I knew exactly who that compartment belonged to.
“He won’t like that,” I blurted, unthinking.
Professor Quicksilver looked me straight in the eye for the first time.
“Mr. Bones didn’t get a vote in the matter,” he said, an overt warning in his voice. “Nor do you. Nor I, apparently. This was handed down by the school administration.”
His lip curled, and I found myself staring at him as it hit me he was actually angry, although it wasn’t clear if it was at me.
“…Given the two attacks on you, and what amounts to additional credible threats against your person,” he continued gruffly. “It seems a consensus has formed that I am not able to bring you up to speed quickly enough in a group setting. You require one-on-one tutoring, and as I don’t have time to hand-hold you through that process, Mr. Bones was offered up asa substitute. He holds a professional fighting certification and rank, so he’s one of the few on campus apart from me able to do it. Your sessions are also going to be extended, although some of that will be according to his discretion. They will also be increased from two to three days a week. You will meet with Bones in his shed compartment on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays this term, at two o’clock. You will not leave until he says you are dismissed. Bones has already been made aware, and is expecting you.”
Quicksilver rested his hands on his waist as his eyes met mine.
“I would not take this as a compliment, Ms. Shadow,” he warned. “Since you are unable to defend yourself like a normal witch, and are therefore vulnerable to becoming a school liability with your incompetence, you will need to work twice as hard to remedy that. I recommend you do as Bones instructs, because I’vealsobeen told I’m to give him a free hand. I wouldn’t give him an excuse to teach you the hard way, because you and I both know he will very happily take advantage of that license.”
I nodded, but my hands were already wringing themselves together compulsively.
Unlike what Quicksilver likely believed, I wasn’t worried about Bones per se.
I didn’t think he would hurt me for kicks, nor did I think he would likely use this as an excuse to put me in my place whenever I annoyed him. After Saturday, it felt strangely like we were on civil terms again, and at least tenuous allies, if not exactly friends.
I was significantlymoreworried about the attention this arrangement would garner. Most everyone in the school already hated me because of Graham. They would see this as more proof that I didn’t belong here, and worse, that I was now being given special treatment.
Also, there was Bones himself.
While he wouldn’t hurt me to be sadistic (I didn’t think?) he might do it to save face. He’d made it even more clear in our second negotiated “agreement” that absolutely no one could know we were working together. How would he keep people from gossiping about us, if everyone knew we were spending hours together alone?
Then there was his father. Would Bones feel the need to blacken my eyes every few days just to keep Bones Senior from thinking his son had gone soft?
It was clear Quicksilver wasn’t happy about the arrangement.
Despite his scathing words about my lack of competence, I didn’t get the impression he blamed me for this exactly, either.
He was looking at me more like…
Gods, was he actuallyworriedabout me?
Didhethink Caelum was going to use me as a punching bag? Because that didn’t bode well for how the royals would likely see it, or what they’d expect Bones to do to me behind closed doors, with the full blessing of the school.
I happened to glance to my left and saw Bella Chalmers, the witch who’d had her legs in Bones’s lap on the carriage ride to school, staring at me. The smug, gleeful look of triumph in her eyes was enough for me to know exactly what the royals would expect.
21
Sparring
Ihesitated outside the door to his shed compartment, fighting an odd feeling of déjà vu. After that few seconds’ pause, I knocked.
I couldn’t remember ever having done that before, which now struck me as strange, not only because the space was his, but now, with the added strangeness of who he actually was. He owned half the school, if not the entire school, or his family did. It was something I’d known before I attended my first class at Malcroix, but the reality somehow never sank in, not until the morning I woke up in his private living quarters inside Malcroix Mansion.
Something about the administration going to him, asking him to act as my private fight instructor, had driven the point home, although I couldn’t have said why, exactly.
WhywouldBones agree to this?
When no one answered the knock, I remembered the shed was heavily shielded, and soundproof from the outside. It must be the same from inside the shed.
Are you coming in?a familiar voice asked.Or has Quicksilver managed to convince you I intend to put you in a full body cast on the first day?
I rolled my eyes, but my nerves didn’t dissipate.
