Wilder snorted. “You certainly did last week.”
I glanced sharply at him. “What does that mean?”
He sighed. “You’re…different now. More like you were when we first got here, I guess.”
I thought about that for a second, fighting a tight discomfort in my chest. “If you didn’t like me before, why were you in my bed, Wilder?”
“Oh, ouch.” He laid one hand over his heart and gave me a dramatic pout. “That’s a bit…reductive.”
“How so?”
“Well, first of all, Ididlike you.” He took my hand, winding his fingers between mine. Stroking his thumb over my knuckles. “Neverdoubt that. Second, even if I hadn’t…” He shrugged. “You don’t have to enjoy someone’s company in a conversational sense in order to enjoy it in a…physical sense. Some ingredients complement each other on a dinner plate. Others combust upon contact.”
“Some couples are comfort food, like sautéed carrot with parsnip,” I said, “while others are saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal?”
“Precisely.” He grinned, squeezing my hand. “Incidentally, I’m making note of the fact that you listedthreeingredients in that last scenario.”
I huffed at him. “Saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal are the primary ingredients in black powder explosives, Wilder.”
His right eyebrow hooked upward. “Oh,I know.”
I tugged my hand gently from his grip, despite my reluctance to lose the warmth of his touch. “And my affinity?” There hadn’t been a single scrap of color in my wardrobe. “Do I prefer none of them or all of them?”
Wilder snagged another bite of fruit from my pouch. He frowned at it for a second, clearly trying to identify the dried morsel. Then he turned that frown upon me. “Honestly, I have no idea. You were always very…circumspect. With your formulas, I mean. And your ingredients. In fact, your recipe for beyn was such a jealously guarded secret that you would only make it in private.”
I blinked at him. “WasIa master alchemist?”
He laughed. “No. You were a student.”
“Just like everyone else.” My face flamed at my own presumption. At my own ego.
“Youwerea student,” he said. “But not like the rest of us. That’s why she let you stay.”
“The Bluehelm?”
Wilder nodded. “She isn’t willing to let you go, if you couldpossiblyrecover your memories—your skill—because of what you could contribute to this place as a researcher. Because any success you—and Des, truth be told…” He shrugged. “Any success you two bring to the Alchemary would become part ofherlegacy.”
A bittersweet relief washed over me. My accomplishments should be part of my own legacy. But if the Bluehelm’s personal ambition was the only thing keeping me on the Alchemary campus—giving me a chance to recover my memories—so be it.
“You’re not the only one, though,” Wilder said as I fished the last dried cherry from my pouch. I gave him a puzzled look. “You’re not the only balanced affinity,” he clarified. “At least, I assume you’re balanced. I’ve never seen you show any preference.”
“Who else?” I asked around the last sweet, tart bite of cherry.
“Cressa.”
“The Bluehelm’s student aide?” I pictured her tight reddish ringlets and gray-ringed eyes. “Come to think of it, she does wear all three colors.”
Wilder shook out my empty handkerchief and folded it on his lap. “Some people say there isn’t really any such thing as balance. That everyone prefers one option at least alittlemore than the others, and anyone who claims otherwise is lying to themselves.”
“And what do you say?”
He smiled and pulled his cloak back to reveal a subtle row of rust-colored buttons on the asymmetrical line of his vest. “I say it doesn’t matter. And it’s none of anyone else’s concern whether I have as much earth affinity as botany affinity, or which of those I choose to wear. If at all. And the same goes for you. You like what you like.”
I smiled and leaned left to bump his shoulder.
As we stood from the bench, a sudden commotion from the quadrangle drew my attention. Five black-clad men ran along the southernmost of the long cobblestone paths stretching from one end of the quadrangle to the other. They were headed east, toward where the Dormitory sat perched on a cliff, looking out over the sea. As I watched, two students scrambled, startled, from the path to let them pass.
The men ran in unison, at a pace that did not suggest any urgency. In my experience, the only people who ran were children on an errand, adults responding to an emergency, and…
