Research Partner
The stack of thick files landed on the table in front of me with a loudWHUMP.As he’d come from behind me, moved like a bloody ninja, and hadn’t so much as cleared his throat, I jumped a foot. I looked up, and immediately glared.
“What’s the matter, Shadow?” Bones sneered. “Hung over?”
Lowering my eyes to my open theurgy book, I gripped my quill more tightly in my hand. “I’m shocked you’re even awake,” I retorted. I checked my father’s watch. “What service am I expected to perform for you now, your highness?”
I realized my mistake even before I heard his delighted chuckle.
“Oh, I can think of a few, mongrel. Are you really offering?”
“You’re a pig.”
“Am I? I’m not the one who just offered to service me.”
I craned my head and neck around and glared at him over my shoulder.
“Isn’t there anywhereelseyou could be right now?” I asked scathingly. “I’m sure Warrington would positively salivate at the prospect of sullying herself with you. Why not go bother her? Orare you like one of those dogs that only wants attentions from the person who despises it?”
He grinned back and stuck his tongue in his cheek suggestively, winking.
I couldn’t help noticing he looked irritatingly well-rested and healthy for eight o’clock on a Saturday morning, particularly since he’d kept me up nearly until dawn. He looked like he’d just gotten out of the shower after a nice long kip, followed by a leisurely breakfast and coffee. He must’ve used magic or a magical potion to fix his busted lip and bruised jaw, along with whatever I’d done to his head the night before.
I winced a little at the memory.
Miranda and Draken had been in the downstairs common room when I got back, arguing with the prefect about calling security to go look for me. When I walked in the front door of Grathrock, bedraggled and grass-stained, with torn stockings and apparently what looked like red finger-marks on my neck, both of my friends had been near-hysterical.
I managed to calm them down, and without using Bones’ name.
I told them a friend of mine thought it would be funny to take me on a joyride, and crash-landed the two of us in the middle of the Great Lawn.
Neither Miranda nor Draken seemed particularly satisfied by that story. Miranda, in particular, looked at me with open skepticism in her eyes, fists perched on her hips as she seemed to be trying to read my mind withoutactuallyreading my mind. Draken’s suspicions were far less subtle, and much more specific. Halfway through my story, he asked me, point blank, if Alaric Greythorne had been that “friend.”
I scoffed at the question without really answering it.
Truthfully, I’d already considered whether I should ask Alaric to lie for me, even before Draken asked. Now I wasn’t sureif that would help matters, or make things worse. Alaric would definitely want to know who he was covering for.
He’d also be far less likely to be satisfied with a lie.
“You know,” I said, propping an arm on the back of my seat. “If you want me to keep my end of this ‘deal’ of ours, you might want to stop accosting me in public.” At his wider grin, I added haughtily, “I had to lie to my friends last night about which lunatic it was who swooped out of the sky and abducted me… and now, not eight hours later, here you are again. Didn’t you say a big part of our agreement was no oneknowingabout it?”
His grin faded.
He folded his arms, and his haughty, arrogant expression returned.
“What are you doing today, mongrel?” he asked in a clipped voice. “Besides stroking Hollywood’swhateverto ease his pride from last night?”
I rolled my eyes. “Should be pretty obvious what I’m doing, given you’ve found me in the library with an open book in front of me. Why are youhere,Caelum?”
“Answering your accusation from last night,Leda.”
I frowned, biting my lip to remain silent, knowing he was baiting me, that he wanted me to ask. After an annoyed huff, I asked anyway.
“Whichaccusation?” I scoffed. “There were a number of them, as I recall. Along with a number of extremelyvalidcomplaints?”
“The one about the one-sidedness of a certain agreement,” he cut in. “About me not holding to my word.”
That took a few seconds to compute.
