Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Dafni
I unlocked the door to my dorm with one hand, while supporting Brooke with the other. Gideon and I got her onto the bed, sitting her upright along the edge. I winced at the mud that had already trailed into our room and was now on the bed I shared with her.
Gideon backed away, glancing around the room, taking in what little we had to fill the small space.
“I know it’s not like your giant room,” I said as I bent down and began untying Brooke’s boots for her.
“It’s small,” he said, continuing to look around.
I pulled off one of Brooke’s boots. She sucked in a breath as cool air hit her injured ankle. The skin was red and broken in some places from the way the vine had squeezed her.
“You can go now,” I said as I walked past Gideon toward the bathroom. Maybe there were bandages or something below the sink. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gideon crouch down near the bed, running his fingers along the wall.
I couldn’t find a first-aid kit, of course, but we had a bar of soap in the bathroom, and I found an old cloth that we could use to wrap her foot.
“May I?” Gideon asked, motioning to the wall.
I walked over with my supplies, stopping to look at what he was asking. There, in the brick, was the lightest of etchings; one of the words he collected.
I shrugged, and Gideon pulled a white sheet of paper and piece of black chalk from his pocket. He crouched down next to the wall as I did the same next to Brooke. We were close, although facing opposite directions.
“You shouldn’t be living in such a small room with two other people,” he said as he rubbed the chalk back and forth against the paper. “You shouldn’t have to share a bed with Brooke.”
“And where else would I sleep?” I lathered the wet bar of soap in my hands.
“Is it going to hurt?” Brooke asked, eyeing the suds forming.
“We have to clean the wounds,” I said.
Gideon cleared his throat. “You could sleep in my room.”
I lost grip of the soap, juggling the bar between my hands for a moment before I regained control of it.
Sleep in his room? In his bed? My body heated. Why didn’t that repulse me? It should’ve repulsed me. But I could still remember the way his chest felt beneath my hand in the closet. His chest had been hard but still soft enough that it would be comfortable, maybe just to rest my cheek on…
I shook my head. Snap out of it. “We hardly know each other. I’m not sleeping in your room.”
Gideon paused for a moment before he continued rubbing the chalk on the paper. I grabbed hold of Brooke’s injured ankle, where it dangled by the floor. I began cleaning her wounds, trying my best to ignore the way she sucked air through her teeth.
“Just so you know, I wasn’t smiling at the witches fighting,” Gideon said.
I held the soap too long in one spot, and Brooke pulled her ankle back toward the bed.
“I was smiling at you.”
I continued cleaning her skin, biting my tongue between my teeth. What was this feeling? Like bubbles beneath my skin? Were there remnants of the love potion still releasing in my bloodstream? I couldn’t control it. I didn’t like it.
I stood, the bar of soap in my hand. Gideon stood right after I did, the chalked piece of paper in his hand. I could see Brooke out of the corner of my eye, looking back and forth between Gideon and me as we stared at each other. I tried not to blink.
He stood there with a steady, wide-open gaze, not showing the slightest sign of blinking either. Was it the black beneath his eyes that made him strangely good at staring contests? How were his eyes not dry yet?
My eyes closed, and I squeezed my lids together tightly, willing my eyes to hydrate themselves to a level where I could see clearly.
“Gah!” I yelled, my fists clenched at my sides.
“Okay, you win again!” How could he stay so calm and collected all the time?
It was like he was constantly at room temperature, no fluctuation.
“Are you torturing me because I haven’t said thank you yet?
Is that why you’re still here?” Storming over to the door, I gripped the handle.
“Thank you, Gideon. Thank you so much for your help.” I opened the door, wishing he’d leave along with the ache in my chest.
“You’re cute when you try to intimidate me,” he said.
“I’m not trying to—” I gave up and blinked several times, my vision fully returning.
Gideon ran his hand through the hair on the top of his head before taking a few steps toward the door.
Fantastic, he’s leaving.
