As I settle into the chair with the scent of wood varnish prickling in my nose, I can’t help studying Cole from the cornerof my vision. His chestnut-brown hair is cropped shorter than I ever recall it being. And is his complexion even paler than usual?
I should have been prepared to see him. It’s just that I’m not used to his presence at the academy anymore, because in my world he quit teaching within months of Asher’s death.
Asher was the only reason he started in the first place. Getting hired at Luminary guaranteed his younger brother a spot and discounted tuition they couldn’t have afforded otherwise.
It took Cole way longer than a few months to fully accept me as his match. But I guess that’s a green flag rather than a red one, considering that when he first found out, I was only seventeen and he’d been my teacher for four years.
An eight-year age difference between matches is almost as unusual as having four of them. Fate must have been high on shrooms the day she wrote my destiny.
Because it’s just my luck, I have two other matches in this class. With his usual self-assured stride, Byron walks over to a desk at the other side of the semi-circle of rows, right in front of me if I look straight ahead. And Asher has already tucked himself into a spot in the back corner.
It’s harder to look at him than anyone else. I’m better off pretending he’s not even here.
There’s only the one doorway, at the back and a little to the right of my seat. Not ideal if I need to beat a hasty retreat, but not awful either.
When the chime sounds to mark the start of class, Cole peels himself off the chair and casts a baleful glance around the room.
I should think of him as Professor Raith here. That’s what Other Elodie would have called him.
He folds his arms over his chest, drawing my gaze to the scuffed leather gloves that of course he’s wearing even now, justas every student in the room has their hands covered. No match sparked yet; no glim awoken.
I assume his presence at the academy means he took a similar path as my Cole did. Despite his unawakened innate magic—and his background—we all knew from the moment he stepped into this room that he’s a force to be reckoned with. He performed so incredibly in his studies at Beacon Prep that he convinced Luminary’s headmaster to hire him right after he graduated, even without an active glim.
From the rumors I overheard in my own reality, that’s never happened before. No one in this room would dare underestimate the man’s brilliance or talent.
His brisk, even voice draws my attention back to our studies. “Let’s not waste time. Get out your divination objects and pair off with someone youdon’tnormally speak to outside of class.”
My pulse hiccups for a totally different reason. Shit. I wasn’t prepared for this exercise. Other Elodie didn’t bother to write it down in her school notes.
I grope in my satchel for something,anything, that she’d have handled enough for it to hold a decent amount of her ephemera.
Not her phone—it might reveal too much of howI’vebeen thinking and feeling while I’ve been using it the past few days.
My hand closes around a tube of fancy skin cream I haven’t so much as opened since I arrived. That’ll do.
It’d better.
When I set it on my desk, my friends have already gotten up. Madison moves toward a well-coiffed girl whose name I don’t remember.
Cadance casts a coy glance at Professor Raith through lowered eyelashes before heading across the room toward Byron.
My fingers curl with a twinge of possessiveness for an instant before I catch the urge. From what I’ve seen of Cadance in my reality and this one, she has no personal interest in Byron. She just wants the chance to prove her chops against Mr. #1 Rank.
The Worths are just as old-money and established lucents as any of us… but most of Luminary’s students will never see Byron as a full equal no matter how he’s ranked, simply because of the shade of his skin. They might be wary of his power, sure, but they’re not including him in all their little alliances and inside deals. They don’t see him as an ideal match.
That’s one of the main reasons he—at least, the Byron I got to know in my reality—works so hard to prove his own chops.
Plenty of the female students and a few of the guys give ourprofessorsimilar come-hither looks to Cadance’s. It was like that in my world too. Cole is incredibly intimidating and comes down hard on any sign of laxness, but that never stopped half the student body from gushing to each other about how incredibly hot and intriguing he is too.
But he’s mine.Mine.
I shake off the unwanted urge with a grit of my teeth. None of that should matter to me.
And I need a partner myself.
I scan the room and spot Simone Palenti standing alone and uncertain by a seat a few over from mine. We were never exactly friends in my reality, but she was only a few rungs up the social ladder from me, so we sometimes made friendly long enough to get each other through situations like this. Because she’s Salvatore’s second cousin or something like that, she was a little warmer at school after our matching.
Without thinking, I motion her over. Simone’s lips part with shock before she clamps them shut.
