Two weeks after Vespasian’s impossible request, I hid at the threshold of Roux’s dark and bleary Practicum classroom. Surely as soon as I entered, the quiet astrolabes would whirl and scream in distress. That’s how I had trained them for eight years.

I blinked. The classroom blurred and the direction ‘up’ tilted madly until I stumbled into the door frame.

Despite Blaise’s objections, I’d spent the better part of the night researching past thesis projects. The guild, of course, kept a directory with student names, a short description of their project, and whether they were accepted or refused entry into the guild.

All hope had fled. So many projects that skimmed over my brain rather than resolved into any sort of sense, and so many failures. For once in my twenty years, I had acted cocky.

But at least the world had given me one small favour: I caught no flashes of silver hair. Valere was missing.

“Dan-iel,” Blaise sang behind me before two hands pushed me into the room. I stumbled, but caught myself before my forehead met the edge of the closest work table. “Aren’t you going in?”

My mouth stretched out in a horrible impression of a smile.

He leaned in close. “It’s only one last semester. If you could squeak through the last one, you can squeak through this one.”

Easy for Blaise to say. With his sunny charm and natural talent to ‘squeak by’ with the least amount of work, he wasn’t facing the end of his life.

“Let him run.” Dominic turned in his front corner seat, opposite to his enemy Marcus. “Just like Levi. Of course, Levi didn’t have your daddy to protect him. Anyone else with your grades would have been long gone.”

My stomach filled with cold bile. “What about Levi?”

“You didn’t hear?” Dominic grinned. “Or did it not penetrate your thick skull?”

I looked to Blaise, but he was too busy glaring at Dominic. “Hear what?”

“Levi’s done a runner,” Dominic said. “Left everything in his dorm. He couldn’t take the pressure of one last semester. Of course, knowing his grades, he might have flunked out and been too scared to face his old man. I’m just counting down the hours until you run too.”

I’d dreamed Levi had run in only his nightshirt, chased across the lawn by a white demon. But that had only been a dream, right?

“I’m betting you’re next, Signorina Dominique,” Marcus said. “And won’t that be a mercy for us all? Having to look at you day after day — mi fa cagare! The sight of you scars our beloved teachers more deeply than a vampire bite.”

I sucked in a breath as Dominic swiped a strand of too-long, too-greasy hair behind his ear. “Not as deeply as letting you in here at all. Or is it the number of handballs to the head that makes you so stupid?”

“Ooh,” Emeric cooed, his too small eyes mocking Dominic. Blaise and I both jumped. When had Emeric arrived and sat next to Marcus… right, never mind. “That was almost snappy, Dominique. Like a kitten batting her paws.”

Dominic actually snapped his teeth. “That was almost witty, like walking on two legs.”

“That was almost adorable, if you could get past the hideousness of… you.”

When the boys became like this, I just wanted to pop my head under the worktable like an ostrich, as Ashley, the other student in our class, did. Well, he wasn’t so much sticking his head under the table but poking his nose into a book. There was a reason why he was always ranked number one. Ignored, studious, and inoffensively meticulous in appearance, just as I dreamed one day to be.

Blaise tugged on my arm, then led us to the worktable behind Marcus and Emeric. “The sooner we can get away from that, the better. Before it infects us.”

“Always scrambling for an insult, aren’t you?” Dominic snapped at Blaise. “At least those two boneheads can be of limited entertainment.”

“Oh, il puttanane,” Marcus said. “Limited entertainment, are we? Perhaps we should—”

“Perhaps what?” Roux’s voice boomed from the open door.

Marcus opened his mouth and turned back to face Roux, then either thought better of it, or more likely, was distracted by the figure with Roux.

Shoulders hunched, my back curled over my pitted stomach. If only I really could slink under the table.

“Sit down, everyone!” Roux strode to the chalkboard, well, as much as a blueberry could ‘stride’. “You too, Braud.”

Valere nodded, and slid onto a stool at the worktable behind me. My breath hitched. From brow to cheekbone, his white skin had gone black as a vampire’s heart. By all rights, his eye should have been swollen shut, but he’d obviously had the healing attentions of a chirurgeon.

That bruise hadn’t been there when I’d last seen him. And I would know, having kept my eyes so carefully on his face.

Marcus leaned over our table to whisper to Valere, “Nice shiner, amico. You always get into the best fights.”

Valere only flicked his eyes to acknowledge Marcus, before turning his attention away. He didn’t seem to be in any pain, acting so aloof we couldn’t possibly amuse him even if we burst into a Verismo opera.

At the front, Roux began register, as if he hadn’t known us for eight years. And only seven of us remained now, since Levi had dropped out, out of a class of two hundred.

I leaned back over Valere’s table. “Should you be in class? You should take it easy—”

“Daniel Travere,” Roux called. Blaise elbowed me.

I turned quickly around. “Present!”

“Very good, Monsieur Travere,” Master Roux said. “Would you like a special participatory medal? Or would a ribbon do?”

Blaise cradled his head in his hand, trying to act the disappointed parent, but from the grin he tried to hide, I knew he enjoyed every moment of my humiliation.

“Sorry, Master Roux,” I said. “Excuse me, Master Roux.”

“Now that we all know Travere is present,” all right, I deserved the giggle that wrought, “it’s time for what you’ve all been waiting for.”

Roux held up a parchment before placing it carefully on his desk. “I’m sure you’re all aware about this thesis project?”

Nods all around, along with the looks of feral wolves, even from Blaise. After all, somebody would have to be partnered with Dominic.

