Chapter 5: The Ribbon

Three days later, a guard came to find me in the training hall.

"There's a girl at the east gate," he said. "She says she's your sister, and she won't go away."

I put down the practice staff.

The other intern, who had stopped sneering at me on the second day, handed me a towel.

"Want me to come?"

"No," I said. "Thanks."

The east gate was a plain iron door set in the black stone wall.

Odette stood on the other side of the bars in a pale coat, with her honey hair tucked into a hood.

She looked like she had not slept since the ceremony.

"Katja," she said.

I did not open the gate.

"Silvermoon starts Monday. You should be there."

"I know. I took a train." She gripped the bars. "I told Mom I was going to see a friend."

"You don't have friends in Highmere."

"I know that too." She tried to smile and it fell apart. "Please. Five minutes."

The guard looked at me, and I nodded.

He unlocked the gate and stood a few yards off, pretending to study the sky.

Odette stepped in and did not know where to put her hands.

"You came," I said. "That's more than Garrick did."

"Garrick didn't come because he's scared of what Dad will do." She wiped her face on her sleeve. "I'm scared too. But I wanted to see you."

"See me what?"

"See that you're alive." Her voice broke. "I stood next to you, Katja. We were born together. And I forgot you were in that room."

I stood still.

I had waited three days for her to say it, and now that she had, it did not fix anything.

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