Chapter 20
20
Once Elias returned, I would talk to him about how they had wrongly arrested Althea, but he was still a few days away. In the meantime, she was being held in the dungeons. I was worried about her, and so had no patience when Amador glared at me harder than usual as I walked into class the next day. Great. Lucas must have told her what happened between us in the catacombs, then. I looked around but didn’t see him anywhere. I remembered how he’d murmured in my ear after he’d kissed my neck. “I’ve been wanting to do this,” he’d whispered. Just the memory of it twisted my stomach into delicious knots. I wondered if I would ever kiss him again. If he’d been wanting to kiss me, then it meant he wanted to kiss me again, right? But I had to stop daydreaming.
Professor Manatubay wasn’t there yet. I sat at my desk and took out a few pieces of parchment and an ink pen, doing my best to keep from looking at Amador or acknowledging her. I had already successfully avoided her in history class earlier.
She got up from her seat and sauntered over to the desk in front of mine. She sat down, facing me, and leaned over my desk. “Stay away from Lucas,” she snarled in a low voice.
My heart was racing, but I refused to look at her, pretending I was intensely focused on finding my notes while needlessly shuffling my papers around. “Who are you? His keeper?” I sneered. “I’ll do as I please.”
Amador didn’t say anything for a few seconds. She looked me up and down, obviously searching for a retort, then leaned even closer. “We were betrothed as children, you know,” she finally blurted out, still a hushed whisper. For once, she actually sounded sincere. She looked around, but our classmates were all absorbed in their own conversations, paying no attention to us whatsoever. “We are engaged to be married.”
“In that case, congratulations,” I told her. I tried to be nonchalant, like I didn’t care, but inside I was shocked. Betrothed as children? It seemed so medieval. Then again, I supposed Biringan wasn’t the modern world.
“I assumed you didn’t know.” She shifted in the seat. “Don’t say anything, though. It hasn’t been announced.”
Does Lucas know? I wondered. He swore she wasn’t his girlfriend.
“I’d have to care to tell anyone about it,” I snapped. But ugh, I did care. After last night, after that kiss, I didn’t find him so annoying anymore. Alas.
She sat back in her seat and flipped her long hair over one shoulder. “Good. I don’t want to make Lucas uncomfortable. That’s all.”
Hmm. I bet he didn’t know. I gave her my fakest smile. “I hope that clears the air between us, then,” I said without exactly confirming that I’d keep our conversation a secret. I didn’t intend on rushing over to Lucas to discuss his engagement to Amador, but I also didn’t know whether I might need to use that information at some point. “No reason for us to be enemies,” I added. Which was true enough.
“We aren’t enemies,” she said, taken aback. Then she said, “We just aren’t friends .”
Leave it to Amador to add the insult. Wouldn’t want to accidentally say something nice. “Of course not,” I said with a huge, disarming smile. “Nobody wants to be friends .”
She narrowed her eyes at me and said, “Right.”
Our professor saved me from any more bickering with my not-enemy-but-not-friend. He shuffled up the aisle between us, bringing with him the stench of musky cologne and something like cigars. Incense, actually. Amador slid out of the chair and returned to her own. Professor Manatubay made it to the front of the room, where he clung to the lectern and looked at the ten of us over the top of his glasses. He waited a few more seconds before saying in a booming voice, “Today we are exploring the effect of the moon’s phases on Earth magic and how that pertains to political relations between realms.”
There was a slight commotion at the back of the room. We all turned to look, and there was Lucas, flustered and rushing to get into his seat.
“Sorry,” he muttered, slightly out of breath. The top buttons of his shirt were undone, so that his dark brown skin contrasted against the white linen.
“We’ll discuss your tardiness once class has ended,” Professor Manatubay told him. “As I was saying, the phases of Earth’s moon do, indeed, have an effect on the power derived from an individual spell cast, insofar as it is...”
Lucas was never late for class. I wanted to ask him what happened, but not with Amador around. She was facing him with a quizzical look. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed him shake his head at her.
I tried to pay attention to the lecture, but I was distracted by what was going on with Lucas and Amador, what Lucas and I discovered in the morgue, and what happened between the two of us there. There was also the not inconsequential fact that there was a killer somewhere in the palace. A mambabarang, no less. A dark witch. But who?
As soon as the professor closed his notes and dismissed us, I gathered my things, shoved them in my bag, and tried to leave without any more drama.
“Princess,” Amador called after me.
What now? I turned around. Lucas was taking his time, fidgeting with his books, and not looking me in the eye. I felt snubbed, and suddenly furious. I turned to Amador. “Sorry, I have to get to class. Nice talking to you earlier,” I said. I wasn’t going to let her think the future queen was at her beck and call. Before she could say anything else, I turned on my heel and walked off.