“Good. I have carefully selected these partners to challenge you to new heights. If you do not fly high enough… well, the guild will always be out of your reach, no matter what you do.”

Why did it seem like Roux spoke particularly to me, even though his gaze swept over the entire class?

“In the guild, you will be called to work with any of our members, not just your friends. You must be able to work productively with someone you despise. That is how I chose your partners.”

Someone I despise? I didn’t despise anyone. But that didn’t bode well for whoever Dominic’s partner was.

“Now, I will hope that each of you takes this project as seriously as it is,” Roux said. “Once you find your partner, determine what your thesis will be about. I expect you to submit your thesis for approval by the end of this week. Remember, you must prove or disprove a hypothesis, either through experimentation or by invention.”

With that vain hope, Roux plopped himself in his desk chair and waved us to come forth.

I crossed my fingers and whispered one final prayer to Le Savant: I needed Ashley as my partner. Predictable, Vespasian had called him, but even I couldn’t be stupid enough to prevent him from careening us into the guild.

Ashley had already hustled to the front of the line, Marcus and Emeric following a-pace, if only for fear that Roux had actually followed through on his threat.

Blaise, too, was steering around the table. “Coming?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat and stood to follow him. Ashley would be the ideal choice, Dominic if not Ashley, but…

With Levi’s disappearance, only seven students remained in their graduating class. Seven — one too many, or one too few, to make equal pairs.

Someone would be left to fend for themselves. I prayed again to Le Savant that wouldn’t be me.

My breath came faster and faster, like a galloping horse. Marcus slapped Blaise on the back as he retreated, having read the names. Blaise lit up like a magic lamp. Which left only five of us unmatched.

Dominic attempted to jostle past Marcus to reach the list, but Marcus blocked him. Dominic snarled, and Marcus shouldered him off balance, sending him to scrape against the work table.

“Marcus Bellomi! Dominic Fournier!” Roux snapped. “You are West Ridge students. Behave like it!”

“Yes, Master Roux.” Marcus exchanged a grin with Blaise.

Dominic muttered the same, and shoving past Marcus despite the master’s reprimand, approached the list. “Hayworthy?!”

Oh, that match wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair at all. Putting the two best students in the class together? Why not give anyone else a chance?

Ashley had retreated to the side, his thoughtful look turning to dismay at Dominic’s tone.

Dominic slammed his hands down on the desk. “Hayworthy? You partnered me with Hayworthy, of all—”

Roux cut him off. “Fournier, that is enough. The pairs are the pairs, whether you like it or not. Now surely, between the two of you, you’ll be able to cobble together something presentable.”

Roux looked past Dominic, past me, his eyes catching someone else’s — Valere’s. In my shock, I must have read the master’s expression wrong, for it appeared to be a look of satisfaction.

Dominic strode to where Ashley waited and grabbed his arm in what looked like a bruising grip. “Come. Now.”

“Let go of me.” Ashley struggled to wrench his arm from Dominic’s grip. But Dominic was used to fisticuffs with the handball team heroes, and while Ashley had many remarkable qualities which I needed right now, wrestling was not one of them. Dominic dragged Ashley toward the door.

Until Marcus stepped into his way. “Basta, let him be.”

“Bite me,” was Dominic’s witty response.

“Boys!” Roux snapped again.

“Just—” Ashley wrenched his bicep again, and Dominic reluctantly let go. “Fine, let’s just go to the library.”

Ashley marched past Marcus, as slow as at his own funeral, but when Dominic attempted to follow him, Marcus again stepped in the way, bumping chests. Ashley sighed heavily before Marcus allowed Dominic to squeeze past him.

Why couldn’t it be me partnered with Ashley? Why, Le Savant, why? We’d both prefer it.

Only three people left, and Emeric was next to examine the sheet. Emeric turned away with a curled lip. He would act that way if he was partnered with me, right? I hadn’t been left alone, a small mercy to the other students so I wouldn’t drag them down with me. Right? Roux had said I’d had a chance.

Marcus returned to the front to lean over to Emeric, speaking in a low murmur. Emeric shook his head.

Oh damn, oh damn. Taking deep breaths so I wouldn’t pass out again, I put one foot in front of the other, each one taking me closer to that sheet of paper. My creaking knees told me to run away, the longer I didn’t know, the longer I would be fine, but I had to know. I had to.

Blaise gave me a pitying look. He already knew who I was paired up with, or the lack of a partner, and it couldn’t be Emeric.

My heart ricocheted in my chest so loudly it muffled my friends’ conversation. The blank blackboard refused to comfort me, if blackboards were capable of such things. I had to look. I had to read the sheet. I had to know…

I looked down at the paper.

Marcus Bellomi and Blaise DuFour.

I already knew that.

Ashley Hayworthy and Dominic Fournier.

How hard could my heart beat before it gave out?

Valere Braud and Daniel Travere.

Was this what my mother experienced during her attacks? Was I hysterical?

Because there it was, at the bottom.

Emeric Bellomi.

Wait. Emeric? Emeric was partnered alone? Which meant…

I glanced back up to the line above, reading it over and over again. I stepped back, looking up at the chalkboard but not really seeing it. Valere. I was partnered with Valere.

The only thing worse than working alone was to be partnered with Valere, the man who would win my place as Vespasian’s apprentice. If our project succeeded, then Valere would get into the guild and Vespasian would take him on as his apprentice. But if he didn’t… Then I wouldn’t either.

This must be what Vespasian had meant by arrangements.

I turned around, searching for that elusive flash of silver, but he had already left without glancing at the list.

Success or failure. Either way, I lost.