26. Seb
SEB
He realized his mistake—no, mistakes, plural—a moment too late, as they cascaded into each other, burying him in an impossible position.
He shouldn’t have invited Lily to the Tower, at least not without asking all parties involved.
If he changed tack, tried to keep everyone separate at this point, it would signal to Lily that he might like her company, but only in private, or conversely, risk another tiff with his roommates.
For her part, Lily might not even want to come to the Tower.
Behind him, he sensed Asher and Tori engaged in silent congress.
“Sure,” Asher said, ever the peacemaker.
“Great, now stop interrupting our work,” Seb said as gruffly as possible, incapable of looking across the table.
His neck burned. Moments like this, he was pretty sure, were the reason that Lily thought he was an asshole.
That and wearing a cashmere sweater to alchemy lab.
She looked nice, he thought, as he risked a glance across the table and found her suspiciously engrossed in her notes.
Her striped sweater had a wide neckline that flattered her shoulders and dipped over her collarbone.
Her lips looked soft. She glanced up, while he was caught in the way the afternoon sun turned her lashes dark and spiky, and found him staring at her.
The usual mask slipped over her face.
“I’m ready for the Coagulatio, if you are.”
He opened his mouth to apologize, then realized Asher and Tori would hear him. He palmed out his phone, hastily shooting her a text while her eyes bored holes into him.
I’m sorry for just assuming you’d want to come over.
She read the text, blinked at her phone, then looked at him, face still carefully neutral.
“It’s fine.” She didn’t sound fine.
Fuck.
“Right. Let’s finish this.”
It took them twenty minutes just to prepare for the last two spells, Lily looking extremely nonplussed as he explained the final stage of Living Earth.
By the time they finished the Coagulatio, their alloy of lead and antimony hardening into two shapeless lumps on the desk, Seb was shaking and his hands were clammy.
He wiped them on his pants before offering them to Lily across the table.
She looked down while she placed her palms over his, her normally rosy skin chalky.
“Words?” he said, and she nodded, her breathing steadying as she found her magic.
They began, her arms moving jerkily at first as if she wanted to avoid touching him, but when they finally connected—outer wrist pressed to outer wrist—the magic took hold, anchoring and smoothing their motions and flowing between them like a shared heartbeat.
They worked in swift, sinuous tandem, as if they’d practiced this dozens of times.
His softened gaze took in the movement of their hands, the motion stilling at the tables around them as their classmates watched.
Lily’s pale face tensed with concentration, bangs sticking to her forehead, and finally the two silver-black lumps began to take form and shiver with life.
The AEther crackled and jumped between their skin, running in electrical tremors up his arms and straight into his heart. And then it was over.
He collapsed onto his stool, fighting to keep his eyes open, as Lily did the same, breathing hard.
The two mounds of alloy had become tiny, gleaming, silver-black wolves.
He leaned forward as they began to move, twitching as if waking from a deep sleep.
Lily’s breath caught as first one, then the other, shook themselves awake.
In spite of his exhaustion, he smiled and found Lily’s own mask cracking with delight.
Arms folded on the table, she leaned forward to get a better look at the wolves, now giving off tiny, golden breaths of AEtheric life.
“Well,” Chant said, appearing at the head of their table and dropping to a crouch so that he could meet their work at eye level. “This is perfectly delightful.”
One of the wolves, the one nearest Seb, was slightly bigger than the other.
It turned in a lazy circle, taking slow stock of its surroundings.
As Gemma and Braithwhite’s experiment exploded in a sooty bang and a cascade of cursing, Seb’s wolf raised its nose and began to howl, a shockingly real, shockingly large sound to come from such a tiny thing.
Sitting calmly on its haunches, Lily’s wolf chimed in, its voice pitched higher, and it raised the hair on the back of Seb’s neck.
Tori and Asher appeared at his shoulder, leaning in to look at the wolves.
“Wow, okay.” Asher nodded his appreciation. “Living Earth?”
Seb nodded, since Lily was too engrossed to answer.
“In under two hours?” Even Tori couldn’t keep the admiration out of her voice. “Jesus.”
She shot Lily an appraising look, but she didn’t notice. Carefully, Lily extended a trembling finger toward the smaller wolf, and sensing its maker, the wolf trotted over, rubbing its head against her fingertip. The last of her mask slipped away, and she beamed with private joy.
Seb turned to Tori, looking past her to their experiment. “What’d you do? Are you done?”
“Crystallized antimonite.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Pretty good,” he said, taking in the massive bouquet of delicate, fractilious spears at the center of the table. Inwardly, he was pleased with how much more impressive his and Lily’s was.
“Oh!”
He was turning, even as Lily exclaimed, as a sudden electrical pulse rolled up his neck and into his scalp.
Lily’s eyes were wide with surprise, her mouth open, and he followed her gaze to the table.
The wolves had finally acknowledged each other, and the female wolf nuzzled at the male’s neck.
The male nuzzled back, and Seb felt that same shock in his skin, as if he’d grabbed the world’s most pleasurable live wire.
“Ah.” Chant cleared his throat, standing. “This rendition of Living Earth is phenomenal. What would you like to do with them?” he said, trying to pull focus off the wolves, who now delicately touched noses.
Lily looked like she wanted to die of embarrassment. Seb wanted to join her in a separate coffin. They were saved by the death throes of Gemma and Braithwhite’s experiment, belching up yellow, sulfurous smoke.
“Oh dear.” Chant sprang to action. “Everyone, if you’re finished, collect your things and head out, otherwise please wait outside until I’ve cleared this. No, Tripp! Don’t touch it!”