41
The City of Arts
Melody
Dread sluices through me the moment I open my eyes to the singing of birds outside. Aris must have come back in the night—so soundlessly he didn’t wake me as he snuck into bed next to me. He lies curled up in a ball, his feathery tail tucked in tight.
I watch him, memorizing the picture, because I know I will paint him this way. One day.
Unexpected tears fill my eyes, and I resist the urge to touch him. Caryan almost killed him yesterday. I felt over the bond how close Caryan got to doing it. He was determined.
Aris cracks open an eye and watches me, and I quickly blink my tears away.
“How were the goats, or bears, or whatever?” I ask, scrambling to my feet and go brush my teeth.
“ What happened yesterday?” he asks back, ignoring my flat attempt at cheerfulness.
“Uhm…nothing.”
“Liar!” he snaps, trailing me.
“It went pretty well,” I say quietly. “Better than expected, actually.”
“I can tell that you’re worried, even with the shields up.”
“Yep. Because breakfast today’s going to be hell,” I whisper as I spit, then undress to step into the shower.
Aris rolls onto his back, rubbing his scales on the carpet while stretching his neck. He stops when I step back out and grab a towel.
“You have a cut on your arm.”
“It’s nothing,” I say quickly, pulling a long-sleeved shirt over my head before walking out.
“He cut you,” Aris growls, following me. I can feel his anger before I pull those shields further up.
“Just a light cut. Nothing bad,” I lie.
I won’t tell him that I truly believed Caryan would carve me up as he said, if my magic hadn’t flared up. It would only make it harder for Aris, and at some point, he would try to bite Caryan’s head off. Or rather, die trying. Hells would I tell him. I’d rather bite off my own tongue.
A knock at the door startles me.
“Come on, I hate to wait,” Blair’s voice drawls from the other side. “And since a particular high lord warded your room last night, no one can get in without your explicit wish,” she adds.
What ?
“Warded?” I ask, glancing at Aris, who puts on a face of sweet innocence.
I march over to yank open the door. Blair stands there, two coffee mugs in her hands.
“Who? Riven?” I ask as a way of greeting.
“Who else would it be?” She bats her lashes at me. “I guess he’s nervous. With that many holes in the ward wall, someone might steal the little princess.”
Oh hells, I would give him a piece of my mind later for warding my room without even asking.
Then I truly look at Blair. She’s done her hair, and it’s a glorious mane of silky white strands, styled in a wild way.
She’s also wearing makeup. Her lips are a rich plum, and her amber eyes are rimmed with dark kohl, completing the rock-star look.
A tight top in a matching plum color hugs her breasts, and black yoga pants complete the outfit. She looks dashing.
“Done admiring me?” she purrs, but a smile plays around her full lips. Then she pushes the coffee under my nose.
“Who are you and what happened to the real Blair?” I ask as I take it, eyeing it suspiciously.
No need to mention that the campus feeds my never-ending caffeine addiction, because the gesture of bringing me a coffee is sweet and so un-Blair.
“You know, right now I want to kiss you.” I take a large gulp of coffee and almost moan as the liquid settles deep in my soul.
“Yeah, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
I’m still into men. And it pains me to say it, because I sure as hells hate that smug vampire-ass, but the fact that you didn’t realize the moment you stepped in the room that it’s warded tells me you should really come to magic-wielding classes. We have to work on your magic.”
She brushes past me, and the room fills with her elusive, almost exotic scent—cinnamon and lemongrass.
“But if I’d known coffee turns you on, I’d have sent the aforementioned blood-sucking elf your way with that cup,” she teases, tapping my nose as she strides past me.
“You might have the morning of your dreary little life.” She winks at me.
“Funny,” I mutter, then take another languid swig. “Honestly, if I had to choose between no more orgasms or no more coffee, I guess I’d pick no more orgasms.”
“That says a lot about your sex life,” Blair smirks. “Oh wait, I forgot—you have none. See, I really should point that pompous elven princeling with the lilac eyes in your direction.”
Shame claws its way up my cheeks. “I doubt he’d be interested.”
“Really? The way he beat Kyrith up before I kicked his ass again tells quite a different story. Heard that students saw him dropping Kyrith from the highest tower of the university.”
“What?” I almost choke on my next sip and start coughing.
She throws a silvery grin over her shoulder. “In my experience, men don’t do these kinds of things if they don’t want to get into your panties.”
“He did what?”
