“That’s a long way.” Gabi eyed her speculatively. “Been running for a while?”
“A couple of weeks.”
An awkward silence fell as they studied each other. Kal wished she’d gotten dressed before they came back.
Elena blew a series of smoke rings. “This place used to be a home for unwed mothers.”
“Or any girl who annoyed her parents,” Gabi added. “It was like a prison. Some say it’s haunted by the ghosts of girls who died here, though we’ve never seen any.”
Elena gave a nervous laugh and sucked on her cigarette. “Not to worry, that was twenty years ago. It got closed down after some scandals. Then the Lenormands bought it and renovated all the buildings. It’s totally different now.”
“Who are they?” Kal asked. “The Lenormands.”
Elena shot her a dubious look. “You really don’t know?”
Kal shook her head.
“They’re the wealthiest witch family in Kievad Rus,” Gabi said. “Nobody messes with them.”
“Didn’t you meet Lara?” Elena asked. “She wears a big emerald around her neck.”
“That’s the one who admitted me,” Kal said.
“Lara’s a massive bitch,” Gabi said admiringly. “Once, this girl’s father showed up and was standing out on the street by the gate, demanding they give his daughter back. Lara went out there, and when he wouldn’t leave, she forced him to the middle of nowhere.”
“Forced?” Kal echoed. “Like made him go?”
Gabi laughed. “Kind of. Forcing is when the witches make you disappear into thin air.” She made a poof gesture with her fingers. “You come out someplace else.”
Kal licked her lips. “They can do that?”
“The powerful ones like Lara can.” Gabi kicked off her shoes and lay back on the bed, crossing her long legs. “Don’t get on her bad side.”
“We all just want to graduate,” Elena said. “Find jobs and be free to live our lives. But everyone understands why security is tight. A few years ago, this asshole got inside the school pretending to be a delivery man and stabbed his ex-girlfriend. She had to go to the hospital.”
“Shit,” Kal muttered. “Did she live?”
“Yeah. The doctors saved her.” Elena stabbed out her cigarette on the sill and tucked the butt into a small tin. “But Lara made sure he got a life sentence in the mines.”
Kal had heard of that. Prisoners condemned to plumb the deepest, darkest shafts in the zones with high Sinn activity. Most of them didn’t last long.
The man deserved it, but she didn’t want to think about the mines. She chose a uniform from the wardrobe and excused herself to change in the bathroom. When she returned, her stomach was rumbling.
“Do you want to get some food?” she asked. “I’m starved.”
Elena jumped up. “Sure! I’ll show you the way. You coming, Gabi?”
The tall girl shook her head. “I have to study for a test tomorrow.”
“Gabi’s a genius,” Elena whispered. “She just got admitted to the Merry Sharp Institute of Gemology in Kirith! The Lenormands are paying for everything.”
Kal grinned, genuinely glad for her. “That’s great. My?—”
She about to say, My brother goes to Faraday, but stopped herself in the nick of time. She was Kyra Navarra from Lycaea now. Only child, now an orphan.
“My friend said that’s a really good school,” she replied instead.
Gabi nodded absently, deep in a textbook. Elena grabbed her jacket and breathed in Kal’s face. “Do you smell smoke?”
