His eyes stayed on the corridor where she had gone. “Yes.”
“I preferred you when I thought you were only self-righteous, not my competition.”
“I preferred you when I didn’t have to speak to you.”
The almost-joke sat between us awkwardly.
“Quill summoned her,” he said.
So that was what the basin had said.
“When?”
“Rev said noon.”
“Generous. He gives a girl time to dread.”
“He gives himself time to arrange things in his favor.”
I hated that answer because it was better than mine.
I looked toward the corridor again.
Astra was gone now. So were Rev and Cosima. Only the smell of starch and cut lilys remained, along with the silver aftertaste of the basin message.
“I’m going after her,” I said.
“Don’t.”
The word came quietly.
It still stopped me.
I turned.
“No?” I said. “I’m not one of your students, Hale.”
“I know.”
“Then don’t give me orders.”
“Stop making me need to. If you go to her now, Quill gets what he wants before she reaches his office.”
The joke in my mouth died.
“And what is that?”
“Three men moving toward her because she said no,” Hale said. “Three Marks answering one refusal. Quill will call that proof she can’t contain it.”
Three.
The word clicked.
Caspian would know by now. If he had not felt the fitting,which I suspected he had, someone would have told him. Ashford men were never allowed to go uninformed.
Except Caspian was starting to act less like an Ashford and more like a decent human being.
Annoying. It made him harder to hate, too.
