Simon, cheeky as can be, only shrugs and winks at him.
He bodily turns my stool to face him, and I let out a surprised laugh. “Okay, today is all about doing a Fairhaven tradition. One normally done in the spring, but fuck it. You go finish the sugary monstrosity I made Ellie make you and take a nap. Meet back in front of the library at 1PM, sharp.”
He pops off his stool, takes my hand and pulls me off of mine, gives me a quick twirl and a kiss on the cheek, and then spins me back into Marcus’ arms. “Don’t be late and come ready to play to win. Because you and I are teaming up and we’re going tosmokethem.”
* * *
“He’s fond of you,you know.”
I look up at Marcus as we make our way back to the library later that day. “Simon?” I shrug. “Sometimes I think so. Like when we’d dance…. there were a few times when I thought for sure he’d kiss me. But other times, I’m not so sure.”
“I’m fairly certain he wouldn’t plan a scavenger hunt to cheer up just anyone, sweet-tart.”
My cheeks go pink. “He would. That’s just the kind of guy he is.” I kick at some leaves as they whirl down the path.
“And I think you’re pretty fond of him, too.”
“I am. But I don’t… after Luca…”
“You found something in his dorm. You asked him if it was his. Juniper, what was it?”
I know what happens if I tell Marcus about the mask. My honor guard will go straight to the headmaster or the authorities, and Luca will wind up back in jail—for good. Still, I don’t want to lie to my honor guard.
“I’d rather not get into it,” I sigh. “Just… something that made me realize he’s not who he said he is.”
“Do you think there could be a reasonable explanation?”
Saints, how I’ve hoped. “No, I don’t. None that I can think of. And even if there were, he still lied to me. There’s no coming back from that.”
The words leave my lips and the finality of them strikes me, worse than anyagoniaspell, right in the heart. Hot tears spill down my cheeks and I rush to scrub them away as we approach the library.
But Simon sees them. He crosses to me in three long steps and bows his head until it nearly touches mine, cups my chin in one hand and with the other, brushes my tears away with the utmost tenderness. “No tears, kit-kat. Not today. I mean, unless they’ll help. If it’s what you need, scavenger hunt be damned. Bitsy, Ellie, Alyssa, and Darika can pound sand.”
“No, I want to do it,” I protest, my voice watery. “I don’t mean to be so weepy. It’s just…”
“It’s a lot. But you’re allowed to forget about it, if only for a few hours. Okay?”
I sniffle and then nod, letting Simon draw me to the sweeping library stairs.
Simon explains the scavenger hunt, a gleam in his hazel eyes. “Three teams, keep your honor guards close because the world is full of fuckery. First runner up raids the kitchens for ice cream. Second runner up buys the pizza. The winning team basks in the glory of being the greatest scavenger hunters ever.” He passes out small envelopes to me, Alyssa, and Ellie—the team captains, as he calls us. I recognize the prep-school cursive on the envelope as Cassian’s with only a glance and frown down at it.
“To keep things fair,” Simon continues. “I got someone else to draw the tasks and write them down for each of us. Each team has until we’re ready for pizza to finish all eight. Record the evidence with a photo or video. Points for style.”
Simon sends up a shower of silver sparks and the games begin. He doesn’t say who’s going to judge how well or how stylishly we do it, but I realize, as we crack open the envelopes, that it doesn’t matter at all.
I pull out the stack of colored index cards—basically flashcards—and thumb through them, Simon looking over my shoulder and snickering as he reads them. “Okay, ‘most scandalous drawing in a library book’? That one is too easy. That’ll be Bitsy’s first stop and she’ll leave a huge mess behind. It’ll be just like finding a smutty needle in a haystack of smutty needles. Oooh, ‘why I’d deserve detention’ is easy too. Want to go steal a shit ton of blankets and duvets from the laundry? I do it all the time for blanket forts.”
We sprint toward the dorms, Marcus following us at a leisurely jog, and Simon easily jimmies the lock on the door to the laundry room with his student ID card. The door swings open and I’m hit with a wall of warmth and neutral, clean-smelling detergent. The urge to dive straight into the stacks of folded duvets is almost overwhelming.
“Most epic nest ever, right? Well, come on. Grab a few. We’re definitely making a victory fort in the rec room later.”
I peek out the door and then back at the shelves full of clean linens. “No one’s gonna mind?”
“No one will ever know, as long as we throw them in the dirty laundry when we’re done with our fort.”
I dart forward, feeling oddly mischievous, and grab a stack of duvets, immediately sinking my face into them. When I look up, Simon flashes me a grin from behind his phone and I realize he’s been recording me the whole time. And I laugh. I laugh because we’re stealing linens to make a blanket fort like a bunch of dumb kids, because he caught me nuzzling into the soft duvets like they were nesting materials. Because I don’t feel at all ashamed. Not around Simon.
We leave the blankets in the rec room under a shielding spell and immediately set off to do the next challenge.
