“Reid told me he’s interested in men, not women.”
Caeo raises an eyebrow. “Are you looking for confirmation? I don’t have any firsthand experience, but that matches everything I know.” He pauses. “Were you disappointed…?”
“No! No, I was only—Do you think Alexis knows?” I’d hate for her to feel led on, especially when I’m the only reason she met him.
“Oh.” Understanding washes over Caeo’s face. “Yeah, she definitely knows.”
I sigh with relief. “Good.”
He squeezes my hand, and my nerves settle. Something about him… I should be embarrassed, but I’m not. There’s no urge to disappear, to hide from my awkwardness. Just a warm glow in my chest.
The lecture hall’s not as spacious as the Great Hall, but large enough to hold all the students in our year, somewhere between eighty and a hundred people. The lower side of the room has a desk, podium, and a large chalkboard—a bold swath of black amid all the gray—and ascending away from it are multiple levels of long desks. They stretch across their entire lengths with benches for the students to sit on, most of which are already full.
My skin’s already prickling from all the people packed around us when I spot Sophie in the front row, rifling through her things. I glance away, hoping she doesn’t notice me—I should’ve tried to fix things with her last night. The longer I wait, the more awkward it’s likely to become. I glimpse Alexis and Reid further up, but there’s no room for us to squeeze in with them.
Caeo leads me to an empty spot on a bench near the back, next to a girl who smiles brightly at him. He completely ignores her, his attention focused entirely on me.
There’s plenty of room for both of us to sit comfortably, but he’s close enough that the warmth of his leg presses against mine. My inner voice yells that I’m here for class, so I pull my bag up to get some paper, ink, and a pen to take notes, then realize he’s still holding my other hand.
I force myself to let go of it.
Our professor arrives, and though his voice echoes through the chamber as he welcomes us to class, I’m straining to decipher his words. In the future, I’ll have to make sure to arrive earlier to get a seat up front.
Caeo doesn’t bother getting anything out to write with. Instead, he leans his elbow on the desk, chin resting in his hand, watching me. It should make me nervous, but it doesn’t, stoking a different kind of blaze within me as I write the title for today’s lecture:The Founding of the Order of Incanters by Gareth Arandur.
While I generally know the story from my lessons at home, no doubt the professor will get into specific details he’ll expect us to memorize. But if Caeo keeps this up, I won’t be able to focus at all.
“Stop staring,” I whisper. “You should pay attention.”
“But you’re beautiful. He’s not.”
A tightness coils between my thighs, and I resist squirming in my seat as I note the details of Arandur’s birth. “How are you so bold?” I hiss.
Caeo leans in, close enough that the heat radiating off his skin warms my already sweltering cheek, his breath brushing against my ear. “Because I know you want that kiss.”
Ink spots my paper as I mess up the word I was writing. My face is red, I know it, and I can’t bring myself to look at him. I bite my lip, forcing myself to focus on the professor’s words instead.
“Arandur discovered the connection between the fae’s magic and their realm by studying how it diminished the more time they spent in ours. It led him to theorize that their power came from their land itself, and that perhaps there was a way for us to tap into something similar.” And as everyone knows, that advancement saved us—without it, the fae would have claimed all our land by now.
The professor turns away, drawing some rudimentary focals on the board. He clearly expects us to copy them down.
Keeping my eyes locked on my paper, I whisper back to Caeo, “Well, ifyouwant to kissme, you need to stop being so distracting and wait until class is over.”
When he doesn’t respond, I chance a quick peek in his direction. He’s no longer staring at me, but off into the distance, seemingly daydreaming… his lips curled into a slight smile.
I shake my head, returning to my notes. Another bell of focus, then the rest of the afternoon is him.
Chapter 6
Caeo
Class ends, and bumps and thuds echo through the auditorium as everyone packs their things. Except me. I didn’t take any notes, and I barely heard anything the professor said. Why should I care about the wars with the fae? They ended before I was born. Sure, they lasted for thousands of years, but no one’s heard a peep from the border in two decades.
It’s an odd sentiment for someone at a school whose sole purpose is to train people to fight fae, but most of the students here grew up with family members lost or disabled in battle, with tales of fae stealing poorly behaved children. My mother almost made that seem like a good thing.
Besides, my attempts at incanting in this morning’s classes went so poorly that paying attention doesn’t seem worth the effort. Especially when I could spend that time watching Ellie instead.
The afternoon sun pouring in from the windows warms her skin, reflecting gold light off her brown hair as she slides her notes into her bag. I wrap my fingers around her hand, stopping her from standing.
