Bigfoot bite me.ThisElodie would never have lowered herself to accepting Simone’s company. Is she going to think I’m pulling her chain?
Simone simply squares her shoulders beneath the studded leather jacket she’s wearing over her uniform and marches over to me. She drops into the seat next to me with a grunt. “Wanted to really mix it up this time, huh, Devine?”
Well, I don’t have to maintain Elodie’s reputation that much longer. I can stir the pot a little.
“Sometimes it’s nice to get a fresh perspective,” I respond.
She sets down her object with a thunk. It’s an ashtray—mottled glass, obviously heavy, and tacky as hell even to my unrefined tastes. Her gaze dares me to comment.
Professor Raith’s voice breaks in. “Are you going to actually put in some work or just sit there chatting, Miss Devine?”
My spine goes rigid, shame and frustration colliding inside me. I hate that hard, gravelly tone he brings out when he’s feeling particularly critical.
It’s been a long time since I’ve heard it directed at me.
Why the fuckishe directing it at me? I only just found my partner. We’ve barely exchanged ten words.
He’s looking at me from behind his desk with a downward crook of his lips that’s somewhere between a frown and a sneer. Like I’m a bug he’d like to squash under his shoe.
He always seemed to hate that I was close with Asher, before. They might have struggled to make ends meet, but I had a supposedly unknown dad, a mom who might be crazy, and no established family history of magical talent on top of that. He thought I’d drag his brother down even farther.
What’s his problem withthisElodie? He still doesn’t like me when I’m as far up the ladder as you can get?
No matter how my life turns out, I can’t win with him. Not until years after he’s found out he’s my match, at least.
My teeth set on edge again, the frustration burning away the shame. I keep my voice even. “Just getting started, sir.”
I set my notebook on the table. The exercise is simple, one I’ve done dozens of times. We glean everything we can from the ephemera collected in our partner’s item. Professor Raith circulates and listens to our observations. Our partner confirms how accurate or not our reading was. The end.
Simone and I swap objects. I peer down at the ashtray, taking in the swirls of amber coloring laced through it and the subtle vibration of ephemera permeating the physical substance. Setting one hand just an inch away, cupped toward it, helps me pick up the resonance even better.
For most of my time at the academy, I thought I was only okay at divination. After my Cole eased up on me and started encouraging my abilities at home once he’d finally embraced our match, it turned out my mind had been freezing up out of fear of his judgment.
Within several months of practice, I wasn’t as good as his wunderkind capabilities, but I was startling the new divination professor and my fellow students with my readings.
Unfortunately, none of my practice with Cole took place in a classroom. And having him strolling around glowering at everyone—glowering atme—is bringing back all the worst feelings from my past.
Squaring my shoulders, I narrow my focus to the object in front of me as well as I can. The rhythms of the energy travel through my gloves and skin to form wisps of sensation in my head.
“Oh, come on, Ma.”
A jab of a cigarette ground into the glass.
The clink of another glass surface underneath.
“She deserves your respect! When are you gonna?—”
The faintest hiss of tiny fading embers.
A whiff of cloves mingling with the nicotine stench.
Only fragments. Every time I start to delve deeper, the creak of the floorboards under Professor Raith’s feet jerks me back to the room.
Why can’t he just stand still for a minute? Give us a chance to do the work he’s badgering us about?
He comes to a stop next to Simone and me. His tone is even brusquer than before. “Let’s hear what you’ve got.”
Simone snaps a piece of gum I didn’t notice her tossing in her mouth. She prods Other Elodie’s skin cream. “One of her grandmas bought it for her. She mostly uses it on her hands. Nothing thrilling.”
