“How do you feel?” Jereb asked when she slurped down the last of it. He was watching her intently, eyes scanning every inch of her face as though expecting a new golden leaf to appear at any second. The rest of the novices had dispersed, each off to do their own thing. Gruff headed into the forest again, while Clemmy had promptly settled into a hammock looking rather depressed. Julio was sitting on a stump studying a book, while Aliza was repeatedly growing and then retracting her quills. She didn’t shoot any of them, just flicked them out and in. Mirac sat in the shade of the godsblood hut in the center of the clearing, moping as usual.

“Like I ate sumthin’ rotten,” Perfidy said, remembering Jereb’s question.

“And now?”

“I jest told ye, I feel like I—” She stopped talking, warmth flooding her from head to toe. No, it was more than that. She felt stronger, like, well, power was surging through her body. The warmth on her face made her think that not one but a bunch more golden leaves were appearing, but when she touched her skin it remained smooth.

Even without her saying anything more, Jereb was nodding and smiling. “It’s great, right? I told you, didn’t I? If we had a thousand more bloodfruit we’d all have progressed our Abilities to their maximum potential by now.”

“I want to try agin,” Perfidy said, feeling suddenly impatient, like if she didn’t act immediately then all that power would flow out of her, lost forever.

“We will, but there’s no rush. Better to let your stomach settle a bit. The first time you eat a bloodfruit it can be a bit of a shock to your system. First let’s have our daily dose of pure godsblood to amplify the effect and then you’ll go apologize to Lady Brenner.”

“I ain’t doin’ that.”

“You must. Trust me, you don’t want to be on her bad side. This whole place pretty much runs as it does because of her.”

“But apologize fer whut?”

“You compared her to your dim-witted cousin.”

“That’s all ye mean? Sure, I can say I’m sorry fer that. But in my defense, she was actin’ rather…slow.”

“Maybe keep that part to yourself. But first, godsblood.” He drew a vial of golden liquid from inside his cloak and handed it to her. “Nice and slow.”

She tried to hide her impatience, but failed miserably, hurriedly uncorking the glass container and draining its contents without a moment’s hesitation. The sweet taste chased away the lingering foulness the bloodfruit had left on her tongue. Like yesterday, she was flooded with that feeling of false invincibility, her legs urging her to run off to train.

“Try flexing your fingers into fists and then releasing them,” Jereb instructed, once he was certain she wouldn’t sprout another leaf to join the other two.