She ignores my question, opens my drawer and fishes out random slips, letting them dangle from a silver claw for inspection. “But speaking of panties—oh hells, we should really buy you new underwear. Wouldn’t want you to look like a granny when you have your first time.”
I run over, snatch my underwear off her claw, and push the drawer shut with my hip—partly to stop her mocking, partly to hide the stone Caryan’s evil brother gave me. “Those are called briefs and are perfectly normal underwear,” I snap.
“Yeah, who provided them? The weird little campus?” She glances up at the ceiling. “Hi, house-spirit, you know those are long out of fashion. So—if you want her to ever get laid, you might fill her drawers with something more…inventive?”
“They’re comfortable and practical,” I argue, a little hurt. “Nothing wrong with black cotton briefs.”
“Right…until there’s everything wrong with them. Ewww and those are high cut.” She lifts another one that’s fallen down before. “You know that there are things called thongs and G-strings out there?”
“This keeps my belly warm.”
“Yeah, those have to go. Unless…I can imagine Riven actually being into these things,” she adds with a giggle. “He’s always had old-fashioned taste.”
I slap her shoulder, trying to grab a brief when she snaps it in two with a flick of her claws. “Gods, you’re insufferable.”
“Oh, darling, I’m just getting started.”
I sigh and take another sip of my coffee while it’s still hot, as she stalks away, over to my wardrobe. When she’s out for blood, there’s little I can do about it.
“Why are you here?” I ask. In the human world, she never left bed until the sun was almost down—she definitely isn’t a morning person.
“To accompany you to breakfast. Aris and I arranged that last night while we went hunting.”
“Arranged that? How?” My eyes dart to him. He’s settled in a sun-soaked spot on the floor, lying there belly up.
He yawns lazily. “We found a way to communicate with our eyes.”
I throw him an incredulous look.
“You learn to, when you hunt game together.” Rage flares down our bond for a moment before Aris reins it in. “And don’t ask her about tomorrow. Don’t spoil her mood. But she has a date.”
I almost suffocate on my sip of coffee and cough again. Damn it. “What? With who?”
Aris looks smug as hells. “Meanara asked Blair to help her…watering the lawn.”
“What?” I’m having trouble catching up with everything.
“Gardening,” he clarifies, chuckling about his own joke while I still struggle to make sense of what he’s saying.
“You two, stop chatting. Don’t believe I can’t feel you mind-talking to each other.
It’s weird. And it makes people uncomfortable, you know,” Blair chides while she rifles through the neatly folded piles of clothes.
“Ah shit, I’m looking for that skin-tight golden shirt I brought from the human world—the one I packed in my duffel bag when I arrived. Any idea where it is?”
“Not here,” I say, frowning while she’s wreaking havoc on my carefully maintained order.
“I can see that. All black. It’s quite depressing, you know. Some color would suit you.”
“I folded those, you know,” I say as she grabs another shirt and then just drops it on the ground.
“Yeah, just have your magic fold it again.”
“Funny,” I snap.
“Isn’t it?” she smirks back.
“You know my magic doesn’t work that way,” I grind out—even if I ever decided to use it.
She just shrugs. “Wind magic can do it, so you might will those glittery, sparkling waves of yours to do it as well. Hells, I could do it with my magic.”
She starts sifting through the dresses the campus hung there, which I’d never wear.
“Thank you for the food last night,” I say quietly. “And the note.” Thank you for taking Aris out is what I actually want to say, but he’d never forgive me.
Blair finally gives up her search with a theatrical sigh. “Yeah, well. Get dressed and let’s go. I’m starving. And I’m in a bad mood when I’m hungry,” she says, looking me up and down.
“Oh, I realized that already.”
Her eyebrows twitch up before she surveys me one more time. “No way you’re going to wear long sleeves. The sun’s going to kill you, and you need to work on your tan. Not that you have any to really work on.”
“I’m not planning on going out today, and it’s cold down in the archives,” I lie. Aris snorts, and I glower at him. “Don’t you dare tell her.”
“You need to see a healer,” he shoots back.
“I need to get breakfast over with,” I counter, putting on black leggings and my black ankle boots.
“Mind-talking, you barbarians!” Blair chides.
Aris jumps up, stretching himself like a cat before he trots to the door.
Blair links her elbow with mine.
“Wait. Why are you two coming with me?”
“Because, after yesterday, they’ll all be gawking, and I really hate to miss the show,” she purrs.
Hells, she’s right. After yesterday with Caryan, the whole campus will be talking about it.