“Things will be different now,” Aunt Tirtzah said. “People are scared of shedim but also want their favor.”
“Seems two-faced.”
“Welcome to politics.”
“Hm.” I picked at my food. The scent of the coffee wafted up, bringing with it thoughts of home and my family. I wondered what my parents would think of all this. I wondered if they’d ever hidden anything as big as this fromtheirparents. “What was my dad like when he was my age?”
“Your father…” She looked out the window. “You remind me of him, in how curious you are.”
“Grandma and Grandpa didn’t want him to be a sailor, did they?” I’d never met my paternal grandparents, who’d died when I was twelve, still estranged from my father. He had returned to Talum for their shiva and made peace with his sister then. It was one of his greatest regrets, that he’d never reconciled with them, and that they’d never met me and my sisters.
“No. Our parents were…difficult. They had no money but plenty of pride.”
“How did you get into politics?” I’d never asked before, which embarrassed me.
“I went to the Lyceum for humanities, but I was frustrated by what the Sanhedrin of the time was doing, so I switched to government. I wanted to change the world.”
“And did you? Have you?”
“Have I?” She smiled wryly. “Not nearly as much as I thought I would have by now. It takes longer than I realized.” She looked back at her paper. “Won’t your classes be starting soon? Samuel will drive you to the Lyceum.”
“Oh,” I said, taken aback. “I thought I’d take today off. Since. Yesterday was exhausting?”
Aunt Tirtzah put her coffee down. “You thought you would skip classes?”
And this was why I didn’t want to live with family. “I don’t have my books or papers or anything.”
“Then you should probably leave now so you have time to pick them up.”
~~~
Samuel drove me hometo pick up my things and change, and from there to the Lyceum. Instead of heading to Intro to T3, I lingered by the brass entrance gates at the land bridge, which all students had to cross through to enter the peninsula. I’d knocked on Leah’s door at home, but she hadn’t answered, and I had to hope I’d beat her to school since I’d traveled by carriage instead of walking.
To my relief, I saw her a minute after Samuel dropped me off, and we collided in a hug. “Are you okay? What happened?” she demanded.
It felt like a hundred years had passed since I’d last seen her. “A million things.” Too many people were looking at us, so I looped my arm through hers and tugged her over to a bench beneath a willow tree, whose draping branches gave us some privacy.
“They’re saying Daziel’s a high demon. That he stopped the storm in its tracks at the Rocks.”
“It’s—sort of. He is a high shayd. That’s not the only reason the spell was so powerful, though.” I told her about the binding, the arrest. Going to the Sanhedrin, fighting. The kiss.
Leah listened, wide-eyed, affirmingly astonished. “How do you feel?” she asked at the end. “You kissed! Finally! But he lied. Do you like him? Do you hate him? Where are we at?”
I groaned. “I have no idea. I wish he wouldtellme why he was here. I believe he’s not here for my aunt, but what other reason is good enough?”
“I don’t know.” Leah screwed up her nose in thought. “Okay. Whatdowe know?”
“He’s here in Talum,” I said. “More specifically, at the Lyceum. So—maybe he’s here for something we can offer?”
Leah nodded, tapping the toes of her silver boots against the ground as she thought. “The Lyceum has knowledge, I suppose that’s the most obvious. Students—professors. Though it’s not exactly like he’s kidnapped anyone. Neshem stores? Though I’m sure there’s more elsewhere.”
“Knowledge is interesting,” I said. “We could have something in the library…some book or something he wouldn’t have access to otherwise…”
“Does he spend much time in the library?” Leah said doubtfully. “Mostly he’s with you and playing knockball, right? And crocheting.”
“He goes to the opera,” I offered, falling back against the bench and staring up at the willow branches. “Maybe there’s a magical knockball he’s trying to find. But yeah, mostly he’s with me, and the only thing I do is…”
It slammed into me, so hard and fast and sickeningly right I gasped, latching my hand over the bench’s edge for support, the wood smooth beneath my palm.
