"Ryan had no right to say those things."
"I don't even know what 'those things' are, but unless I've misjudged your age, you're too old to be throwing a tantrum over idle gossip."
"Throwing a - "
My words fell short as we reached Lissa working at a table. Her face and feelings told me trouble was coming. Eddie stood a couple feet away from her, leaning against a wall and watching the room. His eyes widened when he saw me, but he didn't say anything at my approach.
I slid into the chair opposite Lissa.
"Hey."
She looked up and sighed, then returned her attention to the textbook open in front of her. "I wondered when you'd turn up," she said. "Did you get suspended?"
Her words were calm and polite, but I could read her underlying feelings. Annoyed. Even a little angry.
"Not this time," I said. "Just got stuck with community service."
She said nothing, but the irate mood I sensed through the bond remained unchanged.
Now I sighed. "Okay, talk to me, Liss. I know you're mad."
Adrian looked at me, then her, and then me again. "I feel like I'm missing something here."
"Oh, great," I said. "You went and busted up my fight and didn't even know what it was about."
"Fight?" asked Lissa, confusion joining her anger.
"What happened?" repeated Adrian.
I nodded to Lissa. "Go ahead, tell him."
"Rose got tested earlier and refused to protect Christian." She shook her head, exasperated, and fixed me with an accusatory glare. "I can't believe you're seriously still mad enough to do something like that to him. It's childish."
Lissa had jumped to the same conclusions as the guardians. I sighed. "I didn't do it on purpose! I just sat through a whole hearing on this crap and told them the same thing."
"Then what happened?" she demanded. "Why did you do it?"
I hesitated, unsure what to say. My reluctance to talk didn't even have anything to do with Adrian and Eddie overhearing - though I certainly didn't want them to. The problem was more complex.
Dimitri had been right - there were people I could trust, and two of them I trusted unconditionally: him and Lissa. I'd already held back from telling him the truth. Would I - could I - do the same with her? Although she was mad, I knew without a doubt that Lissa would always support me and be there for me. But just like with Dimitri, I balked at the idea of telling my ghost story. Also just like with Dimitri, it left me in the same bind: crazy or incompetent?
Through our bond, I felt her mind, pure and clear. There was no taint, no darkness, or sign of madness - and yet, something tingled in the background. A slight stirring. Antidepressants took awhile to fully get into and out of one's system, but her magic was already waking up after one day. I thought back to my ghostly encounters, dredging up the memory of that sad, translucent Mason. How could I even begin to explain that to her? How could I bring up something as weird and fantastic as that when she'd been trying so hard to get a little normality in her life and now faced the challenge of getting her magic under control?
No, I realized. I couldn't tell her. Not yet - especially when it suddenly occurred to me that there was still something else big I needed to let her know about.
"I froze," I said finally. "It's stupid. I'd been so cocky about being able to take out anyone, and then Stan ..." I shrugged. "I don't know. I just couldn't react. It... it's really embarrassing. And him of all people."
Lissa studied me intently, looking for any sign of dishonesty. It hurt to think that she'd mistrust me, except...well, I was actually lying. As I'd told Dimitri, though, I could be a good liar when I wanted to be. Lissa couldn't tell.
"I wish I could read your mind," she mused.
"Come on," I said. "You know me. Do you really think I'd do this? Abandon Christian and make myself look stupid on purpose just to get back at my teachers?"
"No," she said finally. "You'd probably do it in a way where you wouldn't get caught."
"Dimitri said the same thing," I grumbled. "I'm glad everyone has so much faith in me."
"We do," she countered. "That's why all of this is so weird."
"Even I make mistakes." I put on my brash, overconfident face. "I know it's hard to believe - kind of surprises me myself - but I guess it has to happen. It's probably some kind of karmic way to balance out the universe. Otherwise, it wouldn't be fair to have one person so full of awesomeness."
Adrian, blessedly silent for a change, was watching the two of us talk, much as one would look back and forth at a tennis match. His eyes were narrowed slightly, and I suspected he was studying our auras.
Lissa rolled her eyes, but fortunately, the anger I'd felt earlier lightened. She believed me. Her gaze then lifted from my face to someone beyond me. I felt the happy, golden emotions that signaled Christian's presence.
"My loyal bodyguard returns," he declared, pulling up a chair. He glanced at Lissa. "Are you done yet?"