us. We didn’t have to coax it out using soft words and gentle motions, but it helped.
“My new students, you have by now noticed that the contents of this room are designed to draw out your divining and scrying abilities.” Vivienne rang a bell. “It has long been considered rude to react to the futures of those you are dining with for fear of revealing some horrible truth. Those of you with an aptitude in the midnight arts must learn not to react, to be as sturdy as the ice atop the rushing waters of the Verglas. Those of you without an aptitude must learn to help hide any reactions from prying eyes. Remember—”
She set down the bell and raised her hands, and from the corner of my eyes, I saw Germaine wink at Gisèle. Gisèle signed something with her hands that made Germaine snicker into her napkin. Down the table, another girl signed a response.
It must have been a common occurrence because several people laughed, and Vivienne’s stoic expression nearly gave way to a smile. She made a motion for them to pay attention.
“Help those you can,” the girls said in time with Vivienne. “Hold them not in debt but in heart.”
“Though it does help if you need a favor later on,” Gisèle whispered to us.
Germaine picked up my cup of water without looking and drank all of it as if it were her own. “Oh! How terrible of me. Let me get you another drink.”
Even though it was in her hands and away from me, I could still see the ripples of power in the water dregs.
A black hack’s coat, sleeves rolled up to the elbows. Sunburned skin. Worn-down hands grasping at a bloody neck. I blinked, and all that was here was a polished silver tea set, tall and thin and too reflective to be normal, set at the center of a mirror-topped tray. Another vision, great clots of old blood, dripped down the back of a silver spoon. The taste of ash clogged my throat.
“Here.” Germaine poured me a cup of cloudy, steaming tea, too dark and unsettled to show me a vision in the surface. “Drink up.”
I took a sip, hands shaking. “Thank you.”
I’d been starving once, but now my appetite had fled as fast and far as Emilie. Didn’t help when a line of servants entered with trays and started serving us. I didn’t know what to do with my hands. Or eyes. None of the other girls looked at the servants, not even when they placed cloth napkins in their laps. I jumped.
There were too many knives and too many spoons, and the smell of oysters mixed with the faint taste of ash stuck in my throat. I drank tea and didn’t eat. The gossipy puddle of leaves at the bottom were bad omens, and the silver rim was nothing but staring eyes. So this was what we were—visions in polished silver and sweet tea overflowing with portents of disaster.
I had to channel the midnight arts into silver, usually, and then focus on what I wanted to scry, but here the images were endless—flashing through the water and silver and mirror and broths so fast, it made me sick to my stomach. I focused on Vivienne instead.
“Mademoiselle Charron, unfortunately, foresaw a quite dangerous accident occurring on the road during her charity work in Bosquet, and she will sadly not be able to join us for several days as she helps to prevent the event and subsequent issues from the change.” Vivienne held up her hands at the disappointed whispers. “Don’t fret, dears. She will be joining us for several days still, and those of you who excel in the midnight arts may attend those sessions instead of your other classes.”
I slumped. I didn’t excel. I couldn’t even stand to be in this room, and I’d need weeks to get better.
When supper ended, Gisèle slipped me a soft, slightly squished roll, her spectacles hiding most of her worried expression. The light caught her glasses—green lace lapping at a pale white neck and the shadow of a thick blade—and I cringed. Coline and Isabelle helped me back to our room.
Most of me felt guilty for being so needful.
But part of me liked it, the anxious looks and oddly comforting pat Coline gave my shoulder when she didn’t know what to do.
I had to get better. I had to meet Estrel.
But after that first night, I barely got better.
We spent the evenings after supper on improvement