What if she flipped through the scrapbook of her memory, reliving each snapshot of Maud’s death? What if I had to watch her die in slow increments that I could do nothing to stop? I would be trapped, as helpless as Woolly had been, caged in her memory and unable to act as my whole world shattered. Again. What if…? Gah. I hated this game. I had played it on too many nights in my cell.
“It’s okay to wait.” Amelie glanced up at me. “It’s all right if you’re not ready yet.”
Nodding was the best I could manage, and it still felt like my head was so wobbly it might pop off and roll across the floor to stop at her feet.
“You’re late for class,” she informed me with an arched brow.
“How can you tell?” Her phone was tucked behind her laptop, and there was no clock in the room.
“Oh, I have my ways.” Her eyes darted toward the window. “Let’s just say I’ve got this feeling.”
I rose from my chair and drifted toward the window to find Linus standing near the back steps, waiting.
Usually, the promise of good food kept me punctual. No wonder he was worried about me.
“Time to face the firing squad,” I said wryly. “He does not appreciate tardiness.”
“Want me to write you an excuse?” She scooped up her pen. “Grier was late to class because she was planning a trip with a pretty boy nerd who—”
Face going up in flames, I turned on my heel to go. “I’ll bring him an apple and take my chances.”
Evil laughter trailed me into the kitchen. Turns out I had no apples, so I lifted a pack of strawberry oatmeal and carried that and my grimoire out with me. Our eyes clashed the second my foot hit the porch, and Linus exhaled, long and deep, like he couldn’t breathe until he laid eyes on me.
“Heads-up,” I called and tossed him the packet, which he caught with ease. “I brought you an apple.”
“Oatmeal?” He rubbed his thumbs along the crinkled edges. “This says it’s strawberry flavored.”
“Check the ingredients.” I met him in the garden and winked. “Skip the big words you don’t know.”
His eyes glittered with humor when he looked at me and then the packet. “Ah. Dehydrated apples.”
“Yep.” I moved to reclaim the packet, figuring he would just throw it in the trash. He wasn’t much for convenience foods, or food at all, really. “They chop them up, dye them pink, add flavoring, and call them strawberries.”
Linus held it out of my reach. “You gave it to me.”
“You can’t want that.” I crossed my arms over my chest in challenge. “You won’t eat it.”
“You gave it to me.” He cupped his hands around it like he was scared my next grab might be successful. “I’m keeping it.”
“You can’t be so hard up that you’re going to hold on to an oatmeal packet. It’s not even brand name.”
Pink brushed his cheekbones, highlighting his freckles and the adorable cluster that resembled a daisy beneath his left eye, and he gestured for me to follow him into the carriage house, where he placed the oatmeal packet in the china cabinet.
I meant to trail after him, but my feet got stuck in front of that china cabinet. A packet of oatmeal, not even an actual apple, and he had given it a place of honor in his home.
Thinking back on all the little things he had done for me, all the not-so-little gifts he had bought me, all the meals he had cooked for me, I cringed from the comparison. The grimoire alone was worth a small fortune while I had gotten the entire box of oatmeal for less than two dollars.
Sensing his eyes on me, I rushed to catch up and dropped into my usual chair. “About this trip to Atlanta.”
The tension in his shoulders ratcheted higher. “Have you made up your mind?”
“I want to go.” I set Eileen on the table then petted the grimoire, its multiple eyelids fluttering in ecstasy. “If you still want me? To go, I mean.”
“I want you,” he said, tendrils of black chasing across his irises, “to go.”
The temperature in the carriage house shot up about a thousand degrees, and I started to sweat.
Thanks to Boaz, my brain had twisted Linus’s innocent comment until his pause made it sound flirty.
Resisting the urge to fan my face, I smiled weakly. “Well, that’s settled then.”
“You’ll enjoy Strophalos.” He sank into the chair across from me and flipped through his syllabus, which did nothing to hide his smile. “Every necromancer should see it at least once.”
My excitement dimmed a fraction when I recalled the actual reason for the trip. Linus wasn’t escorting a potential student. He was seeking more answers about my condition, ones that could reshape my future yet again or even cost me my life. “It’s worth playing lab rat to get a guided tour.”
“I planned on taking you there in three months, during the faculty tourney.” He glanced up at me then. “I’m required to participate each year.” Annoyance flattened his lips. “The university parades us around to entice new students and encourage benefactors to dig deep. The whole event is nothing more than peacocks strutting.” He shrugged. “You’re welcome to wait until then if you’d prefer, assuming you want to attend. You’re under no obligation to go now if you’re uncomfortable.”
No amount of flapping my lips produced more than a wheezing gasp. The faculty tourney?
When I was a kid, Maud had regaled me with stories about the complex and unique magics performed during the tourney. According to her, it was one of the few events where the Society played nice alongside vampires, wargs, and all manner of supernatural competitors who had only their tenure in common.
In a world where the Society kept us segregated from other supernaturals as often as possible, to an almost xenophobic degree, the event was legendary for its diversity.
For some, attendance was a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Exerting great effort, I muffled my inner fangirl for moment. “How?”
Campus security was rumored to be airtight to protect all those Society darlings. Students and staff were issued ID cards that allowed them passage through its outmost ring of wards, but that was just the start.
“We each get a plus-one.” His lips quirked in a knowing smile. “It’s a shame to let the ticket go to waste.”
“This is amazing.” I sprang from my chair and dashed behind him, bending down to wrap him up in a backward hug. “Thank you.” The chill of his skin seeped through his clothes into me, but I was getting used to the cold. “In case you can’t tell, that’s Grier for count me in.”
“We really have to work on your early-warning system,” he chided, but he didn’t shrug me off him. “There are requirements for attendance, but we can discuss those later. You’re moving along quickly in your studies. I doubt it will be an issue.”
I planted a smacking kiss on his cheek then returned to my seat. “What’s on the agenda for tonight?”
No response.
“I’m not opposed to working with Keet again, but I think it’s time we accepted that Julius is never going to play nice with him. Keet is too small. He sets off Julius’s predatory instincts.”
I cracked open my grimoire and thumbed to my notes on our last lesson. The pages were smeared with dried poop. I could read my notes through the flaking mess, but ugh. I didn’t want to touch it. Surely there had to be a sigil for cleaning paper we could use without erasing all my work.
The utter silence finally registered, and I peeled myself away from the grimoire to check on Linus.
Frozen in his chair, fingers pressed to his cheek, he stared at me like he had never seen me before.
“Too much? Sorry about that. I get excited.” Sinking low in my seat, I attempted to vanish in the face of his apparent mortification. “I’ll keep my lips to myself next time.”
“No,” he rasped, lowering his hand and shaking his head like he was waking from a dream. “Don’t.”
The shiver racing through me this time couldn’t be blamed on the temperature of his skin, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. “So…familiars?”