Chapter 50
Maeve
THE GIRLS TOLD ME TO skip class today; well, they demanded it, more like. So when I walk into the dining hall half an hour later, hair in a messy braid and a headache pounding behind my eyes, they don’t look happy to see me.
“What are you doing out of bed?” Alina asks as I sink down next to her on the bench. Her blue eyes blaze into me, and I wonder if she’ll use that same glare when she’s queen one day. The thought makes a tremble go down my spine. Scary.
“I have class,” I say. “I can’t fall behind.”
Someone walks past me with a tray full of steaming garlic-and-herb potatoes, and the smell makes me want to gag.
“Here,” Poppy says, pushing a full mug of steaming tea toward me. “It’s peppermint.”
A faint smile pulls on my lips. Of course it is. Peppermint tea is Poppy’s signature drink.
“Thanks, Pops.” I take a little sip of the steamy tea, and it immediately helps settle my stomach.
“For the record,” Lyra says, pointing her fork at me, “I don’t approve of this.”
“Consider it recorded,” I say, then take another sip, savoring the heat from the mug against my cold fingers.
My head still throbs with every beat of my heart, and I try to ignore the sounds in the dining hall: someone laughing too loudly, a tray falling from a table, silverware clinking against dishes. It all grates on my ears, making my headache worse.
I’m just lifting my mug for another drink when I notice students scurrying out of the way of something coming through the dining hall.
I glance over to find Professor Azula’s iguana cruising through the dining hall with an envelope held in its mouth.
And it’s headed straight for me.
When it gets to our table, it uses its sharp claws to scale the wood. The girls gasp and sit back, startled, but I just hold my breath. The iguana offers me the envelope, and I take it with a shaky hand.
“Thanks,” I say.
It levels me with a stare, its big glassy eyes reflecting my disheveled appearance back at me. Then it climbs down the table and heads back the way it came, causing students to once more scurry out of its way.
“What was that?” Lyra asks, her plate held to her chest, like she thought the iguana might try to steal her cinnamon toast.
“Professor Azula’s spirit companion,” I say, turning the envelope over in my fingers. It has Professor Azula’s red wax seal on the back.
“Well?” Alina says, leaning forward. “Are you going to read it?”
I suppose I have to, even if I really don’t feel like it.
Using Lyra’s butter knife, I slice through the seal, then pull out the folded letter. The girls stare at me as I start to read.
Miss Vandermere,
The Arcanum Collective fellowship board has scheduled your demonstration for the morning following the conclusion of semester examinations. You will report to the elemental magic practice room at eight a.m. sharp.
Your progress this term has been significant. However, final selection will depend on your ability to remain steady, focused, and controlled under pressure.
Use the coming days wisely. Prepare thoroughly, and rest when you are able.
Professor Azula
I lower the letter slowly.
“What did she say?” Lyra asks. She’s put her plate back on the table and is now sipping a mug of hot cocoa.
“It’s about my fellowship demonstration. It’s scheduled for the morning after final semester exams.”
“Oh,” Alina says, blinking. “That’s soon.”
“You’d better take care of yourself, then,” Lyra adds, arching a pointy eyebrow at me. “As in, you should probably be in bed right now.”
Maybe she’s right.
But I can’t just lie in bed all day, feeling my connection with Severin, going over and over that last conversation we had in his office.
I haven’t told my friends about the breakup—or whatever it was. I’m not ready to. And I just really don’t want to talk about it.
But deep in my chest, the thread still tugs at me, frayed though it may be.
I fold the letter carefully, then slide it back into the envelope before slipping it into the pocket of my academy robe. At the table next to ours, someone clinks their silverware against a plate, and I grimace, the throb in my head pounding with a vengeance.
“Maeve?” Poppy says softly. “You don’t look well. I really think you should go back to bed.”
“I know. But I need to do something. If I lie in bed all day, I’ll go mad.”
Lyra gives me one of her mischievous smiles. “Sorry to say, but you’re already halfway there.”
Normally, I’d laugh at that. Right now, though, I can barely manage a half-hearted smile.
So I sit there quietly, finishing my tea while the girls finish breakfast. Then we leave together, stepping into the cool air outside the lively dining hall.
“After class, I’m going to the library,” I tell them, trying not to flinch at the light coming through the stained glass windows lining the tall walls. “I need to finish revising my application essay and start prepping for finals.”
“I can help you study,” Poppy says.
“Yes, please.” Lyra clings to Poppy’s arm like she’s a buoy in a storm. “I need help with studying for Advanced Arcane Ecology.”
Since our first year at the academy, this has been our tradition: drinking tea and eating sweets, studying with Poppy’s help, and playing runeball in the snow when we need to blow off steam—though there’s no way I’m going out into the cold right now.
The thought makes me sneeze, and Lyra jumps away, giving me a look that’s half disgusted and half concerned.
“I cannot get sick,” she says, using Poppy as a shield between us. “I’m visiting Cairn for Yule, and I won’t let you ruin that, storm witch.”
“Sorry.” I sniffle and step back.
The three girls look at me with mouths turned into disapproving frowns. They don’t get it though. I can’t sit in the dorm all day. I’ll just think of Severin. And I don’t want to do that right now. Or maybe ever.
So I take another step back. “I’ll see you all after class.”
They watch me as I back away, and then I turn and join the students pulsing through the corridors, heading to morning classes.
As I walk through the halls, I feel the pull in my chest, subtle but persistent. It wants me to turn and head toward the history wing, where he is, but I ignore it, curling my fingers into fists and walking more purposefully.
Because if I let that thread pull me off course, I might never find my way back.