I gave her a side eye. “Seems to me you aren’t averse to one particular Daelighter ‘all up in your business.’” One side of her mouth pulled into a quirk as the pink darkened.
“You have no idea, Callie,” she said quietly. “There’s nothing in either world which could compare to being loved by Lexen.”
I had no doubt. I’d seen it with my own two eyes.
As we filed in as a group, the teacher’s expression didn’t change, remaining somewhat pleasant. Lexen started toward a back corner, but Emma stopped him with a hand on his forearm. She gestured toward a blond girl and lanky, curly-haired guy, who were waving to her from the front row.
“I’m going to sit with Cara and Ben.” I heard her murmur. “I haven’t spent any time with them lately.”
It looked like Lexen wanted to argue, but he just sucked in a deep breath and nodded. “Yes, it’s better that we don’t act out of character right now. Just … don’t leave the room without us, okay?”
He phrased it like a question, but I was pretty sure it was a command.
She returned his nod. “I promise.”
“Do you want to meet my friends?” she asked me quietly as the other Daelighters started to move.
I hesitated before deciding I’d rather stay with Daniel. “Thanks, but I’ll just stick with our group.”
She squeezed my hand, before turning and hurrying over to the front where her friends were holding a desk for her. The rest of us took our seats, and I kept waiting for some sort of reprimand from the teacher, but she didn’t say a word. Once we were all sitting, she just picked her lesson back up and continued on, like there had not been an interruption at all.Well, okay, then.
I followed enough of her lecture to know they were focusing on algebraic equations, but since I hadn’t made it past eighth grade math with homeschooling, the finer concepts were gibberish to me. With math, I knew enough to work out my groceries and pay someone for a job.
My body remained in a semi-tense state as I waited to be singled out or called on to answer a question. But the teacher didn’t say a word. In fact, she never asked a single question of the class; she just taught her lesson. Wrote everything on the white board. Handed out a few pieces of paper. Then dismissed us early.
As everyone filed out, I headed toward Emma. She was waiting by the door, her friends had already left the room. I had to ask: “Is this sort of class … normal? Shouldn’t she, I don’t know, ask some questions? Check to see if everyone understands the work?”
Emma shook her head. “It’s weird as hell. I’ve never even had homework. Or anything more than a little pop quiz. Most of the classes involve frank discussions about life, and then when you get to one like math, which is more technical, they just hit you straight up with the facts but never check to see you’re actually learning it.” She took a deep breath. “I’m getting used to it now, but honestly, I’m getting straight A’s here, and I haven’t even had a real exam.” She swung her head around and glared at Lexen. “That’s nothing to do with you, right?”
Her question was soft, but there was a ton of undercurrent there. Which Lexen definitely picked up on, if his somewhat amused expression was anything to go by. “Whatever grades you’re getting have nothing to do with me. There will be exams closer to December, and then again before we graduate. But for the most part, you’re getting the good grades because you participate. You take notes. You demonstrate your understanding throughout the class discussions. Teachers use their own judgment with that sort of thing.”
She gave him an extra-long measured look, before nodding. “Another reason to love this school. That and the food.”
My stomach growled then, despite the fact it hadn’t been that long since breakfast.
“What time is lunch here?” I asked, suddenly starving.
“It’s after the next class,” Daniel said. “But if you need to eat now, we can go grab something. I’ve made my appearance today. They won’t mark us off again until this afternoon.”
Emma reached out, smacked him in the arm, and then yelped and shook her hand in the air. “I need to learn to never hit you overly muscled ali—" She cut herself off but continued to wave her hand.
Daniel smirked, and my eyes went to his dimple. Stupid perfect dimple. “Lexen needs to toughen you up,” he said to Emma. “Got to keep your badass title.” She flipped him off and he full-on laughed. “That’s more like it.”
Ignoring that, Emma turned to me. “You can’t leave until we try this experiment with the four houses sitting together at lunch. We need to get that ball rolling.”
I agreed with that. “No worries. I think I can last another class before expiring from hunger. I’ve never been a huge eater, but the last few days I feel like I’m starving all the time.”
As I said that, I caught sight of Lexen and Daniel exchanging a look, and I let out a huge sigh. “What?”
“Your body is adjusting to the new bond,” Daniel told me. “It’s using a lot of energy, especially while you’re not in House of Imperial. You’ll need to keep your food intake up. I should have thought of that and brought you some snacks.”
Emma quickly grabbed her leather satchel, opened it, and pulled out two bars. “It’s not much, but hopefully they help.” She held them out to me and I shook my head.
“Wait, no, I can’t take your food.”
She laughed. “Don’t even stress about it. I was hungry a lot before I met Lexen.” She took a really deep breath and her eyes grew haunted, shadows dancing over her face. “My parents … they were killed in a fire set by Laous. I had to move in with old family friends, and we never had much money.” She hugged herself closer to the massive guy at her side. “But everything is different now. Firstly, Lexen feeds me all freaking day. And secondly, my guardians, Michael and Sara, work for House of Darken now. We have plenty of money and lots of food at home. It’s great.”
She went on to explain why her guardians used to move all the time, chasing rumors of Daelighters. But since they’d found out the truth – and almost died because of it – they were happy to give that lifestyle up. By the time she finished her story, I’d eaten the first bar, and we had arrived at the next class.
