“I don’t know.”
“Do you think she is?”
“I think they wouldn’t have cared about the letter if they just sent her home.”
I set the cup down because my hand had started to shake.
Rev didn’t tell me to breathe or relax. I was grateful for that.
“There’s an interrogation tomorrow,” she said. “Upperclassmen were talking about it at the side tables. Faculty were pretending not to hear. That means Council.”
“For me?”
“Unless you know someone else whose Mark split a basin into three directions and started an academy-wide drama…”
“You make it sound so festive.”
“It’s a gift.”
Rev slid off the counter and went to a cabinet above the stove. She reached behind a stack of bowls and pulled out a folded cloth packet tied with string.
“Here.”
“What is it?”
“Food. A little cheese. Two apples.” She glanced at me. “Though I expect you have enough apples. Kieran and all.”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat.
“Thanks, Rev.”
“Eat. They want you run-down. Don’t make yourself an easy target.”
“You sound like Hale.”
Reverie made a sour face. “Take that back.”
“No.”
“Cruel.”
I took the packet.
It was heavier than I expected.
That was what did it.
Not the notebook. Not the interrogation. Not the word completion.
Food, wrapped in cloth by someone who had thought I might need it.
My eyes burned.
“Don’t you dare cry over a wedge of cheese,” Rev said.
“I wasn’t?—”
“You were absolutely about to cry.”