“Can you translate this?” He held up a piece of paper with the word conventus surrounded by black chalk.
I crossed my arms in front of my body, holding the door open with my foot.
“Please?” Gideon asked. The way he tilted his chin down toward his chest made his eyes even darker and look deeper. Could witches hypnotize someone? I should find out about that.
“It loosely means assembly or, in this case, probably coven,” I said as quickly as possible.
He walked through the open door and into the hallway before turning around. “Thank you, Dafni. Thank you so much for your help.”
I slammed the door closed, breaking myself of his hypnotizing stare.
“That was intense,” Brooke said.
Turning around, I found her sitting on the bed, her red ankle the only part not covered in mud.
“I can’t believe he knows your name…and now he knows mine.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t care what he knows, nor do I want his help.
” I crouched down in front of her again, this time grabbing the cloth I’d left on the bed before the whole Gideon stand-off.
“I can’t get used to relying on someone who wants to support the Academy and the games they play.
” I wrapped the worst of her broken skin with the cloth.
“When I looked at him, before the task began, he looked bored—definitely not amused,” Brooke said. She moved her ankle in circles, testing the binding. “I’ve heard he doesn’t hang around the other witches…human or witch-born.”
“Who did you hear that from?”
“The witches in my element.” Brooke stood, gingerly placing weight on her ankle, before sighing and sitting back down. “What was he doing just now by the wall?”
I looked back at the word conventus etched into a brick near the floor. I could barely see the letters. How had he found it so easily? “He collects words he finds etched into the brick around the Academy. It’s one of his quirks, like smiling at inappropriate times and calling me cute.”
Brooke laughed. “Speaking of other witches, Arcana actually taught us something today.” She lowered herself onto the ground next to me and used her finger to write planto arbor into the dirt floor.
Her lips moved, mumbling the words right before a tiny plant pushed itself through the dirt, its green leaves vibrant for just a moment before they wilted, turning brown, the stem buckling to the ground.
She laughed again. “It’s stupid—no one can make them stay alive, but it’s fun to explore my powers. ”
“It’s not stupid, that’s amazing. I wonder what other things you can create with your earth magic.”
The door to our room flew open before reverberating off the wall the knob hit as a silhouette of wind-blown ringlets filled the doorway. I stood, helping Brooke to her feet, our bodies immediately crouched in a defensive stance.
“He wasn’t looking at me…he was looking at you!” Petunia screeched, launching herself toward me.
Brooke slid between us, wobbling on her good foot. “Petunia, take a breath,” she said.
“I just saw him come from our room. You haven’t competed yet—you don’t get to hog his time!” Petunia spit as she spoke. I watched where it flew, worried it might’ve been mixed with some of her poison.
“He was helping me,” Brooke said. “I hurt my ankle, and he was helping Dafni get me back to the room.”
“Liar!” Petunia screeched. “You didn’t win! He wouldn’t be wasting his time helping you.” She began walking back and forth, pacing like a caged animal. Our room wasn’t large, so it only took her five steps to make it from one wall to the next.
“It’s true! He was helping us,” I said.
Petunia pointed her finger at me. “That doesn’t explain why he was staring at you through the whole task!”
“He was?” Brooke asked. I widened my eyes at her. Don’t encourage her. She cleared her throat. “Wait…Petunia, how could you even be able to tell who he was staring at? There were so many witches on the bleachers.”
“I could just tell. And then he watched her run down the bleachers toward you. He followed her.”
“I don’t want his attention,” I said with both of my palms raised and facing her.
“Dafni’s telling the truth,” Brooke argued. “You should’ve seen them in here just a bit ago. She was the one that kicked him out.”
“She got some special time with him. She isn’t playing fair,” Petunia whined.
I cleared my throat, stepping out from behind Brooke. “I’m not playing at all. This isn’t a game to me.”
“Good. Less competition.” She flicked her index and middle fingers at me, sending a gust of air at my center. I buckled, my head hitting the brick wall behind me.