My mouth fell slack. “Are you telling me that Aldous Hawthorne did something…nice?”
“I’m sure there was something in it for him,” she giggled. “Anyways, Cicily liked to read, just like Seb, and she had ahugecollection of books. I don’t remember where they were sent, though. I think to various archives across the kingdom. And Uncle Aldous let the people who were close to her go through her things and take something to remember her if they wanted before donating the rest.”
“Damn. This complicates things.” I was hoping the book would still be at the castle, despite it being a pile of ruins. I would search every crumble of brick if I had to.
I stood and proceeded to tuck the books back in their place on the shelves. Maybe Venay had a way to figure out where the journal was. She was the one who enchanted it, after all, so she must have some sort of connection to it.
“Regardless of if we find the journal, we're going to save Seb. That’s not up for discussion,” Pia added after I’d gone silent.
“I know.” My voice wavered.
“Willawood.”
The waves of my hair fell into my face as I spun at the sound of my name. Sawyer stood in the archway, ushering me towards him with a finger. “Can I talk to you?”
Saw this coming from a mile away.
I cleared my throat, taking a nervous glance around the mess of a room and at Pia, who shot me an arched brow. “Be right back,” I told her.
“Did you find anything?” I asked Sawyer when we were in the corridor, hoping to hold off on the thing hereallywanted to talk about. He had spent the morning looking through the books and articles in Archer’s study for something about Cicily. There weren't many manuscripts in there, but it was a start.
He shook his head. “Sorry.”
“Oh.” My grimace could not be disguised. “Okay, well what's up then?”
He ran a hand sheepishly through his hair, as if he suddenly felt uncomfortable being near me.
“Listen, last night shouldn't have happened. I know neither of us meant to fall asleep like that. You were just so upset…but either way, it just shouldn’t have happened.” His eyes refused to meet mine.
My throat felt like it had been stuffed with cotton.
“It’s fine, Sawyer. You were being a good friend. That’s all that was. Nothing more.” I offered him a soft smile.
“Right.” He shuffled a bit. “It’s just that you're my best friend, but you're also my other best friend's girl—sorry,ex-girlfriend,” he corrected. “Right?” he then questioned, doubting his wording.
“We aren’t together,” I clarified, forcing a fake, half-assed grin. “You're overthinking this, truly. Everything is fine.”
I was single and therefore, sleeping next to my friend wasn’t a crime. Although, sleeping next to my friend and having a sex dream about yourself, him,andyour ex-boyfriend was questionable.
Sawyer nodded, returning my smile with his own awkward one. “Alright. If your arm is feeling better, maybe we can catch up on your training tonight?”
“No can do. Venay gave mestrictorders to not use my arm until it is fully healed.” Not that I was much of a rule follower,but if I wanted any chance at going back to Draemor soon, I was better off attempting to comply.
I tapped a finger to my chin. “I don’t need my arm to use my mind control, though. So if you want to work on power wielding, I'll be there. Eight o’clock?”
He agreed with a soft nod, then backed away down the hall.
Flustered, I teased my hands through my hair before returning to the common room just in time to see Pia rushing back to her seat.
“You filthy little eavesdropper!” I exclaimed, casting an accusatory finger at her.
“You wanna talk about beingfilthy?” she yelled back, securing her hands on her hip bones. “What did you do!”
“I didn’t do anything.” I shrugged in defense.
“You slept with Sawyer?” she whispered the question so quietly that not even the gods could hear her.
Bending down to pick up a few loose books, I returned to my task of organizing the bookshelf. “I didn’tsleepwith Sawyer. I sleptnext toSawyer.”
