Seventeen

“I WONDER WHETHER THE ACADEMICS AT THIS institution are as rigid as they ought to be.” Finn looks pointedly at the slate I left on my desk. Someone has drawn a crude rendition of a woman’s body—mine, probably—along with mathematical equations for the size of her rather impressive bosom.

Go back to your island, rat is scrawled at the bottom.

“Yes,” I say, dryly. “Their calculations are entirely wrong. It reflects poorly on the school.” I drop my satchel at my feet. The sight of Finn in his dark blue three-piece suit sitting in my study carrel is too much. “What are you doing here? And what did you do at the hotel? You had no right!”

“I’m sorry about that. But I intend on taking up more of your time than you can afford to lose, and thought it only fair you have fewer responsibilities.”

“That’s not your decision! And—wait, what is that on my slate?” I lean over his shoulder, squinting. Next to the line about going back to my island is an odd symbol that I don’t recognize. It seems to have been etched there. I reach out a finger to run over it, but Finn blocks my arm.

“I wouldn’t touch that if I were you.”

Hugh, a lanky boy with a perpetual sniffle, stands up from his carrel three down from mine. “Can I borrow a pen and inkwell? Mine won’t seem to work.” A boy next to him hands one over. “No, this one won’t work either.”

“It was working fine for me, give it here. See?”

“But it won’t write for me! Neither will this pen.” Hugh growls in frustration and then sits back down out of sight. “Spirits below, what is happening? Not even my chalk will show up on slate. Here, let me have a go at yours.”

There’s low, confused murmuring. Again the other boy says, “It works fine for me.”

“Why won’t any of my instruments mark?” Hugh walks by, smashing a piece of chalk against a small slate. It leaves no mark.

Finn stands, moving out of the way for me to sit in my carrel. “Hmm. Puzzling.”

“It wouldn’t have anything to do with you, now, would it?” I ask.

He shrugs, long, slender shoulders lazily rising. “I may have put a curse on whoever wrote that horrid thing. Just a small one. Though I suppose a month without being able to write something down will be inconvenient for a student.”

The laugh that bursts out of my mouth earns me the ire of everyone around us. I put my gloved fingers to my mouth, trying to push some of the mirth back in. “I am still very cross with you.”

“Making you cross with me is a full-time occupation.” He wanders to a leather chair near a series of shelves holding old newspapers and sits down. I follow him, shoving the needed book into my satchel.

“I have class.”

He waves a hand, mimicking my Melenese gesture perfectly. “Quit bothering me. I’m reading. This is a library, after all.”

“We’re not done discussing what you did at the hotel.”

“I should hope not.” His lips curl into a smile, but his eyes remain fixed on the pages of the book.

Infuriating boy!

When I return to my carrel that afternoon, Finn is still in the same chair. This time he’s thumbing through a newspaper.

“You can’t stay in the library all day!” I hiss, sitting next to him.

“This is a school. Studying is encouraged.”

“What exactly are you studying?”

He folds the paper and gives me his cat grin. “History students.”

My face burns, and I need something to do with my hands. And my feet. My whole body, really. I stand and gather my things, then stalk outside toward home until I realize I haven’t any work to hurry back to. “Curse you,” I mutter at my shadow. “You may be content with doing nothing, but some of us need to be busy.”

“Who are you talking to?” Finn asks, and I turn to find him walking several steps behind me, swinging his cane in time to his pace. Sir Bird is on his shoulder but hops to mine.

I abruptly change directions and head instead for Eleanor’s house.

“Eleanor’s is rather a long walk. Shall I call for my carriage?”

I whirl around and Finn nearly crashes into me. “Shouldn’t you be doing something productive with your time instead of following me around? I thought you were figuring out how to get your shadow back!”

“I’m hungry. Are you hungry?” He reaches up to take off his hat.

I stand on the tips of my toes and slam it back down. “Leave that on!” I realize a second too late that this position puts us face-to-face. I haven’t been this close to him other than in immediate peril situations.

This feels far more perilous.

His smile spreads. “I’ll leave my hat on if you’ll have supper with me and allow me to walk you home.”

I scowl and let go of his hat, backing away to a respectable speaking distance. “I’m safe. You have no further obligations.”

“Is that so?” He nods toward the roof of the school. My stomach flips to discover it is lined with large black birds.

They are watching me.

Sir Bird shifts closer to my neck, a low, comforting sound in his throat. I stroke his feathered head but cannot look away from the silent sentries.

I swallow hard and clench my gloved hand. “Supper then.”

“Marvelous idea! Should we eat in the hotel dining room?”

“Oh, no! I couldn’t. I’d be mortified.”

He frowns. “Why?”

I shake my head. It would be utterly humiliating to sit while being served by the same people I work—worked—with.

“We’ll order up to your sitting room, then.”

“Is that appropriate? I mean, for us to be there together, alone.”

He puts a hand over his heart, expression shocked. “Why, Jessamin, you’d try to take advantage of me?”

I scowl and kick his cane out so that he misses a step. He laughs.

“Fine. We’ll order up.”

Thankfully, it’s Ma’ati who delivers our meal. She beams at me, curtsying and keeping her eyes low. Finn thanks her profusely and tells her that the cook is exemplary. On her way out, she winks and I want to strangle her.

I stab sullenly at my food. All the times I helped prepare and serve it has made it far less palatable than I thought it would be.

Finn clears his throat but I interrupt him before he can speak. “And another thing,” I say, jabbing my fork through the air. “This ability is utterly wasted on the gentry. As far as I’ve seen, all you do with magic is make it dull and uninteresting, or utterly horrendous. It would be better off in the hands of more creative users.”

He has the audacity to laugh. “I’m sorry magic is such a disappointment.”

“It’s very disheartening.” I try my hardest not to smile. “I’d do more exciting things if I had it.”

He leans back, toying with his silverware. “Such as?”

“I don’t know. I’d make this accursed country warm, for one. Blast away some of this dreadful gray that seeps into my bones and makes me cold all the time.”

“You think us far more powerful than we actually are.”

“See? Disappointing.”

“It’s true, it’s not very exciting. I mainly studied healing magic. The mending of bones, the repair of the body. Not very glamorous.”

I flex my fingers. “That’s how you worked up the glove so quickly. But you said ‘studied.’ Why did you stop? Too middle class for a nobleman to be playing at doctor?”

His smile effectively shuts him off from me, tight as a mask. “I found my interests shifted significantly when I had to come to Avebury.”

We spend the rest of the meal in silence. But when he stands to leave, his mask drops off into mischievousness. “I have a gift for you.”

“No more gifts!”

“You’ll want this one.” He hurries to a side table and lights a lamp there. Muttering to himself like I do when working out a particularly complex equation, he blocks my view with his body. After a minute, he turns around, a perfect sphere of glowing brightness hovering above his palm. It looks like a miniature sun.

“There! I can’t fix the whole country, and it will only last a few days, but I present you with the sun, on behalf of my dreadfully boring magic.”

He bows low, holding out his hand. I reach out tentatively, afraid of being burned, but the globe merely hovers above my hand where I slide it on top of Finn’s. It’s golden and deliciously warm and instantly makes me happier and more at ease than I’ve been in weeks.

I laugh, delighted, and by the look on Finn’s face you’d think I was the one who had given him an absurd and wonderful gift.