Should we just eat it?
I glance at the mangy white scrap of hatred and fur that’s lying on top of the bookcase behind Nyx. She doesn’t seem to care that it’s looming over her like fucking Batman or something. Its tail hangs over the edge, slowly flicking back and forth over as it watches me with those split color eyes—one blue, one green.
I don’t think we should take the risk. Do you think it knows we’re talking about it?
Chances are low, but never zero.
Why isn’t she shooing it away?
It is small and angry. She is small and angry. They are kindred spirits.
I try to cover up my laugh with a cough, which draws her attention away from the open book she clearly hasn’t been reading if her incessant pencil tapping is any indication. “You want to talk about it?”
She sighs and leans forward, resting her head on the table. “Why can’t people just leave me the fuck alone,” she mutters.
“What’d the Headmaster say?”
She sits up and crosses her arms, slumping in the chair across from me. “Apparently I can stay—for now—with the caveat that if I have any more incidents like that again I’ll have to wear some power-dampening… handcuff things when I’m not actively wielding during classes.”
“How can they even consider that when you haven’t done anything wrong?”
“Oh it gets better. Brandt got a hold of the deliberation transcript somehow: Preston and Corvus voted to let me stay. Marcus and Cyrus agreed to vote with them so long as Cyrus was hired on as another “coach” to “assist” Carrick—but really it’s to keep an eye on me. Renard and Soren voted to keep me indefinitely at Council headquarters so they could test my powers like some fucking lab experiment.” She curls her lip in disgust. “Then your father voted for me to be removed from campus, and Vivica agreed so long as I stayed at her coven house since “they’re the only coven that’s strong enough to support me”. The vampire dude abstained.”
Fuck.
Can we kill him yet?
Regicide is generally frowned upon.
He started it.
“Fuck.”
She laughs drily. “Yeah.” The cat drops from the top of the bookcase and lands on the table in front of her with a thud. Its yowl sounds like something between a croak and nails on a chalkboard before she shushes it. “Stop being such a butthead, dude, you’re too loud.” It merely starts purring as it climbs into her lap and kneads its paws on her—my—hoodie. The sight of her wearing it settles the anxiety I’ve been trying to ignore since finding out what Luther did. Like I can keep her safe, even if I’m not there.
“He asked if we were dating, and some other stupid shit, but Brandt shut him down.”
My heart skips a beat, and the dragon stills in my mind, listening intently. “What did you say?”
“That it depends on who told him because people will gossip about anything. Then he tried to talk shit about you not having control of your dragon.”
I cross my arms over my chest to hide the edge of disappointment. “Bet he loved that,”
“They all did. I don’t think I answered a single question straight up.”
“So what happens now?”
“I’m on probation, basically. They’ll all be here for the Governor’s Gala in a few weeks to observe me like a lab rat, and then the Crypteia. After that, no idea.”
“You’ve made it this long with all the other bullshit. That’s nothing.” She shakes her head lightly and kisses the cat’s head.
“I’ve been getting flashes here and there. From when I was out of it,” she admits quietly. The vulnerability in her eyes when she looks at me makes me want to pull her—and fuck it, even the cat if she insists—into my arms and keep her there until it’s gone.
But I can’t. She’s not ready for that. “What do you remember?”
She clutches the cat closer to her chest and stares at the table, lost in something I can’t see. “How fuckingeffortlessit was. I—my power—wanted out. More than anything. It found the nearest source of power at the Foundation Stone and just…threw magic at the wards. When Brandt tried to keep it contained, it found another source.”
The silence is heavy between us. “You didn’t kill anyone. Still got you beat there.” She shakes her head and laughs under her breath, and my chest tightens when she looks at me like I’m forgiven.
