Chapter Eight
A continuous tapping sound rouses me from sleep. I sit up, squinting against the light slanting through my window. The tapping continues as I drag my ass out of bed and stumble out of my room, down the hall, to the front door.
“I’m coming,” I snarl, yanking the door open.
I reel back in shock, then dive forward, capturing the familiar figure in my arms. “Sadie,” I scream, crushing her in an embrace and spinning her around and around. It’s only been a month now, but I’ve ached for my sister like a hole in the heart. “How are you here?”
Footsteps pound down the hall, sending tremors through our shabby house. True and Pax burst into the room, their nostrils flared and eyes wide.
“What in the name of the queen is going on?” True shouts.
“Sadie,” Pax says, leaping forward to throw his arms around us both. He’s laughing, and Sadie is squealing like a pig, and I’m… Damn if I’m not crying a little. I didn’t realize how much I missed the big twerp until I saw her.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, laughing and wiping my eyes when Pax releases us.
I try not to think about how absolutely right it feels to be in his arms. I’ve been doing good these past couple of weeks not constantly fantasizing about my roommates and professor and focusing on my schooling. I really don’t need to regress.
“Mother and Father said I could go,” Sadie says with a wide grin. “To surprise you for Queen’s Day.”
“Are you staying here until then?” I ask. “That’s a month away.”
“I have to go back to school next week,” Sadie says. “I just came for a couple days. As an early Queen’s Day surprise.”
“You came by yourself?” True asks, frowning.
What’s his problem? He doesn’t even know my sister.
“What he means is, it’s brave of you to travel all the way here alone.”
Sadie shrugs. “Our parents got me a ride most of the way with some friends, and then I hitched a ride on a transport for the last leg of the trip. It wasn’t that hard. I’m not some silly yokel, you know.”
“Yokel or not, I’m glad you made it and didn’t end up captured by Wild Hunters,” I tease, ruffling her hair.
She pulls away and wrinkles her nose at me. “I’m a badass, I’ll have you know.”
“Come on, I’ll show you around campus, little badass,” I say.
“You should probably get dressed first,” she says, looking me up and down. “No offense.”
“Well, I wasn’t planning to go out in my pajamas,” I say, heading for my room. She skips down the hall after me. When we’re alone, I turn to Sadie. “Are you insane? Are Mother and Father going to kill me for harboring a fugitive?”
She waves the question away, wandering around and looking at my room. “I didn’t run away. I told them I had a ride the whole way to Ricoterra.”
When I look up from pulling on a top, Sadie is watching me, her arms crossed. “Are you really wearing that?”
“Sure, why not?” I ask, pulling my hair from the neck of my shirt and making a tail out of it.
“You’re never going to get Pax’s attention dressing like a slob,” she says.
“Not taking fashion advice from my little sister,” I say. “And besides, who says I want to get Pax’s attention?”
She rolls her eyes. “Oh, please. When spellcasters make pleasure devices for women, they probably model them on Pax. Whatever he did this summer, he needs to keep on doing it.”
“Do not let him hear you say that,” I say, chuckling. “If his head gets any bigger, he might not be able to hold it up on his scrawny neck.”
“You mean big brawny neck?”
I laugh and reach out to tousle her hair again, but she ducks away and examines herself in the looking glass.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were after him,” I tease, poking her in the side.
“Gross. He’s basically my big brother.” She tugs her skirt a little shorter, rolling the top to keep it that way. “Just getting some practice while I leave the village for good. If I can get some older guys to notice me, that means I’ll snag a husband in no time.”
“Maybe you’re the one Father should worry about getting pregnant,” I say as we head out.
Pax comes with us, and we walk around campus together.
I want to introduce her to Professor Sinetar, mainly to get her opinion, but he’s not in the library.
But I do show Sadie the zones of the first floor that scholar-escorted visitors can access.
She’s a lot less interested in the artifacts than I am.
As we step out, I see Sharp Tooth a little way off, but he doesn’t seem to notice me.
A minute later, when we step into the bakery for lunch, he’s sitting at a table near the window, engrossed in a sticky bun.
I don’t know how it’s possible, but the guy is literally everywhere I go. It’s getting creepier by the day.
I leave Pax and Sadie at the counter and step over to his table. “Are you following me?” I ask.
Sharp Tooth looks up, his expression sly. “How can I be following you? I was here first,” he points out. “Maybe you’re following me.”
“Are you following me?” I ask again, standing over him. “Because you were just behind me two minutes ago. Speaking of which, how did you even get here so fast?”
