The word sat between us.
Juno closed the ledger and placed her palm on the cover.
“You will not tell anyone what you saw in this book. NotHale. Not Cosima. Not Delphine Moreau. Not Caspian Ashford. Not Kieran Marsh. Not even me, if Caswell is in the room.”
“Why not?”
“Because if Caswell is in the room, I cannot be the same person as I am when we are alone together.”
I understood that better than I wanted to.
“The book does not exist,” Juno said. “It exists only when you and I are alone in this chamber. Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
She lifted her hand from the cover and said, “Go to lunch.”
I wanted to ask more questions, but I could tell from the expression on Juno’s face that class was over.
So I left her chambers and started making my way to the dining hall because there was nowhere else to go except back to my room. And there was nothing to do in my room besides think about how my mother had been recorded in a book that did not exist.
By the time I reached the dining hall, it was before lunch but after breakfast and the room had only two students at it. One was Delphine. The other I didn’t know.
I went to Delphine’s table and tried for a smile that I was pretty sure failed miserably when Delphine looked up and said, “That bad?”
“My face is doing announcements again?”
“Your facing isn’t particularly subtle.”
“That’s disappointing. I was hoping my time here was making me more mysterious.”
“You can sit,” she offered this time.
I sat. The other student—a boy—didn’t look up.
Delphine tore a piece of bread and slid it to me.
“Juno?” she asked.
I took the bread and nodded.
“How did you know?”
“You came in through the east corridor entrance, andJuno always sends people to lunch when she’s finished ruining their day.”
“She has a system.”
“She has several.”
I ate the bread because I didn’t really feel like talking. Delphine pressed me anyway.
“Was it really that bad?”
“It was a thing I’m not supposed to talk about.”
“Of course.”
She tore another piece of bread. This one she ate herself.
