. Veshti winds about my legs as we make our way up the stairs, purring so loudly that I almost smile.

"Ack, sorry," Kaidin sighs. The cat disentangles himself, hanging back to take a place by his human's side.

"Kai?" I look directly at him at last, and for a heartbeat I'm distracted by the way the light paints his contours to accentuate the almost cat-like angles to his cheekbones and eyes. How it dances in the waves of his dark hair, refracting in tones of red of copper. But then I remember what I'm about to ask him, and I begin to feel sick again.

"Yes?"

"That was her, wasn't it? That was Enkiah."

At first he gives no answer save the thud of feet on worn planks. Then he draws a deep breath.

"Yes."

It's as though the stairs drop away from beneath me. I lurch.

I knew it. I'd known from the moment I saw that shard. But it was another thing to hear it confirmed. It's real now.

"But she...but she was one of the Heirs," I say once I'm able to form words again. "And the Turning's in weeks!"

"They'll choose someone to replace her," Kai says, tone carefully flat. His own betrothal shard bounces against his chest as we climb. I cried the day he got it—not because I'd wanted to be named an Heir too, but because it was the end of my hope that we might one day be in the same Khejia ourselves. After all, we're not related by blood. But I had to let go of that dream the instant the shard was placed about his neck. Maybe, one day, if I work really hard at it—I'll be able to stop loving him. I doubt it though.

We reach the top of the stair, and I hear the crowd before we even step into Greathall.

The curving beams, the drapery of vines and the moss-padded ceilings help to temper the din-but I still wince as the onslaught of voices hit me. Like being trapped in a small cave with too many bats.

"Oi, Kai! You've seen it, right?"

"Was it really her?"

"Who else could it have been? Her party should have come through here on their way to Grailhold days ago, and the stars are falling closer every night."

Veering away from the group already forming around my khejcousin, I make for the far end of the last table and sink onto a cushion. For a while I sit hunched, face hidden in my arms. In the shadowy space beneath the mass of my hair, I study the opalized veins of the table's surface. I try to focus on everything I have to look forward to. In a matter of just a few hours, I'll finally be getting my own akhana. And just days after that, I'm off to join my first dig—and what'll probably be the most monumental one to occur in my entire life, at that.

But I can't tune the voices out.

"What do you think happened to the others?"

"Maybe we'll find out when they check her stomach."

"Or maybe they all fell into the Mire, turned into monsters. Or just outright died."

I rock backwards, swallowing bile. I have to get out of here. I scan around. No one seems to be eating much. I snatch a few nutpaste buns from an untouched platter, cramming them into my belt pouch as I rise to leave.

"Wait, Nik!"

I look around to see Kaidin making his way over to me, waving off a few clingers-on as he powers through the crowd. It's just my luck I'd end up with the house's second best Hunter for a babysitter. My aunts trail close behind him—they must have arrived earlier when I had my head down.

"Time to go," says Aunt Maharah, charging up to me and taking my arm. "Are you ready?"

My legs turn to jelly, and suddenly I'm glad for the extra support.

This is it. I'm finally going to become a true Vishkan.

Unless, of course, nothing chooses me.

I might just throw up again.