I squirm. “How’d you know my name?”

She laughs. “My name’s Cecily, and I know things.” She opens her closed fist to reveal a key.

“Follow me,” she says as she pads softly past us.

Shouts echo down the hallway, and I glance back at the gate that’s not a gate anymore. “Others are coming,” I say.

Cecily doesn’t turn around. “No, they’re not. There’s only four.”

“I can hear them.” But when I look back again, all I can hear are echoes.

“Only four,” she says again, and this time I don’t argue.

We trail her down the hall to a double door, and she pulls another key from behind Ethan’s ear with a wink. She pushes the key into the lock and turns it. “Congratulations,” she says as she pushes the door open.

CHAPTER 23

We step into the tithing room to a crowd of cheering magicians. Xander beams at me. I try to smile back, but the rush of using so much magic disappears. I wish I could’ve known it was coming, but I’d asked when the next part of the competition would be, and he’d said they couldn’t tell us. The Society wanted it to startle us.

It succeeded.

My knees shake. The nerves I kept frozen before unthaw under their applause. Normally I’d bask in the praise and the magic roaring inside me, but right now I only want to puke.

Lucius waves us to the center of the room so that we have to stand right next to the ravenous rosebush. Blood still drips from the petals and then disappears into the floor below like a vampiric fountain. Lucius’s eyes glitter with frost as he looks us up and down, assessing. He smiles at Ethan. Truth be told, he looks better than the rest of us in our torn, bloodied dresses.

I silently thank Roman for messing with my dress. At least no one can tell there’s blood on me.

“Welcome back,” Lucius says. “You are the final four.”

If Ethan lifts his chin any higher, he’ll be staring at the ceiling.

“And each of you showed a command of blood magic to get here.”

So it wasn’t an accident that my cut palm led me out. Blood was the only way free.

“We only use blood magic when absolutely necessary: to heal, to defend, to live. You showed the instinct to do what you had to do to win. Remember this. It may save your life one day.” He holds out a hand under the bloody roses and catches a single drop, which he lets run down his finger. “The next stage will begin tomorrow. You may go,” Lucius says.