Yeah, I know, poor me.With a sigh, I slump against the bar. “I think I’m gonna head home.”
Reid jerks his head in my direction. “What? Why? Alexis said she’d meet us later with Ellie.”
“So?”Why should I care about Alexis?
“So… Ellie. Here.”
My mind feels cloudy, as if from speckled long leaf, but I haven’t smoked any today. It must be the ale, which is surprising—I didn’t drinkthatmuch.
“I’m not sure what you‘re saying.”
Reid rolls his eyes, then turns back to Emmrich.
Whose gaze is on me, his brow furrowed in thought. For someone supposedly interested in Reid, he sure spends a lot of time staring at me. He better not be hoping for a threesome. That’d be weird. Reid’s practically my brother.
“Perhaps you should pay closer attention to your friend,” he says, nudging Reid. He answers with a frustrated sigh beforeturning back to me.
“What’s going on, Cay? I’m with Ellie at least ten bells a day, and she never mentions you. You practically jumped on her on the way here, but now you won’t even bring yourself to wait for her?”
I blink a few times, trying to clear the fog. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about Ellie.”
“Who?”
Reid spins on his stool to face me head-on. “Arandur’s clapping cheeks, stop fucking with me.Ellie. You met her on the first day of term and were all over each other. We saw her not even a bell ago.”
I throw my hands up in the air. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Reid startles back, wide-eyed. “Stop messing with me.”
Exasperation boils within me, ready to explode. “I’m not. You know me—I can’t lie to save my life.”
There’s a pause as his eyes narrow, searching my face. “Yeah, I know.” He turns to Emmrich, placing his hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, I need to look into something.”
Emmrich takes a sip from his tankard. “That’s a shame. I was looking forward to some fun tonight. Didn’t you say Alexis was coming?”
Reid glances at me.
I shrug. “Do what you want. I’m going home.”
Reid’s face contorts, his hands clenching into fists, then he forces out an exhale.
“I’ll come back, I promise.” He squeezes Emmrich’s shoulder, then grabs my arm and drags me out of the tavern.
* * *
“Why are we in the girl’s dormitory?” I ask. “We passed Alexis on our way here, remember?” Scuffed white walls and beat-up doors surround us—this hallway’s just as bland as the rest of campus.
Since we left the tavern, the last half bell’s been a fog. I kept asking Reid to explain where he was taking me, but he never answered, his frustration mounting as he barked at me to follow. He even resorted to herding me with incanted fire when I tried to turn back.
He comes to a halt, banging on a random door. “Don’t act like I’m the one with memory problems.”
“Are we even allowed to be here?” Not that I haven’t been here plenty of times, but I was always snuck in by someone who actually lived here.
The door cracks open.
“Quiet down, I don’t need you waking Sophie,” a girl’s voice says.
