“Sal.” David sat up but groaned and pressed a hand to his temple.
“Don’t sit up!” I rushed to his side, helping him settle back down.
“I’m fine.” He waved me off with a gloved hand. “Nurse Adair’s medicine is magic. Literally.”
“Wow.” I studied his face, swollen and with hues of green and blue around both eyes, nose, and cheeks. His face should have still been red with signs of bruises forming, but they appeared to be a couple days old. My mom had taught me many things, healing elixirs included, but nothing on this level. Nurse Adair had a talent for healing, I’d give him that.
“Yeah. If I’d known how good his elixirs were, I would have faked a couple injuries after training to help with hangovers.” David’s blue eyes perked up with his joke.
“You haven’t had hangovers.” I narrowed my eyes accusingly. I’d never seen him with a hangover, and I saw him almost daily at lunch and dinner.
“You’re wise.” He laughed, immediately wincing after.
“I believe, last time, you referred to your drink as horrid,” I jested.
“I absolutely did.” He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes like it just had.
I swallowed, not knowing what to say. I had wanted to make sure he was okay on behalf of being his friend and for Ender. Now that I saw he was okay, I was ready to leave.
“How is Ender?” He asked, his features turned downward, not in anger but in concern.
“Umm.” The truth was that I didn’t know. A small part of me felt disgust, sorrow, and bitterness at the incident, but two of those were notmyfeelings. “I haven’t seen him yet.”
That was the truth.
David nodded, glancing down at his stark black gloves that contrasted with the white sheet of the hospital-style bed.
“Sal.” The serious tone in his voice caused me to still and abruptly look up at him. He was about to ask something personal or have an emotional conversation. I wasn’t prepared for either. He took a moment to collect himself, slowly sitting up. “I know Ender is in a fragile state.”
“What?” I said out loud.
David searched my eyes for a moment. “Most of the academy hadn’t known he was ether, and the others that were at the cafeteria that day might not have seen anything, but I saw the way the dark mage tried to siphon his magic. They can only do that with ether mages.”
Viv had learned that same day as me what Ender was, but no one else had said anything. They either didn’t see what had happened with all the destruction and disorder or had chosen to be quiet. Sydney hadn’t known at all.
“It didn’t look like he knew.” David’s tone dropped. Sadness. Understanding. “Going through that change and learning about that power mentally and physically takes a toll.”
We stared at each other for a moment. I never said that David wasn’t smart, but he was just as vigilant as I was.
“I don’t want that to happen to me.”
The grief and fear in his eyes tugged at me. I felt his pain. Ender felt his pain. We had a powerful, destructive magic. But it could be beautiful too.
“It won’t,” I said.
He gave me a grim smile. “Thank you for helping me learn to control it.”
“No problem.”
Chapter Forty-Five
Selene
Itwaslatethatsame night. I couldn’t sleep. Sydney couldn’t sleep. And Ender hadn’t wanted to see me tonight. So I opted to skim through the dark grimoire.
The moment I had partially uncovered the grimoire, Chaos’s scales rose along his long neck, steam emitting from his mouth as he hissed. The book radiated a sickly feeling to the point that Sydney had retrieved a thick cloth for preserving books. It didn’t just preserve books. It dulled the effects of this one.
“It’s okay, Chaos,” I said in a soothing voice. “It gives us the creeps too, but I need to read it to help find the dark mage clan that killed my mom and is after me.”
