Free to Fall by Lauren Miller Page B

choose,” the deep voice went on. The lion stopped on the step just beneath me, its eyes at mine, and held out its gloved hands. There was an oversize playing card in each palm. “If you’d like to continue your candidacy, take the card on the right,” the voice boomed. “And speak of this to no one. You will hear from us again at the appropriate time.” I leaned forward to get a better look. The image was faded but exquisitely rendered, the card a mini painted canvas. The naked woman in the center held a staff in each of her outstretched hands and was hovering above the Earth, encircled by a textured green wreath. Below her were various animal creatures, their upturned faces strikingly similar to the masks I saw onstage. The voice continued. “If, on the other hand, you would prefer not to proceed with the evaluation process, choose the card on the left. No questions will be asked.” I slid my eyes over to the lion’s other hand. There was less to see on this card, just a single figure, a teenaged boy in a feathered plume hat. He looked like some sort of medieval peddler, a knapsack over his shoulder and a thorny white rose in his fist.
    Choose today whom you will serve.
    For the first time, my stomach didn’t sink when I heard the voice. Instead it lifted a little. Maybe the voice wasn’t the Doubt after all, but intuition, like the serpent said. His words had kindled something within me. I wanted to be whoever these people thought I was.
    The arena was completely quiet as the candidates considered their choices. I felt the lion watching me even though I couldn’t see his eyes. “Take your time,” the serpent instructed. But I didn’t need any. I reached for the card on the right.
    The lion nodded slightly then quickly withdrew his left hand, the card disappearing into the folds of his robe. With his right hand he took my elbow and turned me around so I was facing away from him, and then he tapped my lips with his fingertips. I opened my mouth and felt the thin strip on my tongue again. “I knew you’d get in,” the lion whispered then. He wasn’t using the distortion app this time, and I recognized his voice immediately. It was Liam.
     
    My awareness returned suddenly, all at once. Liam! The lion was Liam. It felt like a major discovery, but of course he’d given his identity away on purpose. He’d wanted me to know.
    I was back in my room, sitting upright in my bed, my boots still on my feet. The hooded robe was gone, and there was a stiff paper card in my right hand. My eyes darted to Hershey’s bed. It was empty. Had she snuck out again or had she been in that arena too?
    I looked down at the card in my hands. I could barely make it out in the dark. Soundlessly, I unlaced my boots and crawled back under the covers, pulling my mom’s blanket over me like a tent. If I heard the door unlock, I’d pretend I was asleep.
    I held my Gemini up to the card. Unlike the two Liam had offered me earlier, this one wasn’t painted in color. It was a single Z printed in shiny black ink with the number thirty-two beneath it. My graduation year. My heart was pounding as I ran my fingers over the ink. The symbol and number were different, but the design was identical to the one on my mom’s silver pendant.
    She was in the society too.
    My GoSearch for “secret society at Theden” didn’t produce any results. It seemed impossible, but there wasn’t a single hit with the words anywhere near one another. I tried “ancient alliance Theden” also to no avail. When I removed the reference to Theden, I got millions of hits. Pages dedicated to conspiracy theories about the Illuminati and the Freemasons and Skull and Bones at Yale, unofficial rosters of past members, even fan pages on Forum. But as soon as I narrowed my search, I came up cold. Whatever this “sacred alliance” was, it was completely off the grid. I felt myself smiling at my screen. A real secret society. How cool was that?
    I started a text to