“What do you mean?”
Alex’s finger trailed over the page to land on Morgan Le Fay. He tapped her neckline, and I inhaled sharply.
“Is that my necklace?”
Alex nodded. “And look at Merlin.”
My eyes snapped left, and I felt faint. While Morgan wore my totem, Merlin, with his hand outstretched and magic pouring from it, wore an item of jewelry too. A ring with a multicolored gem in the middle surrounded by two red stones, the same ring that Alex had bonded with at Imbolc.
Our totems were from Merlin and Morgan Le Fay.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“Oh my God, Isoooooneeded this workshop,” Eva declared as she filled a rocks glass with bourbon, sugar, bitters, and ice.
“You and me both,” I agreed, placing a strainer over my own shaker and pouring out a pineapple juice and vodka concoction that I was experimenting with.
Since learning who my totem belonged to, Alex and I had either been studying, practicing magic to prepare for the upcoming Beltane Trial, or researching Morgan and Merlin. I was holding out hope that if we found information that related our totems to Merlin and Morgan—or M&M, as I now thought of them—it might give us a lead on the prophecy. So far, we’d had zero luck on both fronts. Just the thought made my heart race, so I took a sip of my martini.
Holy crap, I make a mean pineapple martini!
“You ladies know that the point of this workshop isn’t to get drunk, right?” Alex teased, joining our table after an extensive search for a grapefruit.
I shot him a look filled with mock shock. “Who on Earth would put a room full of underage college kids in a cocktail-making workshop and expect them not to drink? Live a little, Alexander Wardwell!”
Alex snorted and shook his head, but it was clear I wasn’t the only one who thought this way. This was one of the more fun workshops we’d had all year, and many of the first years were taking advantage of it. As were the upperclassmen, who walked by and mimed for my classmates to bring them a drink.
Whatever the rules of the bartending workshop were, I was damning them. I’d had a hell of a week, and while I preferred champagne, I was making sure my drinks had enough juice in them so that I’d find them palatable.
“How strong do you think Professor Medella will want drinks to be?” I asked, wondering if I might have made my cocktail too fruity. “And does anyone else think it’s crazy that the academy’s healing professor is in charge of this workshop? Or that this is our first experience with him, and he’s probably gonna end up wasted?” The ancient professor was already walking a little odd after only five “samples”.
“Hey, yours is over half juice. That’s vitamin C. A healer would appreciate that,” Eva reasoned, and snuck a not-so-tiny sip of her Old Fashioned.
“I’ve heard he prefers his drink on the stronger side,” Hunter grinned, clearly in agreement with the academy’s self-proclaimed mixology master. “The better to hide potions and poison in.”
“Or remedies.” Professor Medella, the extremely tall and gray-haired professor of Healing, sidled up to us. “Which, mind you, all react to alcohol differently. But you’ll learn more about that during your infamous Grind year. Has anyone perfected their signature cocktail? While it’s smart to have a wide range of recipes at your disposal, every intelligencermusthave a signature drink.”
I held a martini glass out for the professor. “Here’s my drink.”
Professor Medella took it and sipped. After he’d had about half of it, he set the glass down. “That, Miss Dane, is a well-rounded beverage. Few people can make such a versatile pineapple martini. No doubt you inherited your skills from your mother. If I recall, your father relied on ‘a stiff scotch’ as his signature drink.”
I laughed. “Thank you. And Dad still isn’t much of a mixologist, Professor Medella. As for my drink, are there any potions or poisons it wouldn’t work well with?”
Since we weren’t enrolled in healing yet, I knew very little about remedies, but I was skilled in our Herbalism, Potions, and Poisons class. More so with poisons, which Alex always liked to point out was creepy, but whatever.
The professor’s head nodded. “I wouldneverpair pineapple with belladonna, especially if you were trying to subdue other magicals. And any nettle-based potion would not leave a pleasant taste in one’s mouth.”
I nodded. “Okay, no nettle or belladonna with my pineapple. I’ll make a note of that.”
Professor Medella moved on to my friends’ drinks, declaring them also good, and Hunter’s spectacular. After a few more tries at variants of our signature drink, plus a few other concoctions to build our repertoire of cocktails that Professor Medella believed every good spy should know, we were all feeling damn tipsy.
“Holy shit,” Eva said, exiting the class with one arm wrapped around Hunter. “I wish all our workshops were like that one! I mean, this has got to be the coolest college ever!” She stopped and tilted her head. “Do you think the Feds know? Oh my God, I’m so glad we don’t have Physical Conditioning today. There’s no way I could run right now.”
Alex and I burst out laughing, and he wrapped his arm around my waist.
“I don’t think they care, sugar,” Hunter said, kissing a rambling Eva on the top of her head endearingly. “If us making a good drink is gonna get the bad guys, they’re probably all for it.”
“Touché!” Eva exclaimed.