He watches me, then shrugs, a cheeky grin on his face. “I guess I’m just good like that.”
“Or really bad,” I say. “I’ve seen you following me a dozen times already. If you’re trying to be discreet, you’re failing miserably.”
“Or maybe I’m succeeding,” he says. “Depends on the goal.”
“Well, stop it,” I snap, but from his grin, I can tell I’m getting nowhere with him.
“We go to the same school, Vynessa. Of course we’re going to see each other around. Tell your friends to keep a better leash on you, before you end up angering the wrong people.”
Pax joins me, a steaming mug of coffee in each hand. “Is this guy bothering you?”
“Look, I’m just eating.” Sharp Tooth lifts his half-eaten fruit pastry. “She came up to me.”
“I got your coffee,” Pax says, steering me to an empty table. Once we’re seated, he leans across the table towards me. “What was that about?”
“Yeah,” Sadie chimes in. “He’s cute. Is that your lover?”
“No,” I say quickly, shaking my head. “Definitely negative. And you need to get your eyesight checked if you think he’s cute, Sadie. Guy’s a creep.”
“He can be both,” she insists, looking unbothered by my assessment.
“Nessie here definitely does not have a lover,” Pax admonishes.
I avoid their questioning gazes and busy myself spooning sugar into my coffee and dividing the different rolls they chose so we can each try them all.
I don’t know what my problem is. I’ve been edgy lately, and it’s not like me to confront a stranger.
But Sharp Tooth is seriously starting to annoy me with his ever-present presence.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” I say to Sadie again, shaking my head. “And I can’t believe you risked your life to come all this way. I’ll be home for a week this winter. It’s only two and a half moons away.”
“It wasn’t just for you. I wanted to check out the cute older boys,” Sadie says, but I notice Pax watching me with a pained expression.
“What?” I ask.
He shakes his head and stuffs a huge chunk of sweetbread in his mouth. I try to shake off my irritation and turn my focus back to Sadie. “What do you want to see after lunch?”
For the rest of the day, we show her everything we can think of in and around the academy.
I take her to the Scholar building with me, asking Professor Sinetar if I can miss class the next day to spend time with her.
But too soon, our three days are up, and she has to return.
I can’t help but tear up as Pax and I watch her load onto the caravan.
He paid her way to back to Nalo’Lan, and she insisted she was fine going with strangers.
She’s so independent, sometimes I swear that she’s my older sister and our parents are just lying.
“I don’t like her riding around by herself like that,” Pax says, but he keeps the smile on his face, waving to Sadie as the carriage bears plod away.
“Yeah, I know. But no one tells Sadie what to do, least of all our parents.”
Their hands-off parenting style worked for me because I was a studious homebody. I’m not sure it’s working so well for Sadie, but then, we did stupid stuff too.
“Remember when we hid in that fruit cart and rode all the way to Ba’Sun?”
“Haven’t eaten a pinesimmon since,” Pax says with a grin.
“And we had to spend the night on that roof,” I say, smiling at the memory.
Pax chuckles, a sound I haven’t heard much since he’s been back from training camp. “Yeah.”
“And let me remind you, that was not with our parents’ blessing.”
“Yeah, but you had me,” he says, throwing an arm around my shoulder.
I keep my eyes fixed on the caravan, which now looks the size of a child’s toy as it moves further and further from us.
A strange feeling of sadness sweeps over me, as if I’ll never see my sister again.
I resist the urge to run after the last wagon, jump up, and haul Sadie down from it.
Warm tears splash on my cheeks, and Pax turns to me.
“Hey! Nessie, hey. Are you okay?”
“Fine,” I say as I scrub the tears off my face.
“No, you’re not.” Pax squeezes his arm around me, leading me to the side of the station.
Stopping at a windowsill, he grabs me around the hips and hoists me into the ledge.
He stands between my legs, and his arms wrap around my waist, warm and secure and so familiar. “Talk to me, baby. What’s wrong?”
“It’s just a lot,” I mumble. “I didn’t realize how much I missed my family until Sadie showed up.”
His head nuzzles into my stomach, and I comb my hands through his golden hair. This feels good. It feels like home. If Pax hadn’t been so different with me since he arrived in Ricoterra, maybe I wouldn’t feel so homesick now.
“Talk to me, Nessie,” he says into my shirt. “It breaks my heart to see you sad.”
I lean back into the windowpane, knowing it’s dirty and gross, but not really caring in this moment. “I’m going to sound so clingy it’s embarrassing.”
His head comes up, and his sea-green eyes flick between mine. “You never need to be embarrassed with me.”