“I’ll take it.” I beamed up at him. “How does a girl get extra credit around here? I want Woolly to have A-plus wards.”
“There are no shortcuts, Grier. Practice is how we strengthen your magic, how we hone your craft. Study is how you learn to protect yourself, how you secure Woolly and Maud’s legacy. You’ll pay for your education with blood and with pain, and you’ll hate me when we’re done. All my best students do.” He gave me the marked-up paper to study. “But when I finish with you, you’ll be able to decorate her foundation with gold stars.”
A hand cramp forced me to put down my pen. Linus still wasn’t satisfied, and that made me dissatisfied too. None of the previous incarnations of this ward had earned his seal of approval, and I doubted this latest one would either, but I was beat. A bronze medal would have to be good enough for tonight.
I tucked away the cheat sheet I’d made to help me decipher the more complex sigils. Those doodles would live to fight another day. Not that they had done me much good since I’d yet to earn higher than a B minus. Linus was not pleased when I used my notes as a crutch, but I didn’t see the difference in what I was doing and in memorizing formulae for math class.
“Here.” I thunked my head onto the table and lifted the paper in the air for him to fetch. “Be kind.”
“Kindness won’t protect Woolly,” he reminded me, all prim and proper. “Grier…”
“Flunk me quick.” I rolled my head to one side, pressing my cheek to the smooth wood. “I can take it.”
“Your C plus wasn’t a flunking grade,” he said, amusement clear in his tone, “and neither is this.”
“B plus?” I ventured. “That would be an all-new record for me.”
“Maud schooled you well in protective wards, particularly those designed with Woolly in mind. She always meant for you to continue caring for her.” A sweep of his arm encompassed the stacks of papers, the notes, the quizzes, all of it. “You knew this. You were proficient in this. You were just out of practice.”
“What I’m hearing is this was all remedial, and the hard work hasn’t yet begun.”
Thinking back on those weekends cooped up in Maud’s study, he was right. Warding had been my best subject. One of the few Maud had taught me. Assistants could become proficient in this area. Even a few Low Society folks with talent could use them. I had been allowed this one thing, and Linus was right. It was only because the task of maintaining Woolly was always meant to be mine.
“Baby steps.” He wrote on the paper and pushed it across the table with his fingertips. “This is your final grade.”
Braced for the worst, I sat upright and pulled the grade closer. “An A minus?”
Linus studied me as he capped his marker, like he couldn’t read me. “Are you disappointed?”
“Are you freaking kidding me?” I leapt to my feet with a whoop and tackled him with a hug. “This is the best grade I’ve ever made.”
“Oomph.”
“I’m not squeezing that hard.” I tipped my head back and laughed at his frozen expression. “You’ll live.”
Faint color blossomed under his skin, pinking his neck all the way to his hairline. “You startled me.”
“The whooping wasn’t your first clue? It’s like an early-warning system.” Neither I nor my excitement were subtle. “Next time you hear it, run if you don’t want to get tackled.”
“I’ll remember that.”
A few curt raps on the window nearest us startled me into squishing the breath out of Linus for real.
Boaz stood in the garden, a frown tugging on his lips, and raised his voice to be heard through the glass. “Am I interrupting?”
Linus tensed beneath my hands, the muscles in his back pulling taunt. Through the fabric of his shirt, cold bled into my cheek where it mashed against his chest until one half of my face went numb. He rested ice-block hands on my shoulders and set me back, away from him.
“Refine your design.” Mist poured over his lips. “We’ll start etching the foundation tomorrow.”
“Yeah.” I tried not to look like a barnacle chipped off the side of a ship and wondering where to cling next. “Okay.”
Without a backward glance, he vanished behind the stacked trunks he had yet to relocate.
“How can you stand being cooped up in here for hours with him?” Boaz had invited himself in and now leaned in the front doorway, his arms folded over his chest and his ankles crossed. “He’s as dull as dishwater.”
An instinctive defense for Linus rose in me, but I didn’t want to start a fight when we had plans. I could always pry open that can of worms after I’d been wined and dined. And probably dump them over his head.
“You’re early.” I linked my fingers and reached toward the ceiling, stretching out my sore back. “What about my session with Taz?”
“I hate to break it to you, Squirt, but Taz left an hour ago. She saw you two working and figured it was more important.” He watched the show like he was wishing for popcorn. “Besides, she knew we had plans tonight.”
“Fiddlesticks.”
A scowl cut his mouth that he aimed in the direction Linus had gone, like it was his fault I’d let the hour get away from me. “That is not what a guy wants to hear when he comes to pick his girl up for a night out.”
“You pout almost as much as I do, and you’ve got a fuller mouth, so you look better doing it.”
“You’ve noticed that, huh?”
The way a scar bisected his bottom lip, giving it an almost heart-shaped appearance? Or how that same pinkish line curved through his upper one, twisting the edge? Both injuries from a stunt gone wrong, one that had stopped my heart until he flashed a bloody smile at me and flipped up both his thumbs. Imperfections that made him uniquely Boaz. Had I noticed his lips? I would go to my grave with that answer. I had obsessed over them, what noises he might make if I bit down on that scar, what sounds I might make if he let me. But he didn’t need to know any of that. Ever.
“As much as you love to run your mouth?” I mimed him jabbering away with my hands. “It’s hard to look away once your gums start bumping.”
“Hmph.”
“I’m sorry I’m not ready.” I tidied my stack of papers, stuffed what I needed in my grimoire, and joined him in the garden, pulling the door closed behind me. “I wanted to look nice for you, but now I’m tired, and you’re stuck with me as is. I hope that’s okay.”
“He’s working you that hard?” Boaz threw a companionable arm around my shoulders and guided me toward the house. “I’m surprised he doesn’t keep a ruler handy for rapping you on the knuckles when you answer wrong.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” I wedged my elbow between his ribs and dug in. “I like how you assume I answer wrong often enough he needs to keep it on him.”
“Do you always celebrate the end of class with a round of hugs?” He clamped me tighter against him, trapping my arm to avoid another jab. “Isn’t that a little kumbaya for you?”
“I’ll have you know,” I said haughtily, “I made an A minus on a warding test.”
“And that merited a hug?”
Jealousy was usually my thing, not his. I doubted he had envied anyone in his life. Until now. Until Linus. The green-eyed-monster look was new on Boaz. I wasn’t certain if I liked it reflected back at me.
“You have no idea how hard this is.” In a move that would have made Taz proud, I hooked my leg through his and sent him stumbling. “I have brain cramps from what I did today.”
“Goddess, Grier.” He managed to correct his balance before he ate dirt. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Well, it’s what I meant.” I refused to apologize. “I was excited. I don’t see the crime.”
“You’re playing with fire letting him get on your good side. He’s ingratiating himself to you.”