20. Chapter 19
After Maeve left, Ivy let Ezra inside the apartment so he could put his things by the couch. “Here’s your bed for the next…how many days are they closing off your room?”
“For the week,” he said, plopping his bag on the floor in the living room. “Don’t worry, Snapdragon, I’ll be out of your hair soon.”
“Not soon enough,” she mumbled, her nickname grating like sandpaper against her skin. She ignored his quiet laugh. “Anyway, the bathroom is over there. Then the kitchen…obviously. And as far as I’m concerned, that concludes the tour.”
He crossed the room to the bathroom, and she watched as he pulled his sweater over his head.
He had a basic white T-shirt on beneath it, but her eyes widened when his arms came into view.
Tattoos—mostly black, dark blue and purple ink—covered the subtle muscle from his forearm to beneath the sleeves.
She didn’t get the chance to see what any of them were before he put his sweater back on.
Not that she wanted to, anyway. Next, his hands brushed through his hair in an attempt to control his curls. It was a war he was losing.
“It’s beyond repair in the time we have,” Ivy called over to him. “We’ll be late for history if we don’t get going.”
“Alright, alright,” Ezra said, leaving the bathroom to pick up his schoolbag and sling it over his shoulder.
They left the apartment, and Ivy intentionally kept quiet on their walk to class, even though Ezra attempted conversation.
She was far too under-caffeinated to talk more than necessary with anyone, let alone him.
And thanks to the diversion, she no longer had time to get coffee and breakfast before class started.
She grabbed one of the desks in the middle of the lecture hall, and Ezra plopped in the one next to her. “Just because we’re temporarily living together doesn’t mean you need to sit next to me.”
Before he could respond, Professor Murray turned toward the class and shuffled around to sit on the edge of his desk. “Good morning, everyone! Today we’ll be discussing the latest chapters you’ve read on the first of the Nether Wars, which happened between whom?”
Someone in the front raised their hand, and Murray pointed at them. “It was between the US Arcane territories and the creatures formed by the Nether’s magic.”
“That is correct, Miss Chen,” Murray said with a wrinkled smile.
“And, of course, we all know the Nether is a world of corruption due to arcanes attempting to grasp more power from the earth’s well of magic.
To protect itself, the well created the Nether as a safeguard.
But as corruption often does, it kept spreading.
Thankfully, arcane leaders came together for once and sealed it shut behind gates throughout the world. ”
Another student raised their hand, and Murray called on them. “If the gates are sealed, how are these creatures getting out and causing these wars?”
“Did you even read the chapters?” another student commented. Ivy thought the same. The reasoning was all perfectly explained in the textbook.
“Now, now.” Murray chuckled, though there was an annoyance lying beneath it.
“Mr. Bylers, the reason for this is the nature of the corruption itself. It’s designed to destroy, so over time, it seeps through the barriers the gates have created and form new openings.
There are theories that the original arcanes still live inside the Nether and are trying to escape.
But there has been no proof.” The professor walked to the other end of the lecture hall.
“Can anyone over here tell me the biggest thing that came out of the first war?”
A few people raised their hands, and Murray pointed to one of them.
“Is it the formation of the Gatekeepers?” the student asked.
“Yes, that it is. The Gatekeepers Society is quite possibly one of the most important institutions in our world. Without them, the tears in the barriers wouldn’t be sealed, and the original gates would be left unsecured.”
“Have there been any other arcanes who have gone into the Nether since it first happened?” Another student asked.
Murray pursed his lips and clasped his hands behind his back. “There have been a few instances, yes, much to their own peril, because it is said that those who venture in die from the corruption. Thankfully there have been no recent reports of such things.”
Ivy wrote it in her notes and underlined it. Surely those would be questions on the next test. From the corner of her eye, Ezra inched his notebook to the edge of his desk and wrote something in the margin.
Talk after class?
She rolled her eyes, but reached over to write beneath it.
Why?
I want to apologize.
For?
He chuckled beneath his breath, and she couldn’t help but notice the stupid dimple in his cheek as he smirked.
I have a running list. Want to see it?
She shook her head and, much to her surprise, a smile crept onto her face. She forced her lips back into a straight line before reaching over again.
