He’d noticed me looking (not that I was trying to hide), and he suddenly turned to me.
Heat on my cheeks. “I want to see you later,” I whispered, sure nobody could hear because they were all listening to Calren.
March was definitely not expecting that, but he nodded. Opened his lips to say something, then shut them again.
I would take that as ayes.
“Hey, Ora—wait up!”
Mimi was running after me when we were done with dinner and Calren saw us to our dorm.
I stopped, surprised—we’d been at the eating hall together, and she hadn’t said a single word to me all night. Not unusual, but if she had something to talk to me about, she could have then.
Now, though, she was grinning ear to ear as she stopped in front of me, those wide green eyes shining. She was indeed breathtaking—and a good head taller than me, and awfully comfortable deep into my personal space.
“So, I have a favor to ask,” she told me, then put her hands over my shoulders. “Switch rooms with me, pretty please?”
Nowthatwas not whatIexpected from her, either.
I leaned back on instinct. “Oh! I…well, I?—”
“Just that Ineedto move, and I like your scent best, and it’s beenfive daysof me sleeping in the same room, and I’m a Club, you know? I have to move, otherwise I wouldn’t have asked.” She blinked her lashes slowly. “Pretty,prettyplease?”
What in the Everstill…
“Well, I have everything inthisroom and?—”
“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that! I’ll do all the moving, you just get your stuff ready andsit tight.I’ll bring my things here, and take yours into my old room, no problem. I wouldloveto!”
My mouth opened and closed a couple times.
Meanwhile Calren watched from the mouth of the hallway, and Reggie and Silas had already started switching rooms—they were right next to one another—and Helen had just agreed to switch rooms with Seth, too.
Clubs.Of course they had to move all the time. I should have seen it coming. “Sure,” I said, then cleared my throat. “It’s no bother. I can get my stuff packed right away.”
“Yes!”
A hug.
Mimi hugged me, crushed me to her chest, and she might have looked skinny and tall, but she was strong. Strong enough to break my back completely if she kept squeezing me a little longer.
I don’t know why I smiled—I didn’t much care about hugs, to be honest. But either way, I was smiling, and Mimi was smiling when she ran back to her room—the first on this side of the hallway. March was smiling, too, from in front of his door.
So many smiles.
I waved a hand at him awkwardly, then went inside to get my things packed.
Easy enough to do since I didn’t really have anythingother than clothes—and Jinx’s picture—so once that was done, I sat down on the armchair to draw. I even sniffed my shirt once or twice just to see what kind of scent I had that Mimi liked, but I didn’t really notice any specific smell.
True to her word, she didn’t let me carry a single thing. She brought her things in my room first, then told me to sit tight and keep drawing while she took my things to her old room.
The whole thing was over in less than thirty minutes.
Mimi hugged me again, thanked me a hundred times for agreeing to this, which was almost silly. It was no bother, and it was a need for her. I smiled as best as I could, and with my sketchbook in hand, I walked up the hallway and into her old room. It was identical to my old one. Same windows, same bed, same bedside tables, same wardrobe. The colors were identical too. Even the tiles in the bathroom. Even the view outside the windows was almost the same. I saw the arena at the back of the palace and the trees beyond, even the corner of the tower of the Great Clock. When I stuck my head out to look up at the face of it, I saw the time—just a little after ten m.b. The moon shone all alone in the dark sky, and it was kind of comforting to see. I stayed there for a minute, too, just to ground myself as well as I could.
After that, as soon as I put my things in place—and Jinx’s picture frame on the nightstand—I walked out of the room again.
The hallway was empty. Even so, I walked on my tiptoes until I was near the stairs, just in case someone was around the corners or hiding in the shadows, spying on us. I also didn’t want the other Hands to see me. I wanted to talk to Master Talik first, see what he had to say. But when I went to his workshop, the door was closed.
