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CHAPTERFIVE
THE LOVER
Iopen my eyes, anxious when I wake up on Everday.
I don’t know what to expect. I’ve never had to report to anyone but myself and my great-grandmother. I might assist the healer in the undercity clinic where I help on Luprdays, but it’s not an actual job. I don’t have to turn up, or obey directives that don’t suit my fancy. Sure, they’d fail my internship and I’d have to retake it next year, but there are no actual engagements I must keep. I haven’t given them my word.
Not even Mar, much as she enjoys bossing me around, can make me do anything I don’t want to do.
Reiks could command me. I’m in his power. I can’t believe I’ve put myself in this situation.
As I’m brushing my teeth, Callan knocks at my door, opening it before I invite him in. He stinks of honeyed wine and sin.
“You know, knocking doesn’t really count if you’re just going to walk in regardless.”
He ignores me, slinks on my bed and crawls under the covers. “Leave the curtains drawn, will you?”
I shake my head. The boy is hopeless.
“Dare I ask why you’re in my bed rather than your own?”
“Because Mar will look for me in mine when she hears I haven’t made it to practical hexes.”
I shake my head. “Isn’t it early in the year to skip?”
He sighs. “Not you, too. You know how stupid hex classes are here.” Callan sits up with a sigh. “Well,youwouldn’t. But let’s just say, Valina had us crafting the kind of hex they’re reaching now when I was five years old. It’sboring.”
“You’re hungover, or still drunk. Don’t blame the curriculum for your questionable choices.”
My cousin has killer dimples and isn’t afraid to use them to his advantage. He pouts and sends me a long-suffering look.
“Fine. Use my bed today, but you have to get your shit together this year. Valina will have your balls otherwise.”
Though twenty, he’s still a freshman, because he doesn’t tend to turn up to classes. He aces the tests, but there are attendance requirements too.
“Valina’s had my balls since they dropped. Along with yours and just about everyone else’s.”
I wince in agreement. “Maybe not Mar’s.”
“Definitely Mar’s,” Callan grumbles. “Why would she do her dirty work and keep an eye on us, otherwise?”
I snort. Fair argument.
Done with my ablutions, I join him in my room. It’s much smaller than the one I have at home, but it’s cozy, comfortable. My canopy bed has dark green curtains Callan is no doubt about to draw shut. At its feet, a pearl-white trunk is filled with everything of value I have. It’s not much. I’m not sentimental. I’ve accumulated few trinkets over the years—books, pretty stones that asked to come home with me. A pearl I collected a lifetime ago.
It’s locked, of course, but Callan would never dare put one hand on my treasures.
Still, I’m loath to leave him in the same room as the pearl.
“All right, tell me about it,” I demand.
“What?”
“Whatever’s made you drink yourself stupid.”
He sits up on my bed, grimacing. “You mean Raverday? The start of the week is reason enough to drink oneself stupid, Lissie.”
Callan might be younger than I, but as a child, I used to follow him around everywhere. He had a knack for getting into trouble, and at the time, I’d loved the adventure. He’d always been my guide, up until I chose a different path. A safer path.
