Lumière (The Illumination Paradox) Read Online Free Page A

chin juts out at me over the stones. “Not that a student as astute as yourself would engage in such criminal activity. Or would she?”
    I say nothing, just glower into Smrt’s beady black eyes, which, without their tiny white rims, could easily belong to any of the ravens still swirling about my head.
    “Don’t tell me I’ve rendered you speechless?” He laughs. “I thought that only happened to you in class.” I bite my lip, choosing again not to grace him with an answer, worried about where this line of questioning might go.
    He slithers up the stairs, quickly closing the space between us. “Tell me,” he leans forward, whispering at my ear, the stench of his digesting kipper breakfast on his breath. “What happens to you in those glazed-eye moments, when you sit stuck in a stare, gazing lifelessly out the window, unable to form an answer in class? Is it fear that consumes you…”—he moves in even closer—“…or is there something deeper that disturbs you, Eyelet? Something that might reek of...Madness?”
    A jolt of terror bursts in my veins. I pull back, trying hard to collect my breath. He doesn’t know. How could he? I’ve never had a full seizure in class. He’s just fishing. Trying to bait me. I mustn’t crack. I turn and take to the stairs in a whirlpool of black flight and dark chatter, feathers striking softly against my cheeks.
    “That’s it, then? You’ve nothing to say in your defense?”
    “I have plenty to say.” I whirl about.
    The professor’s brows twinge.
    I swallow hard and settle back on my heels, realizing what I’ve done.
    Confrontation with faculty members is prohibited at Brethren’s Academy of Scientific Delves and Discoveries. Immediate grounds for expulsion at the discretion of any faculty member, should they feel the need arise. Not to mention, I’ve just challenged male authority in a world where women have no right to do so. Participating in a dangerous display of sudden broken temperament. I only attend this school on the good graces of my deceased father’s reputation, one of only a handful of girls in the Commonwealth to be granted such a gift. And now, I fear I may have thrown it all away—with one thoughtless lash of the tongue.
    The professor tsks, his left eye twitching the way it does when he reaches for relief from his Palsy puffer in class. He circles me, his eyes worrying the hair on the back of my head, before appearing again, purse-lipped, in front of me. “Caught consorting with ravens followed by a clear break in temperament. You know what this means, don’t you?” He reaches into his breast pocket.
    “No sir, please,” I cringe.
    Sudden breaks in temperament are considered the first diagnosable sign of Madness within the Commonwealth. Especially in women, the so-called more mentally plagued gender.
    He produces pencil and notebook from his pocket and flips the book open, my future dancing in his cold-hearted hands.
    I gasp. “I’m sorry, sir,” I sputter. “I don’t know what got into me. I promise you, it won’t happen again—”
    “But alas, it already has.” He grins and licks the end of the pencil, then begins scrawling a note in the tiny book. “Such a pity, really.” He glances at me, his bare brows lurched. “I knew your father well. How he’d roll in his grave to know what’s become of you.”
    The last word rolls off his tongue like poison infecting every fiber of my soul. I purse my lips trying to keep my words from coming, but they seep out anyway, harsh and crisp and curt. “You haven’t enough proof. The Council won’t believe you. My academic record here at the school is impeccable. They’ll never believe Madness could coexist with such brilliance. You’ll lose. And then you’ll look like a fool.”
    Smrt’s eyes reduce to mere pinpoints. He glides toward me, his lips nearly brushing the lobe of my ear as he whispers. “If not bound by the contractual agreement arranged by members of the Academy, upon