It was the last thing I wanted, so I made up my mind to let him come to me.
I told myself I needed to study. I also needed to spend time with my other friends, and try to minimize my obsessiveness long enough to not fail all my classes.
It was hard though, after seeing Alaric every day and most nights for weeks. Now I could see him, but I couldn’t talk to him, or really even acknowledge his existence. So far in the school year, we’d managed one, rushed, coffee date at the Black Fox Teahouse on Bonescastle Square while I was in town, ordering a dress for the Second Year’s Party. Other than that, I’d only seen him in class, and occasionally in the Valarian dining hall.
Because of all those things, I couldn’t suppress the shiver of relieved, pleased excitement that ran through me when Alaric finally reached out.
A paper dragonwinged through the air around where I sat in class, tilting its wings to make a full, swooping circle before landing on the wooden desk in front of me.
I watched it, marveling at the magic, and picked it up to unwrap it with some regret.
There were only a few people it could have come from.
Only one of them was in myDark and Light Magicks 01class that Friday morning.
I didn’t glance over at Alaric, but I wasn’t at all surprised to see his perfect, elegant, very royals-trained pen-strokes on the piece of parchment he’d magicked. I smoothed it out, and studied the symbols he’d carefully drawn.
We’d worked out a code for any communications we needed to keep private during the school year, but I hadn’t yet had an opportunity to use it. It was the first time he’d used it to write to me, either, so I was instantly intrigued. We’d both agreed we couldn’t leave the decoding key lying around, so we’d made an effort to memorize all of the symbols and their meanings, although I had the key written in a journal I hid in my dormitory, just in case.
As it turned out, I remembered the symbols well enough to not need it.
? ? ? ? † ⇓ ? ? ? ? ? ? Ω ? ? ? ? µ ø ? ? Ω ø
Broadcast tonight. 10:30 p.m. Eyrie.
I read it twice, making sure of each symbol.
Then I set it on fire.
Blue and green flames swiftly turned the note to a pile of white ash, which I merged into my wooden desk with a different incantation and mudra. Probably overkill, but I didn’t want to risk that someone watching me could reverse the fire spell well enough to realize “the hybrid” had received a coded message from an heir to one of the oldest families in the royal succession line. Even if that person couldn’t read the actual message, it was a bad idea.
I felt a hard stare from Alaric’s direction as I finished.
When I glanced up, it wasn’t Alaric I found watching me, though.
Gold eyes focused briefly on my desk, right where the ash had been.
I froze, watching him frown as his irises slid briefly out of focus. I recognized the look from the year before, back when we’d spent time together. He was looking at my desk with that unusual magic of his. That, or he was using it to look at me. I immediately blanked my mind. I didn’t move until he glanced up, caught me watching him, and his lip curled.
He looked away before I could make sense of his expression, but I saw his jaw tic after he’d gone back to facing the front of the lecture hall.
I fought not to care.
Fuck Caelum Bones.
He was probably just trying to intimidate me.
Even so, my heart raced harder and faster in my chest. I told myself it didn’t matter, even if Boneshadseen the note, even if he knew exactly who had sent it to me.
I couldn’t quite make myself believe it, though.
“Godsof the Underworld it’s cold!” Alaric blew on his hands, stamping his feet and watching me from behind the jagged wall. He wore an overcoat over a suit, but no gloves, and his lips looked nearly blue. “It’s like Persephone’s tit up here!”
I couldn’t help a stuttered laugh, but I didn’t disagree. I rubbed my arms over the thick coat I wore, wishing I’d worn more than the one jumper and long-sleeved tee under it. I’dthought, foolishly, it turned out, that it wouldn’t be this cold in October.
“You chose it,” I reminded him through numb lips.
“I know, I know,” he moaned. “And I absolutelydetestflying, too.”
