“Speak for yourself,” Stratton says. “Icall it a good time.”
Tira rolls her eyes, her hand absent-mindedly drifting downward. It’s then that I see Barb nestled in the grass between her and Damia.
The sight of my friend patting the head of a snake is at least enough to snap me out of the muddled thoughts swirling round my head. I wasn’t sure if I was going to tell Tira about the kiss at first, but I don’t have anything to gain from keeping secrets. That’s more Leon’s specialty.
Except he’s been letting you in, hasn’t he? He’s been telling you the truth more and more.
I ignore the voice in my head, not ready to unpack that idea yet.
“When you’re done, can we talk?” I ask Tira.
“Well, that sounds ominous,” Damia says, holding her arm out for Barb to wind her way up it. But Tira just nods and starts packing the cards away.
“We’re done,” she says simply.
“But I was just getting the hang of it,” Stratton complains.
“No, you weren’t,” Tira contradicts him. “And there’s nothing more I can teach you for now. You have to go and practice. There’s some things you can’t charm your way through, pretty boy.”
Stratton winks at her. “As long as you think I’m pretty.”
I tut at him as Tira gets up to leave. “She’d eat you alive, Mureln,” I say with a warning tone.
He just laughs as we leave the courtyard, and Tira throws me a curious look.
“You’re joking around, so whatever is bothering you can’t be too serious,” she says.
“Seriously confusing,” I say as we head back to our room. Once we’re inside, I fill Tira in on what happened. I skip the details about Mistwell—it’s not really my tale to tell. I do tell her that the hints of it people hear in Trova aren’t the whole truth. Then I get to the kiss.
“So what does he expect?” Tira asks. “He tells you some deep, personal stuff about his past and you’re supposed to just forgive him?” She shakes her head. “Men. It doesn’t matter if they’refae or human, they still don’t understand the first thing about emotions.”
“I don’t think he expects me to forgive him just like that,” I say, turning the moment over in my mind. “It’s more like, he appreciated what I said and…got carried away?” I finish weakly, knowing the justification sounds shaky.
“It seems like you want to defend him,” Tira says.
“I don’t!” I reply, perhaps too defensively.
She holds her hands up. “I’m not judging, just making an observation.”
My thoughts from earlier come back to me. “Hehasbeen sharing more with me since the library attack. Of course I’m glad to know why we’re here, and grateful that he’s finally willing to share about his past. But I still think it’s too little too late. It shouldn’t have gotten this far before he bothered to start keeping me informed, should it?”
Tira shrugs. “No, but didn’t you basically tell him earlier that we shouldn’t be defined by our mistakes? And maybe he’s realizing just what a terrible mistake he made in deceiving you.”
She’s probably right. I called him a hypocrite, but wouldn’tIbe the hypocrite if I refused to let him make up for what he did?
“I did learn something from my card lesson with the fae,” Tira adds when I don’t immediately reply. “Have you noticed we haven’t seen Alastor recently?”
I raise my eyebrows, realizing we really haven’t. But I know his schedule is very different to mine since we got to the Lyceum. I get up early to eat breakfast before I train, and he lies in. I just thought I kept missing him.
“Why? Where is he?”
“Apparently, their captain sent him off on some mission. He’s been gone for a week.” She reads my expression. “I’m guessing the new, improved Leon-who-shares-things didn’t mention that.”
“No,” I say, my disappointment rising. “He didn’t.”
Chapter 11
Morgana
