“I find you hard to resist. So I chose a tactic to assist me in that.” Prospero had the grace to look a little sheepish at her admission.
“Hmph.” Ellie scowled and marched forward. Maybe she was rushing, but no one was going to have the audacity to comment. Half the students seemed frightened of Ellie or Prospero or both of them, and the majority of them looked at Prospero with apprehension, at the least.
And yet,Iwas the witch Howie found scary.Ellie shoved that stray thought away. Her self-control was a little wobbly, but that would get easier. She was sure of it. Magic was like anything else. It took practice. Her first attempts at baking scones were no better than door stoppers, so to presume magic would be instantly reflexive seemed odd.
Ellie glanced at Prospero again.Maybe my self-control is not going to improve inthisarea, though.Regardless of the secrets between them, Prospero was everything that Ellie craved. Beautiful and deadly. Maybe the secrecy made it more thrilling… or maybe it was the thrill of the hunt.
“Do you refuse my advances because it makes me chase?” Ellie asked.
“No. I am attempting to be a better person, a person who might one day be worthy of—”
“Everyone deserves love,” Ellie said firmly.
“Even those who betray others?”
“So you think what happened was a betrayal?” Ellie’s gaze narrowed. “Watch out!”
Prospero pulled Ellie to her as a woman walked by with a tower of boxes tall enough to completely obstruct her view.
“It’s so much more chaotic in the passageways,” Prospero pointed out with widened eyes as she shifted the basket of food to avoid spilling it. The castle was increasingly crowded as people from the edge of the village had been moved into the empty rooms. Ellie had obviously never visitedeveryroom, but all the hallways seemed longer. There was a wing on the east that she hadn’t recalled existing before, either. She was notthe only one thinking it. At least three students had suggested that there were two extra floors.
“It’s bigger than it used to be.”
“The castle simply grows sometimes.” Prospero shrugged, as if buildings shifting and reshaping was a perfectly normal experience. It wasn’t, as far as Ellie knew, but Crenshaw was still something of a mystery. “The Congress is moving witches in.”
“What if there are New Economists in the group?”
“Every witch is given a choice to be siphoned first, so if anyone thought that going back was better, they have that chance.” Prospero frowned slightly.
“What if they can’t be?”
This time Prospero paused. “Only the low-magic-level witches are moving into the castle. It protects them from the rift and the rogue witches but doesn’t endanger students.”
Ellie paused, a stray thought wriggling up out of the depths of her mind. “Could I have been siphoned?”
Prospero’s expression blanched. “Do you want to be?”
“You’re avoiding the question.” Ellie caught her gaze. “CouldI?”
“No.”
Ellie was certain that detail mattered, but she wasn’t sure why. She stepped around a pair of students coming out of another room. There was something about this that was unsettling her wife, more so than the topics of threats and dangers, so Ellie decided to be sure they were back on track.
“No gift today for me?” Ellie teased, hoping to pull Prospero out of her reserve.
“Just me, unfortunately.”
“That seems like an excellent gift.” Ellie squeezed her hand. “You know I don’t needthings,don’t you?”
“You wanted me to court you,” Prospero said, sounding more awkward than usual. “Gifts, attention, flowers, praise. There are rules.”
“I want you todateme.” Ellie unlocked her door and pushed it open.She felt briefly self-conscious that all of Prospero’s recent gifts and notes were beside her bed, but at the same time, she wanted Prospero to notice that Ellie treasured each token, too.
Notice that I think about you before I sleep each night.
Both the click of the door shutting and then the thud of the lock being thrown seemed louder somehow, reminding Ellie that she was alone in a locked room with her wife.
“That’s much better,” Ellie murmured.
