‘It wasn’t his fault,’ I say to Tilly. Deciding my best option is to ignore Sebastian right now and stop Tilly from attacking a unit leader three times her size. ‘I slipped off the cliff and had to climb back up. He turned up just as I made it back over.’
Her eyes flare wide, horror filling them. ‘Oh my god!’ She leaps toward me, wrapping her arms around my torso. ‘Are you all right? Come, I’ll take you to the—’
‘I’m fine,’ I interrupt, offering her a small smile. ‘I’m just tired and need some salve and then I’ll be good. I don’t think I can face that many people in the infirmary right now.’
Tilly nods, understanding. ‘Okay, no infirmary, got it. But will you at least come up to my room so I can take a look? I’ll make you a tea and we can talk.Awayfrom prying ears.’ She shoots Sebastian a stern look as she says that.
‘That actually sounds perfect,’ I say, meaning every word.
We leave Sebastian in the Grand Hall. I could tell he wanted to say something to me before I left, but I just needed to decompress and spend time with my friend while I try and sort through everything in my mind, versus what I’m feeling.
I tell Tilly what happened as we walked up to her room. Not that Sebastian and I kissed or what followed after. Just about how I’d slipped over by the cliff and how upset I was with myself and with Lukas.
Which is how we’ve ended up cross legged, facing each other, practically knee to knee. My dagger that is hidden beneath my pants on my right leg digs into my skin, so I shift to ease the pressure, leaning back against the wall her bed is pushed up against and bringing my knees to my chest. I rest my cup of tea on my knees and blow at the steam.
I have a few small bandages on my palms and my torso that Tilly patched up for me. I offered to do it myself but gave in once I noticed the worried look in her eyes. I think she felt bad she wasn’t there, that she didn’t follow me once I took off from class. Her way of helping now was to patch up my wounds, so I gave in and sat quietly as she cleaned them, applied a salve and covered them up.
It was strange stepping into the Opal tower. The layout is very similar to Malachite’s, though the overall feeling is utterly different. Tilly’s room is on the second floor at the furthest end of the short corridor. She has a large bay window seat that’s adorned with soft powder blue cushions, her bed is a double like mine and, where I only have a dresser and a few shelves for my belongings, Tilly has an entire wall of floating shelves, and each one is full.
‘Stars, Till. It looks like you’ve been here for years, not weeks.’ I take note of the sealed jars of herbs, oils and powders, the stacks ofbooks and knick-knacks scattered about in what I can only describe as organised chaos. ‘I mean look at all this stuff.’ I gesture … to everything.
‘I’m an over-packer,’ she explains, pushing a stray curl behind her ear. ‘And call itstuffone more time and I might push you off my bed.’
‘My apologies, what I meant to say was look at all this fascinating …’ My eyes narrow on a labelled jar at the end of a shelf. ‘Does that say bird brains?’
Tilly follows my gaze. ‘Ew, no. Gross.’ Her nose scrunches. ‘That’s birdbones. Why the hell would I have bird brains in my room?’
‘Why would you haveeitherof them in your room?’ I ask, bemused and a little horrified. Not once have I ever seen bird bones inside my mother or father’s study.
‘They’re for my Divination studies. Bones can be used when scrying, and I prefer to use bird bones,’ she explains as if it’s the simplest thing in the world.
‘As opposed to what? People bones?’ I say it as a joke but when she lifts one shoulder in a shrug, I blanch.
‘People bones are harder to acquire.’
My eyes immediately fall to the cup of hot tea in my hands, and my mind starts imagining all sorts of things.
Tilly’s laugh fills the air between us as she notices my worried expression. ‘You quite literally saw me make the tea, so stop looking at it like you’re expecting an eyeball to suddenly float to the surface.’
‘Bird bones, Tilly.’ I point to the jar. ‘You sleep next to bird bones!’
‘Andyousleep next to a six-foot -something fire wielder who looks at you like he’s three seconds away from picking you up and taking you back to his cave where he’ll pump you full of his fire baby seed.’
My face screws up. ‘I cannot believe you just said that!’
‘Really? Then you should probably stop blushing.’
‘I amnot,’ I refute, even as I feel my neck flush with heat. ‘It’s the tea, it’s hot.’
She shoots me a look. ‘I know it’s none of my business, but somethinghaschanged between you two. I know I’m not imagining the tension rolling off you both when you’re in a room together.’
I contemplate how much to share for a moment, then ultimately decide to tell her the most pressing issue. Because all the other stuff can wait.
The sigh I let out is heavy, weighted down with the cyclone of emotions I’ve felt in just one day. ‘He told me …’ My fingers run along the floral details on the tea cup in a soothing motion as I try to wrap my head around what I’m saying. ‘He said that he tried to make me leave to protect me. That he didn’t want to hurt me, but thought it was the only way to get me to walk away from the academy.’
Tilly’s eyes flare, her mouth opens and closes. ‘O-okay. I’m trying very hard to not push my opinion on what just came out of your mouth right now. So instead, I’m going to ask whatyouthink about that.’
‘I don’t know,’ I tell her honestly, letting my head thud against the wall. Then I take one last sip of my tea and reach over to put the cup on her nightstand. ‘On the one hand I’m furious. He wassoawful to me, Till. But on the other hand, I almost get why he did it. If he came up and told me it wasn’t safe to be here and that I should leave, I know that I wouldn’t have listened.’
