Page 118 of Rite of Unity

I grabbed the door handle, wrenching it toward me, and the car jerked to a stop as I tumbled out.Bile spilled over my lips as my stomach heaved once, twice, a third time.I wiped my mouth with my gloved hand and grimaced at the line of brown streaking it.

My hand pressed heavily into the side of the car as I stood on shaking legs.

The chaperone stared straight ahead.

Trembling fingers squeezed into fists as moments from the ball, the trial, the forty-eight hours trapped in my room, flooded in.Elias’s words clanged through my mind like a tuning fork.It will get better.I promise.

Was this better?I hadn’t even had time to read the instructions for my next trial.Vera hadn’t come.It was less than twenty-four hours after the last elimination.I tugged the tablet out of my pocket, touching the screen.

It wasn’t Saturday, it was Sunday.I’d slept through an entire day.Worse, there were no messages about Trial Eight.If this wasn’t a trial… what was it?

We pulled up outside of a Covenant Reproductive Center, and the blood in my veins iced.I glanced at the chaperone, but she continued to stare at nothing as the car stopped.

Not Trial Eight.Another test.The fertility test.

It was the one thing I couldn’t study for.The one variable that I had no control over.

I pressed trembling fingers to the door handle.

Inside, pale pink walls swallowed me, pressing tighter as I made my way to a reception desk.A woman, wrapped in pastel pink, looked up smiling.She was young, barely old enough to have reached eligibility.In the Middle, only men held positions within the medical field.Women weren’t allowed inside unless they were with a chaperone or a parent.

Another thing that was different in the Center, it seemed.

“Welcome, Maryn Veil, daughter of Joel Veil.”

Was I the last?Again?

“You’ll be in room one.The doctor will see you shortly.”She tipped her chin toward a door with a large one painted on it.

I nodded, twisting my glove to hide the brown smear.My hair was unbound, tangled knots pulling at my scalp, and the bodice of my dress dug painfully into my ribs.

The woman staring back at me had no dark circles under her eyes, no drool on her cheek.

I turned.

“Undress fully and slip on the pink robe when you enter,” the woman called to my back as I approached the door.

Inside the claustrophobic room, the chaperone sat in a sturdy metal chair, facing the door.

I wriggled on the uncomfortable metal table, arms wrapped around thin fabric.Goosebumps pricked my arms; I resisted the urge to rub them.

The door clicked open, and my gaze shot to the man who stepped through.

“Are you decent?”

My cheeks flushed.

“Sorry.That’s a bit of doctor humor usually reserved for my pregnant patients.”The man grinned.“Because who wouldn’t be decent when they’re carrying a possible son?”

His laugh turned my insides, and I fought the grimace sliding over my face.Calm, Maryn.

He looked down at his tablet.“Right.A few questions, and then we’ll get started.”His fingers moved as he tapped.“Name.”

“Maryn Veil, daughter of Joel Veil, son of—”

“That’s alright.One name will do.”He smiled once more, but it was less jovial this time.

He stood over me, sliding a pair of glasses over his eyes.“Best invention of the last century if you ask me.”He tapped the frame.“You wouldn’t believe what we used to have to do to get this information.”He shuddered theatrically.“Very undignified.”