“What for?” David asked, but Alexander only shook his head.

“All in good time. Now, Miss Price, the Peirasmos began as of midnight tonight. There are three trials you will undergo before the end of this moon cycle. The trials may be physical in nature, or perhaps tests of the mind, of your spirit. You will not know when they are coming, and you will not receive any assistance. To do so violates the laws of the Peirasmos, and would be considered a failure of the tests. At the end of the trials, you will be stronger, quicker, better at being a Paladin, and Miss Franklin”—another nod at Bee—“will lose her own Paladin powers and return to life as before. Have I made myself clear?”

“As mud,” I muttered, and he frowned again.

“Pardon?”

Waving that off, I took a deep breath. “I get it. I do these trial things, I get better powers, I don’t die, and Bee gets to be de-Paladined.” I looked back at Bee, still standing in the doorway. “Is that what you want?”

She didn’t even hesitate, her head bobbing up and down quickly. “Yes. God. Like... a lot.”

That was it, then. It’s not like I’d ever had much of a choice in this thing—“do this or die” is not a choice, let’s be real—but seeing the relief on Bee’s face was enough to make me feel a little better about all of this. Go through these trials, get even more powerful, don’t get killed, and Bee gets to be happy? That seemed worthwhile to me.

But that wasn’t the only reason I found myself turning back to Alexander and saying, “I guess I’m in.” It was that something twisting in my stomach, and I knew it was part nervousness, but more than that, it was a little bit... excitement. Look, I’m not saying I didn’t feel terrible about this—after all, it was probably going to mean more lying, and definitely more danger, but for the past few months, I’d felt like I was in this weird stasis, waiting for something to happen. And now here it was.

And here was Bee.

I took her hand and started pulling her toward Alexander’s office door, even as David said, “So that’s it? We’re leaving?”

“We need to get Bee home,” I said. “And I think we’ve heard everything Alexander has to say.” Flipping my hair over my shoulder, I looked at the Ephor with raised eyebrows. “Unless there’s some other horrible thing you’d like to dump on us tonight?”

To my surprise, he replied, “No, I’m finished for now.”

At least he didn’t try to argue that this had not been horrible. That was something.