- Where could we go, if we wanted one?
Marcherie’s hand curved over my shoulder and squeezed. A subtle way of asking to go back to her room. It took everything in me to keep my eyes toward Cassius.
- Maybe we can go to Starlake a little early, he said.
I beamed at him.
- When? I asked.
- Tomorrow night.
- Excellent. Tomorrow.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow, I will wake a god.
If I am not killed tonight.
RIVALS
It is the rival, not the lover, that elicits our strongest passions.
Professor Erasmus Wright, Cygnus Discipline of Mathematica
Over the course of the following week, Claudia attempts to change Lamour’s mind with a thesis. It’s a collection of everything she already knows about the stars. Every constellation she’s memorized during trips to the Wanderer’s Wonders. Everything her mother ever told her about the cosmos, and even more, everything she ever overheard her mother whispering.
Showing Professor Lamour that she already has a foundation might encourage him to teach her. This thesis is a cleaner, longer, and more academic version of her application essay—much less emotional fluff, much more substantial theories. She still speaksof her mother’s death, but only to describe the event that formed her hypothesis that the stars control everyone’s fate. She works on this piece day and night. It consumes her every waking thought. On days she manages over four thousand words, she grants herself a whole four hours of sleep. Otherwise, she gets two hours, and when she wakes up, she’s reliant on the unlimited coffee in the Treaty.
She’s sworn to herself that she will not attempt to return to the Realm of Nightmares until she’s convinced Lamour to teach her celestial magic. Otherwise, she’ll have no good news to report to Dorian, and she’ll be no closer to setting him free.
She’s been secretly watching Cassius for days: following him to the library, peering over his shoulder in class, and prodding Alistair for any information that might help her best him. It feels a bit like she’s losing her mind, like what Plato describes in thePhaedrus. But it’s worth it.
If ignorance is bliss, intelligence is madness.
Claudia will choose the latter every time.
The following week, on the way out of class, Claudia drops her completed work onto Lamour’s desk, face down: “On Celestial Studies: How the Cosmos Can Illuminate the Path to Purpose and Desire.” Cassius comes up behind her as she walks out of the room.
“What was that, Star Girl?”
“What was what?” she asks without slowing down, without looking at his face.
“That dissertation you just gave to Lamour. An apologia for your misdeeds? Perhaps a murder confession?”
Her hands curl into fists at her sides. “No. I had nothing to do with Odette.” She speeds up. “It’s none of your concern. Stop following me.”
He catches her wrist and stops her, pulling her around to face him. His stormy blue eyes narrow. “You’re the one who has been following me.”
“I have not,” she lies.
“You think I haven’t seen you? It’s like every time I turn a book back in at the Caedleian, you’re right behind me to take it out.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She’s never right behind him in theCaedleian—that’s a total exaggeration. In fact, she has sweet-talked the librarian, Mr. Flowers, and now they have a whole system in place—whenever Cassius returns a book, Mr. Flowers doesn’t put it back on the shelves; he saves it for Claudia so she can ensure she’s reading exactly what her rival is reading. She stops by twice a week to claim her haul.
Now, the Lexora is a different story. She hasn’t had the same luck with that librarian—Mrs. Winters. The woman wants nothing but silence. That’s Claudia’s Achilles’ heel: people who genuinely don’t like to talk. Their conversations have been one-sided and fruitless, so Claudia has had to watch Cassius closely in order to stick to his reading regimen.
She really thought he hadn’t noticed her. As far as she knew, he had been making every effort to pretend she didn’t exist.
“If you wanted a reading list, you could’ve tried asking,” he says.
