“It’s only a bit, and the changes are far enough apart that it’s hard for me to be sure. But… I think every time they morph, they get a little angrier.”
9
Periwinkle
In our shared dorm bedroom, Raze has usually preferred to stick to the shadows—although my most delightful memories are of the times we’ve spent together in physical form.
We haven’t had that kind of intimate fun since we got back from our first mission. During the few days we’ve spent at the school, Raze has hardly seemed to be in the dorms at all. I was starting to worry that he’d asked for a new room.
So when I walk in after lunch and sense his presence coiled in the shadows beneath his bed, I want to break out the streamers and confetti.
As I turn toward him, he materializes so he’s standing by the side of the bed. His dark gaze, the eyes that can kill tempered by his contact lenses, rakes over me with an intensity that leaves my skin tingling.
“No one hassled you in the cafeteria?” he asks.
I shake my head and step toward him with a smile. “People keep whispering and gossiping, but they seem to have decided it’s mostly better to leave me alone. Other than Fen and Brine, of course. I ate with them, and everything was fine.”
“That’s good. No one should be picking on you, especially after everything you’ve done for other shadowkind.”
There are lots of things I’d like to do with this other shadowkind right now. Simply snuggling would be scrumptious.
But when I take another step toward him, Raze’s posture tenses just enough that I notice. He hasn’t moved towardmeat all, I realize.
Apprehension wafts off him, vodka-sour. He’s purposefully keeping his distance—as far away from me as he can get in the small room.
I stop, my throat constricting. “I’m glad I can count on you to look out for me.”
Raze’s voice comes out gruff. “Always. If you need anyone put in their place, I’ll be happy to teach them the lesson they deserve.”
His teeth flash against his tan skin in a brief motion that’s almost a grin, but it fades just as quickly as it formed.
I want to walk right up to him and wrap my arms around him, to thank him with the gesture as well as my words. But if something about being near me is making him uncomfortable, I won’t push.
The depressing reminder that even he is bothered by the accidental connections I created reminds me of my resolve to do whatever I can to sever them. I offer him another smile and return to the door. “I’ve got a little more work to take care of. You can have the room to yourself.”
“Peri!”
When I glance back at him, Raze looks pained. A twisted, bittersweet current flows from him to me. “It’s your room too. I neverwantyou to leave.”
He doesn’t exactly want me here either, though. Lies can’t travel through the tap between us.
“I know!” I say brightly. “I really do need to get something done.”
I step into the hall and go off in search of a certain wintery fae.
Hail doesn’t respond to my knock on his bedroom door. When I push my awareness toward his ice-tinged part of our connection, I can tell he’s not in there. I venture out of the dorms and on to the cafeteria I just left, the last place I saw him.
The room is set up like a casual restaurant today, with checkered tablecloths and a few students walking around refilling glasses now that everyone has ordered. Hail is leaning back in his chair where he’s sitting with several other students, including Gloss, who’s trailing her fingers along his arm in a gesture that makes me bristle for reasons I can’t explain.
I’ve always tried to be friendly or at least peaceful with the disdainful shadowkind woman… but suddenly I’d like to blast that hand right off her.
Somehow I don’t think the administration would accept “she was petting my teammate” as reasonable justification.
I don’t get any sense that Hail is all that affected by her touch anyway. His poise shows only his usual disaffection. The emotions I taste through our heightened connection are all bland-toast boredom and a little over-salted egg uneasiness.
A pretty poor breakfast, let alone lunch.
Am I really going to walk up to him with Gloss and her fawning friends right there? They cut people apart with just their words.
