Anyone else would have probed further.
Luc, for some reason, didn’t.
I was glad he didn’t, because I had no idea what I would’ve said, but it made me think about Luc himself. There was a lot about him I still didn’t know. I’d always liked him, from the moment we’d first met, but I tended to overlook him in some ways. Maybe it was because he was so quiet, or maybe because he always seemed to have everything all worked out. It bothered me, once the realization struck. Luc was definitely a good person.
He might even the best person out of all of my friends.
“How did you stop being friends?” I asked. “Did the two of you have a falling out? You and Bones? You don’t seem to acknowledge one another at all now.”
“No.” Luc shook his head slowly. “We didn’t have a falling out. I wrote both of them letters from France, and when I first started school in Switzerland. Alaric wrote me back, usually with ridiculous things he’d been up to, and a lot of questions about where I was, my new school, and so on. We probably wrote a hundred letters back and forth, but slowly stopped writing after a few years. Not for any specific reason, just because we got busy with other people, other things.”
“And Bones?” I ventured, watching his face.
Luc gave me a faint smile, even as he shrugged.
“Bones never wrote me,” he said. “Not once. I think I sent him four or five letters? Maybe more. I told him all about France,my classes, my siblings, my parents’ divorce. I finally gave up sometime after I got to Switzerland.”
When I saw Luc studying my face, I turned away, gazing out over the graveyard.
Miranda squealed while I watched, throwing something that looked like a water balloon at Draken. It hit the werewolf arm he’d magicked onto his body and exploded, letting out black spiders the size of cocker spaniels. Draken ran out of there, yelping, like a dog being chased by an angry bull. It would have been funny if we’d been talking about anything else.
“Don’t say anything to Draken,” I said, quieter. “About me fighting with Bones. I don’t want to get him all fired up about that again.” I glanced at Luc, thinking about what we’d just been talking about, and Luc’s advice. “It’s not just Draken, it’s Bones, too,” I admitted. “I have no idea why, but they really set one another’s teeth on edge.”
I drank down a few more swallows of wine, grimacing when I remembered our argument, and the last few choice words Bones had on the subject of Draken Joran.
“I don’t doubt it,” Luc said seriously. “I’ve seen the way he is with you. It’s like some twisted compulsion in him, to try to anger you.”
“You mean Bones?” I frowned. “I was talking about his issues with Draken, not me.”
“I know what you were talking about. I’m just not sure how much Draken has to do with it.” Luc hesitated as he studied my face. “I won’t say anything to Joran,” he assured me. “But Leda, really, be careful with Bones. I’m not saying you shouldn’t stand up for yourself. But don’t get too close. And don’t push him too far. Promise me?”
I forced myself to smile reassuringly at the worry in his blue eyes.
“I promise,” I lied.
29
The Bonfire
Present Day
November 27th
Experimental Magic Shed #4, Compartment 1
Malcroix Bones Academy
“What? What is the matter with you?” His voice was hard, irritated. “You said you still wanted to come. You said you’d do what I ask. Are you changing your mind about this now, too?”
I looked over from where I’d been staring at a lantern hanging from the wall of his shed compartment. I didn’t miss his dig about the night of my birthday, which he still hadn’t let go, but decided not to rise to the bait.
I wondered if he’d even known itwasmy birthday.
He seemed to be aware of that date last year, when he’d gifted me Wraith.
I fought to shake it off, to forget every part of that rehashed argument, which we’d had a dozen times now, much less thefight with Miranda about that same night, my conversation with Luc about Bones, and my conversation with Jolie while she’d been helping me with my Halloween costume. As much as I hated to admit it, I knew the conversation with Jolie lingered, too, and likely made some of those arguments with Bones worse than they needed to be.
Honestly, that was the main reason I was annoyed with him right now.