Pay attention to the lecture.
He pulled the notebook back to the center of his desk and kept to himself for the rest of class.
About twenty minutes before it was due to end, he packed his things and left the lecture hall quietly.
So much for his apology. When class was actually finished, she put her things away and left the room.
When she stepped out into the hallway, Ezra was leaning against the opposite wall with two to-go cups and a brown paper bag in his hands. As their eyes locked onto each other, he strolled over to her. “Flat white and a pumpkin cream cheese danish, right? I’ve seen you order it a few times.”
She stared at the cup and bag that he held out to her. A part of her wanted to refuse on principle, but she couldn’t ignore the pang in her stomach or the ache in the back of her skull any longer. She took them both from him. “Maybe I wanted a croissant today.”
“I’ll keep that in mind the next time I buy you breakfast.” He laughed before tilting his head at the exit. “Can we talk now? Maybe somewhere a little more private?”
“I don’t see why you can’t apologize to me here,” she said before taking a sip of her coffee.
“True,” he said, his voice lowering. “But I also want to talk about other things.”
Other things, meaning Callum and, likely, why she was sneaking around that night.
She chewed on her bottom lip. As much as she would love to believe he was simple-minded, she could tell he wasn’t.
Her lies wouldn’t deter him. He proved that much when they were in the security waiting room, and now that he knew she was friends with Briar, he could probably easily connect the two.
“Fine, I’ll hear you out,” she said. “Lead the way.”
She ate her breakfast as they walked across campus to the small lake at the bottom of the hill to the north of the cemetery.
Students hung around the lake, mostly on the weekends, but it was quiet this early in the morning.
A thin layer of fog clung to the water’s surface, though the bright sunshine would cause it to flee into the forest nearby soon enough.
Ivy took a seat on one of the benches along the path, and Ezra sat next to her.
“Alright.” He took a sip of his coffee before placing it on the ground next to his foot and turning to face her. “Ivy…”
She turned in her seat enough to meet his gaze.
It was the first time she had heard her name on his lips.
The way his deep voice wrapped around it wasn’t the worst sound in the world.
He stretched his arm out on the back of the bench, and the vibrations of his fingers tapping against the wood played against her shoulder.
“I’m sorry. Truly, I am,” he said, his voice gentle. “My mother taught me to be a gentleman when I was a kid. Seems like I’ve forgotten those lessons over the years.”
He looked down for a moment, pursing his lips and running his hands through his curls before coming back to her. “I’m sorry for running into you at the train station and nearly killing your plant.”
“Lou,” she corrected.
“Right,” he said, smirking so the dimple in his cheek reappeared. “Is Lou doing better?”
“Much. Professor Thorne had an extra pot she didn’t mind parting with.”
“Good. My behavior that day…and honestly since, hasn’t been the best.” He leaned his jaw against his palm for a moment, his pinky tapping against his mouth.
“What I said in the library the other day was uncalled for. And so was snapping at you in the café. It’s no excuse, but I was still wrapping my head around what happened to Callum.
We weren’t close by any means…” He trailed off, as if lost in thought, and then sighed.
“It’s strange to know something happened to him and I can’t do anything to help.
Regardless, I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that. ”
“Thank you,” she said after a moment’s pause. She glanced at her cup, her fingers playing with the edge of the plastic lid before meeting his eyes again. “That’s all I wanted. An actual apology.” She took a sip of her coffee, the liquid warming her up.
“I’m sorry it took so long.”
They stayed silent for a few minutes, watching the ducks on the edge of the lake dip their toes in and listening to the distant sounds of chatter and bird calls. He grabbed his coffee again, taking a few more sips before turning back to her.
“About that night when Callum went missing…” His fingers tapped on his paper cup. “You were snooping around in one of the professor’s offices, weren’t you?”
“What? No, of course I wasn’t,” she argued. Probably a little too quickly to be convincing. Heat rushed to her cheeks, and her eyes darted away from him.
“Wow, we really need to work on your facial expressions if we’re to find out what happened.”
She snapped her head back toward him. “My face is perfectly fine, thank you.”
He adjusted his arm to prop his head on his hand, and his wide smile softened. “Never said it wasn’t.”