Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
B riony
I finish the rest of my cheese and ham rolls as we walk (or in my case hobble) back towards our rooms. The bread is a little stale, the cheese bland and the ham hard, but stars, it tastes so good I can’t help making little moaning noises as I chew.
“That really is pretty pornographic, you know,” Fly says, eyes flicking towards me. “If you’re trying to seduce me it isn’t going to work. Firstly, because I don’t want to have my skull smashed in by the Princes.” I scoff at that. “And secondly, you’re not my type, Cupcake.”
“What is your type?” I ask out of curiosity.
“Hmmm, I’m not really that fussed, just as long as he’s smart, handsome, built like a brick house and has a large–”
“I get the picture.”
He chuckles. “You don’t like big dicks?” he asks me. I roll my eyes. “What is your type then? Do you prefer girls?”
“I don’t know. For the last few years, I haven’t liked anyone at all really.”
“No hotties back in Slate Quarter then?”
I don’t answer that. I’m sure he’d consider Stanley to be a catch. He also turned out to be a backstabbing bully.
Fly examines my face. “It would be hard not to be into at least one of the Princes.”
“Humph,” I reply.
“You have to admit they’re hot.”
“I don’t have to admit anything.”
“I’m going to take it that you do. You’d have to have seriously unusual taste to find them unattractive. They’re probably the best looking boys at the academy – trust me, I’ve been checking.”
“You have?”
“Of course,” he sighs, “a man can dream.” His eyes flick to mine. “Being the Princes’ thrall would hardly be a chore, would it?”
“We’re not talking about that. I already told you, it isn’t happening.”
“I have a feeling you won’t get a choice in the matter, Cupcake. I know guys like them, and they don’t really take no for an answer. They always get their way in the end.”
“I also know guys like that lose interest pretty quick. I bet they’ve already picked out a different, better thrall and haven’t given me a second chance.”
Fly sighs. “You’re probably right.”
I glare at him. I wasn’t expecting him to agree so easily with me.
“So,” Fly says, “we’re free until tomorrow morning – at least I am. You have somewhere you have to be at 7pm.”
“Not happening!”
“Well then, what do you wanna do?”
What I want to do is get up into Amelia’s old room, but I daren’t try again so soon after yesterday’s attempt.
“Stuff my face and then sleep for twelve hours straight,” I say, instead.
“You don’t want to check out the campus? See what’s going on?”
I shake my head. Definitely not.
“I may have to reconsider this friendship, Cupcake, if you’re gonna be this dull.”
“I completely own up to it. I am dull and boring and ordinary. There is nothing special or exciting about me at all.”
“Hmmm,” Fly says, “you see, I’m not so sure about that. A boring person wouldn’t say that.”
We join the line at the canteen, collecting up a tray and moving slowly along the line.
It’s then I notice something strange about the canteen. Something I failed yesterday – in my desperate rush to consume food – to notice.
“Where are all the shadow weavers? Do they not need to eat? Do they live off the air itself?”
“Did you really think they’d be eating with commoners like us?” Fly says.
“I guess not. Where do they eat, then?”
“They have their own private dining room.”
“Of course they do.”
“You would probably be allowed there as their thrall.”
“I’m going to ignore that comment.” I change the subject again and we talk about the test we just took in the Great Hall. “It made my head ache,” I confess.
“Mine too,” Fly says, resting his fork and knife down on his plate and pushing it away. There’s still a good third left on his plate.
“Can I have that?” I ask.
He nods. “I didn’t find the test too bad,” he says. “Better than any physical test anyway.” He darts his gaze around the canteen, then leans really close and whispers, “I’m hoping they’ll assign me Granite Quarter.”
“You don’t want to go back to Iron Quarter? To your family?”
“No,” he says simply. “I don’t really belong there. My two elder brothers – they’re these massive, talented jocks – both captains in the army now. My dad’s a major general. My mom an ex-athlete. They belong there. I don’t fit in. Granite would suit me better.”
“You don’t fancy Slate?” I tease.
“Tell me about Slate,” he says, resting his elbow on the table and his chin in his hand. I describe it as best as I can. The cold, the misery, the hopelessness. “Yeah,” Fly says. “I’ll give that a miss. Where do you hope to end up?”
“Me?” I scoff. “I’m not delusional. I know where I’m headed. Straight back to Slate.”
“You might–”
“No, I won’t. I know how the system works.”
Fly’s silent for a while after that, watching me eat, then he asks me the dreaded question, one I was hoping I could avoid. “How about your family?”
“What about them?”
“I don’t know. What do your parents do? Do you have any brothers and sisters?”
“I have a dad … and a stepmom.”
I don’t tell him about Amelia. It’s too painful. I don’t want him looking at me with sympathy in his eyes. And if I’m honest, as lovely as Fly seems, I don’t know who I can trust. What happened to Amelia is a secret I intend to guard.
After I’ve eaten so much food my belly is actually bulging, we walk back through the campus towards our rooms. Music plays out from somewhere above us and laughter spills out from some of the towers.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go exploring?” I shake my head. Fly glances up at the clock tower. It’s ten minutes to seven. “And you’re really not going to go meet Beaufort?”
“Nope,” I say, reaching the bottom of our staircase. “I’m going straight to bed.”