“I certainly tried. However, my blow landed not upon Pryce’s face—a fact I regret more with each passing moment—but upon the leaded glass window in the door. Which shattered, and has left me watching the Refectory entrance this morning in anticipation of my own expulsion. Which will surely come in the form of a scowling Alchemary official.”
Wilder blinked. “You broke the window? Theone-hundred- fifty-year-oldstained glass?”
“Which was original to the construction of the building? Yes. And now I cannot deduce whether everyone is staring at me because they know I’m about to be expelled for the destruction of irreplaceable Alchemary property or because Pryce has told everyone that I am now a substandard student, incapable of earning a place here.” I shrugged as I scraped up the last bite of porridge from the edges of my bowl. “I suppose the specifics don’t really matter.”
“Every bit of that matters.” Wilder turned in his chair to pointedly return the stares of a handful of underclassman.
“Why does the Refectory always feel largely abandoned first thing in the morning?” I asked as I collected my empty dishes on his tray.
“You and I asked the same question during our first week here.” Wilder gave me a wistful smile. “Our wealthier classmates do not break their fast until the midday meal. They’re taught, it turns out, that eating first thing in the morning is a sign of gluttony, except in the case of children and manual laborers, who will require the energy. They’re not eager to be associated with either category.”
I lifted one brow. “That is asinine.”
Wilder threw his head back and laughed. “And you said something very similar two years ago.” He stood and picked up the tray. “As badly as I hate to admit it…” He lowered his voice. “We need to talk to Desmond. He’ll know how to mitigate the damage.”
My mouth opened, but no words would come out, and I could not understand my reluctance to tell Wilder that I’d already spoken to his brother.
“I…um. I saw him last night,” I said finally as I followed him with my teacup and saucer, my satchel bumping against my hip.
Wilder’s next step faltered, almost imperceptibly. “When?” He set the tray on a cart near the kitchen door and turned to take the cup and saucer from me.
“Right after it happened. He cleaned the wound.” I lifted my hand to show him the bandage, beneath which my cuts had scabbed over. “And he…invited me to work in his lab.”
“Well, that seems unnecessary.”
I frowned up at him. “Wilder, I can’t work in the student lab. Not with Pryce standing just feet away.” I would feel him watching me. We might wind up at the supply cabinet at the same time, and I wouldn’t be able to trust that that was coincidence. I couldn’t possibly focus, knowing that every time he whispered to another student, he might be talking about me.
“When I’m finished with Pryce Wishart, he’ll wish he’d never heard your name,” Wilder said, his voice oddly deep. “He willnotbe a problem for you again.”
In his eyes flashed a danger I’d never seen before, and if I were not mistaken, the hand at his waist seemed to be wrapped around the hilt of his knife.
“Wilder, I swear to every force of entropy in the universe that if you unsheathe that blade—”
“Actions have consequences, Amber.” His brows dipped into a firm, grim line. “Actions againstyou, in particular.”
“One can only hope,” I replied. “But those consequences willnotinvolve your blade.”
He released the hilt, and a hard sort of joy glinted in his eyes. “Fortunately, I have far more effective and less conspicuous tools at my disposal.”
I elected, for the state of my own anxiety, not to ask for any details, in hopes that whatever action Desmond was pursuing would render Wilder’s solution unnecessary.
“It may be a moot point anyway. There’s every chance in the world that they’ll expel me when I cannot pay for the window.”
“They’re not going to expel you.”
“You don’t know—”
“I know.” Wilder extended one arm toward the exit, inviting me to precede him. “If the Bluehelm wants you here despite your amnesia, she’s not going to hold an accident against you.”
“Well then, maybe you can come with me.” I ignored the weight of several stares as I headed out of the Refectory. “Desmond has the whole laboratory suite to himself, as far as I can tell, and I’m sure he’d be happy to have you—”
“Oh, he certainly wouldnot.” Wilder followed me onto the quadrangle, and though he clearly had more to say on the subject, we’d gone a half dozen more steps, eschewing the stone path to walk in the grass, before he spoke again. “Desmond hosted you in his fancy private laboratory last year.”
“So he says.”
“But he refused to offer me the same invitation. He said that as a staff member of the Alchemary, he could not be seen to support my illicit activities. Though he was kind enough to label it as ‘research,’ even as he looked down his nose at me. Which left me no choice but to sneak into the student lab space in the middle of the night.”
Wilder glanced at me, and I could only shrug, aware, again, of other students looking my way as they walked in groups across the quadrangle, whispering to one another.
