“What is my Mark doing?”
“It is… unsettled. Which is unusual. But your Mark moved toward someone. The Council will decide whether that means he owns it.”
“Caspian,” I hissed.
Hale tried to keep his face neutral, but I could see his teeth grind.
“I didn’t say his name.”
“You didn’t have to.”
He pushed off the wall.
“Don’t ask me about things like this again in a corridor.”
“Where should I ask you then? Or should I just keep my mouth shut and wait for you people to decide what to do with me?”
His eyes moved toward the lower stair, then away.
“In the salle,” he said. “When nobody is close enough to write down what you ask.”
“That sounds like an invitation.”
“It’s also warning.”
“Everything here is.”
His lips pressed thin.
“Then take this one seriously, Astra.”
He left before I could ask which part.
I was still standing there when Rev appeared beside me.
She slipped out of the side corridor at exactly the wrong angle to have arrived by accident.
“You and Hale,” she said.
“There isn’t a ‘me and Hale.’”
“That’s probably what he’s telling himself too.”
We walked toward verse-study. A third-year coming the other direction slowed when she saw me. Not enough to stop. Enough to make sure I saw her seeing me.
Rev waited until the third-year passed.
“You know that gets ugly fast.”
I glanced at her.
“What does?”
“Hale watching you in corridors. Ashford pretending not to watch you in the dining hall. Kieran being Kieran at you.”
“Kieran being Kieran at me?”
“Kieran tells me everything. And what he doesn’t tell me, I figure out just by looking at him. He’s almost as bad as you with that.”
