They both startled as the outer door to the greenhouse banged open. Gransen bustled in. “Olly? You in here?”
“I’ll—” Eunny glanced down. In their surprise at being interrupted, she’d bumped against Ollas, her arm brushing his thigh.
Heat rose in his face. And other places. Ollas coughed nervously, angling his torso away, flush intensifying when Eunny tried, and failed, to smother a cackle.
“I take it back,” she murmured, grabbing an armload of the planting supplies they’d used. “Guess I can make one thing grow.”
If there was a time in his life where Ollas had ever been more mortified yet painfully aroused at the same time, he couldn’t recall.
Eunny winked at him, then in a louder voice, she called, “What do you want, gremlin?”
Ollas heaved an inward sigh once her back was to him and she’d gone to intercept Gransen. In a maneuver that was becoming far too practiced, he flipped his hardened dick back up beneath his waistband. And he tried, with little success, not to think about Eunny’s wicked delight in making him grow.
Chapter Fourteen
Eunny ducked out of her room, quieting her step as she went through the empty common area to the door. Ollas was back to sleeping in his own bed, the living area returned to a shared communal space. Papers were strewn across the table, a mix of Gransen’s studies, Ollas’s midterm prep, and various correspondence related to the elective. Eunny retrieved a piece that had fallen on the floor, lips twitching into a smile when she saw Ollas’s blocky handwriting.
A ramp-up in work hadn’t spared them much in the way of privacy since their talk in the greenhouse. Days turned into a week, and though he still flushed at her jokes, and laughter and conversation flowed easily between them, there was something else in the air now, too. Something charged. Glances that lingered a beat too long to be nothing. And, if she was honest with herself, those looks weren’t happening only one way.
Ollas had been true to his word, getting her added on as some sort of vaguely official consultant for the elective. She didn’t know how he’d sold it to Rai and didn’t ask. Ollas hadn’t said anything about their almost…whatever it was that had happened between them. That crystalline moment when she’d let her mouth run off and spill her angry heart. Spilled some feelings, too. Tested the air to see if the spark Dae kept asking about really existed.
And, oh, did it ever. The feel of Ollas’s hand on hers. His quiet, earnest words. The way he looked at her. Not to mention his other bodily reactions. It was unsettling, how she craved more. Which was unlike her. She didn’t mean to brag or anything, but whenever she’d deigned to “hop a boat to Renstown,” as Dae had put it, Eunny didn’t lack for choice. Her singledom of the last several years was of her own volition, a mix of busyness and apathy.
That had been her outlook since she’d settled in the Valley. And yet, Eunny was pretty damn sure that if Gransen hadn’t barged in on them, she’d have learned if that spark she felt with Ollas had a taste.
Which was exciting and a problem. She felt…safe, around him. No, not safe. Safety implied fear, and she wasn’t afraid of her traitorous magic. More like incandescent with rage. But, just with his presence, Ollas softened those emotions, too. She felt comfortable with him. Calmer. Enough to consider dabbling a bit more. Which was folly. Magic was dead to her, apothecary work just a thing of her past. Eunny was here to assuage her guilt, not to test out her magic. Not to make herself feel at home. Freckles and a few soft touches didn’t undo six years of feeling destroyed.
But damn did being around Ollas nearly do it. As evidenced by her still being here. Giving commentary on the elective’s medicinal trials. Fending off Ennis and their pestering about how to steep the ultimate brain elixir or whatever else they were trying on any particular day. Eunny even had a water propagation setup in her windowsill for a few pieces of the delegation plants. None of it required her magic, but such distinction felt more and more like a technicality. She was supposed to have left this aspect of her life behind. These allowances she kept making, letting herself feel comfortable, none of it could last. Eunny knew it yet didn’t feel bothered by it. She happily pushed those whispers of concern aside.
Taking a detour so she could pass through the Heartwood, Eunny snagged a biscuit from a plate Soph had left out to share. She gave it a tentative sniff—no lavender this time, but a delicious bite of mint. Lingering by the table, she eavesdropped as a group of Initiate Ones engaged in vigorous debate over how to improve a humane mouse trap for the Heartwood’s resident terrors.
“It ruined my wheat berries. I say we just get a trap from town.”
“We’re Sylveren grovetenders! We can build better than?—”
“I told you not to use Soph’s nut butter.”
“Hey! It’s fresh-churned, no preserva?—”
“It’s a mouse. It wants the cheap shit they eat in Central.”
Covering a smile behind her pilfered biscuit, Eunny turned to the door in time to see Zhenya walking by, arms full with two large packages.
“Mail run?” Eunny asked, intercepting her friend and relieving her of one of the parcels.
Zhenya nodded, murmuring her thanks as she said, “Copy of my thesis on interdisciplinary ink applications for pictorial enchantments.”
“Explains why this feels like a ton of books.” Eunny hefted her package. “With all your studying, how are you not at Master level yet?”
Zhenya laughed, nudging the Heartwood’s outer door open for them. “I’d have to get through Magister’s first.”
“What’s the hold up?”
“I get distracted.” Zhenya indicated the package in her hands. “Samples from the red dye plants I was working on for Adept Two. These are for a friend in southern Graelynd working on improving archival colors. Doesn’t count for Magister One since it’s all old research.”
Eunny shook her head. Zhenya could earn all three Magister levels if she’d set her mind to it. The little inkmaker loved the university, that much was plain, but for whatever reason, she didn’t strive for a higher rank or profession. She was content to stay an Adept Two and senior assistant for Professor Rai. Eunny coveted such happiness. Divested as she was from her mother’s meddling, she still hadn’t completely banished the nagging sense of obligation to do more, always.
They split up at the mailroom’s counter, Zhenya to post her packages and Eunny to check the box she’d been sharing with Ollas and Gransen during her stay. It was too soon for Dae to have written, but Yerina sent up relevant correspondence whenever any came in.
