Cara’s smile widened. “You two behave yourselves.” She peered around Matt’s big form. “Now, I have to pin down that Sabre and give him the same treatment you gave Matt.” She headed to where a bruised Cody cradled his daughter and laughed with Kitani.
Matt watched her go. “That one is a beauty.”
I shot him a look.
“A high-quality item,” he translated.
“Don’t know that she’d appreciate being called an item.” But I was relieved to see the return of his cheerful Aussie self, even if it meant I couldn’t understand him.
“You’re the one that wanted it worded differently. I called her a beauty.”
I sighed. “I guess this Dani is going to teach me stuff in the special abilities class. But what will the shifters be learning?”
Matt shrugged. “S’pect we’ll be shifting. Over and over. Until we can do it faster than a lizard drinking.”
I rolled my eyes and climbed to where Mari waited for us on the steps.
18
Anna
After signing our lives away and collecting our envelopes filled with basic info, Constance helped us select our black apparel.
“I argued that women wouldn’t be caught dead wearing sweatpants all day,” she said with a smile. “So you get leggings!”
I laughed—didn’t have the courage to admit that I lounged around in sweatpants a fair amount—and accepted the tee shirts, pairs of leggings, a hoodie, and a cool bodysuit for Night Games. Meanwhile, the remainder of the students milled around outside the coliseum in an attempt to see the assessment schedule.
With all the tall male bodies, I didn’t stand a hope of seeing anything. But Mari out-loomed them all as she squinted at the board.
“Team Phoenix doesn’t have their assessments tomorrow, but rather the next day, right after the run,” she announced.
Relief flooded me. It gave me time to prepare. “There is a library, isn’t there?” I asked.
Matt gave me a puzzled look. “Why do you need a library?”
“I don’t know a thing about realm politics. I need to study before the written test tomorrow.”
“The idea is to find out what you don’t know,” he pointed out.
“Well, after studying, there will be a lot less that I don’t know.”
“The library is on the second floor,” Mari said.
We rose to the dorms long enough to drop our supplies, then trekked down to the second floor. Only to find ourselves staring through the locked glass entrance at people bustling around inside, pushing carts loaded with books. One perfectly human-appearing person opened the door.
At first, I thought she was going to tell us that Trix couldn’t come in, but she said, “I’m sorry. We won’t be ready for students until the morning. We’re still filing books.”
I bit my lip. “You’re open in the morning?”
She smiled. “Bright and early.” And shut the door.
So much for that idea.
Matt ran his fingers through his hair, sending sand and dust flying. “Think they just didn’t want me in there. I look like I’ve been wrestling wombats,” he stated. “Going for a shower, and then a run.” He shot me a heart-stopping grin before heading up the stairs.
Mari, Trix, and I descended instead. With prepping for my assessment off the table for the moment, we sat beneath the trees along the lake, while I tried to tackle our other main issue—the team. Or in our case, lack of it.
We needed to work as a unit, and if we couldn’t, I had little doubt Amadeus would rather turf me on my inelegant butt than ditch the guy who’s responsible for the renos.
