Chapter 18 · Marked Absent

The classroom door slammed shut before Cass could grab it.

He heard the bolt slide. Then Proctor Vael's voice, muffled through oak but clear enough: "Roll call. Respond or be marked."

Mara was still three halls back. He'd left her at the ritual door, blade in hand, staring at her mother's name scratched into the frame. She'd told him to go. She'd said she needed a minute.

She didn't have a minute.

"Cass Veyr."

"Here," he said automatically. His hand was still on the door handle. He could feel the cold of the bolt through the wood.

"Nix Rowan."

"Present, sir." Nix's voice, nervous and too loud.

"Mara Flint."

Silence.

Cass's heart kicked. He turned. The classroom was packed, thirty students in tiered seats, all of them watching the front. Vael stood by the blackboard, attendance scroll in one hand, chalk in the other.

"Mara Flint," Vael repeated.

Nothing.

Vael's chalk moved. He wrote her name in the left column. The one with the red border.

Absent.

Cass knew what that meant. He'd seen it twice now, two loops back. Absent meant the wards didn't count you.