“Sorry,” he said, backing away with a shy smile. “I get a little too passionate about my research.”
Why are elves so beautiful? It’s really unfair of them, Ceri thought. It was very distracting.
“What do you need from me?” she asked. She tried to ignore that phantom feeling where his hand had touched her again.
Here to study,she reminded herself.
“Well, I have an instrument here,” said Leo, holding up the little brass device that he’d picked up from the ground when they collided. “It’s my own design. I’ve been using it to measure magical potential. I was preparing to take readings tonight. It’s the peak of a meteor shower; I have some enchanted objectsI was hoping to measure during a celestial event. But if you’d allow it, I’d love to measure, well, you. Your magic.” Leo looked meekly at Ceri. “It won’t hurt,” he said, reaching out a hand to her and quickly withdrawing it. He used it to brush the hair back from his face instead, which Ceri thought was a shame.
“During the meteor shower?” she asked.
Leo looked surprised. “I was thinking of later this week, but if you’d be willing to come along tonight…it will be late though, and it’s a bit of a hike up to the observatory. I understand if you’re not up for it.”
“Would it help you?” asked Ceri.
This was her chance to be the new Ceri. The kind, selfless Ceri who didn’t lie or cheat or manipulate anyone. She could help Leo purely out of the kindness of her heart.
Or, not her heart, per se, not that there was anything going on with her heart, other than the near heart-attack she’d had earlier when she thought he was a monster.
“It would help me very much,” said Leo.
“Then I’ll do it.”
“Wonderful! Meet me after dinner by the Norminster Yew. The old tree in the courtyard.”
Ceri nodded, and then she turned and fled from the library before she could say anything that might embarrass her. She left in such a hurry that she went the wrong way and had to walk around half of the school to get back to her room.
Safely behind her closed door, she removed her shirt. The stain was gone, but the wrinkles remained, and she wouldn’t show up to her first dinner looking untidy.
As she spotted herself in the bathroom looking glass wearing her new white lace brassiere, she remembered that it was Gallic in design. Leo’s bright, excited face crossed her mind, along with the shadow feeling of his hand on hers.
“Godsdammit,” she said. She didn’t know much, but she knew it wasn’t a great sign to be thinking of him in her underwear already if she was trying to focus on her studies.
This boy was trouble.
Chapter Four
FURTHER JOURNEYS
Alison
The kitchen table in Yordin’s house was tense as they waited to hear more of the mysterious Finnli.
“He’s one of the youngins,” said Yordin. “Now I know what you’re going to say—”
“No,” said Gwenla. “Absolutely not. Are you insane?”
“Gwenla—”
“No, Yordin. Yes, I enjoyed babysitting you when you were little, but those years are long behind me. I’m in no condition to pick up ‘frigerators off the floor.”
“It’s fixed,” said Weyland, swinging the door closed once more.
“Good man!” said Yordin, shaking Weyland’s hand. “Say, do you need a job? I could use a man of your size—”
“Would you stop offering my friends jobs for a minute and listen to me?” Gwenla stood to face her cousin. He was quite a bit taller than her, though nowhere near the size of Weyland or even Keir, but he looked small before her, defeated.
“There are seven of them, Gwenla. Seven. The manufactories have been good to us, but it doesn’t matter how much coin you have when you can’t get the nannies to stay. We paid the last one three times the going wage up front.”
