Chapter 35
Don't Play Innocent
I glanced at the clock on the lobby wall. Two in the afternoon. The results were about to be posted.
Movement at the far end of the hall caught my eye, an official approaching the large notice board, a stack of papers in hand. My heart lurched.
This was it. No more waiting.
I joined the growing crowd of examinees. The atmosphere was thick, filled with hope, fear, ego, desperation swirling together into something electric. I spotted Lilith and her friends several feet away, pretending to be calm. Their stiff shoulders betrayed them.
The official pinned the first page.
The pass list.
A wave of gasps, chairs scraping, bodies pressing forward. It became a chaotic storm of elbows and craning necks. I squeezed through, eyes scanning the page. Names blurred. My hands were trembling.
I didn't start at the top. I was too afraid to look.
I started in the middle.
My gaze slid upward.
And then...
There it was.
