An apprenticeship here would mean moving to Faunwood after I graduate. Which would also mean leaving Poppy behind at Coven Crest for her final year.
A year apart. Maybe longer, depending on what she decides to do after she graduates. Assuming she even wants to be with me that long.
Is she even with me now?I guess I’m still not sure what this thing between us even is.
The thought sits heavy in my chest. This feels like a great opportunity, but it would also mean distance between us, which is the last thing I want.
Alden was right. I do need to think about this.Reallythink about it. Maybe I’ll run it by Maeve. She usually knows what to do.
“There you are!” Aurora calls out when she sees the two of us. “Go wash up, and then we can eat.”
“Are the others back?” Alden asks as we approach the outdoor table.
“Any minute now,” Aurora says. Then her green eyes shift to me. “You too. Ten minutes in there and you’ve already got wood dust in your hair.” She laughs, and her eyes crinkle in the corners.
“What? I do?”
Poppy takes a step around the table, then reaches up, and I freeze as she brushes her hand over my hair, then across the shoulders of my cloak. “There. Much better.”
Maybe I should get covered in wood dust more often...
The fluffy white cat, Harrison, stands from the table and flicks his ears toward the forest lining the property, then meows, drawing Aurora’s attention.
“Perfect timing,” she says. “Everyone’s home.”
Chapter 28
Poppy
PROFESSOR SILVERMOON TOLD ME THAT Aurora has four partners, but somehow, I didn’t expect...this.
Alden and Rowan, who has long red hair and eyes as green as Aurora’s, are her two human partners, but the other two certainly don’tlookhuman, even if I’m not quite surewhatthey are.
Faolan is huge. When he approached the table, with his long dark hair hanging loose and a thin tunic clinging to his broad chest, I’m pretty sure I subconsciously shrank back against Aric. Thorne, on the other hand, is tall but lean, with snow-white hair and silver-gray eyes that remind me of ice in the winter. He walks with a cane, but when he and Faolan approached together, Faolan walked along at his pace, in no rush, while a girl with silvery hair skipped along behind them, wearing a crown of autumn leaves atop her head.
Now we all sit around the big outdoor table, with Alden bouncing the brown-haired child on one knee while he eatswith the other hand. Rowan sits on the other side of Aurora, his arm draped along the back of her chair, and he looks at her like she holds all the stars in the sky.
Under the table, Aric bumps my knee with his, and I have to fight not to let warmth rise into my cheeks.
“You’re students at Coven Crest?” the oldest girl, Soleil, asks me. She’s seated on her knees, leaning on the table a bit, like she’s hooked on every word we say.
“We are.” I nod. “I’m a third-year, and Aric’s going to be graduating this year.”
“Maybe,” he mumbles around a spoonful of vegetable soup.
Aurora’s brow furrows, and she lets out a small sigh. “I know all about that.”
“Yeah, she does,” says the second-oldest girl, the one with the flower crown, whose name Ithinkis Astra. It’s hard to keep track. “Mama was a terrible student. She almost got kicked out.” She and Soleil titter with laughter.
Faolan narrows his blue eyes. “Eat. And stop teasing your mother.”
“You tease her all the time,” Astra says, but she shoves a big chunk of bread into her mouth to appease him, and seeing the way they glare at each other across the table, I come to the conclusion that Astra must be Faolan’s daughter. She has the same brown skin, if a bit lighter, and their blue eyes are mirrors of each other.
“And you know Auntie Selene?” Soleil asks.
I nod while smearing what looks like apple butter onto my slice of sourdough. “I do. I’m her student assistant. She’s the one who sent me here.”
Soleil tips her head, her vivid green eyes catching the sunlight. “For what?”
