Chapter 39 Nikolai
Nikolai
Being jarred awake to Taera’s terrified face beneath me…
I’m shaken. This is exactly why I guard my private chambers like a dragon.
Why I don’t bring sources back to my own bed.
I’m too nervous to go back to my room, lest I return to the same nightmare and actually hurt her—or worse, betray my secrets in my sleep.
I spend the rest of the night on edge. Prowling the glass halls, waiting for the aftertaste to ebb. By dawn, it hasn’t.
The next two days pass in a blur. I only visit my room when I’m sure my emotions are locked down. Even then, I return infrequently, often just to bathe. Taera is usually curled up, asleep on the mat in her corner.
I shouldn’t have lashed out at her over the book. But if she gets mixed up in what I’m doing… better that ass, Thoma, takes the fall. Of course, I’m the only one in our class who could have stolen that text, but Koroy can’t prove it.
At least the diversion worked. I’ve slipped in and out of the labyrinth twice since the glass games, as evidenced by the two long triangular shards of mirror hidden in my desk.
It’s just my luck that the book from the Library of the Labyrinth is written in an ancient, forgotten tongue.
I can’t find a single reference made to the language over the past hundred and fifty years.
The only link I can find is the shards. I have a suspicion they’re talismans, which are going to require a source. I scowl every time I look at them.
And her.
Classes with Taera drag. Only two more weeks of ignoring her, which has everyone else ignoring her too, like they’re supposed to.
Koroy must be in a mood, based on how he’s pitting conduits against each other like it’s a bloodsport.
He calls two at a time up to the front to see who can impose their will over reality.
He seems to enjoy that I’m pinned under his thumb.
Koroy doesn’t hesitate to single me out for the so-called exercise, despite my inept source.
But I take the stage as a lone conduit, without a source, and stand across from Dominic.
I blaze through amulet after amulet to cast a frigid, bone-chilling frost over the classroom, overpowering Dominic’s feeble attempts at warmth. Afterward, everyone is silent.
Koroy doesn’t call on me again.
Taera’s face is pale after that show of power, like I might use it against her.
I won’t. Not unless I have to.
I stop by my chambers early on the evening of the party. Taera is on the floor with Omi practicing textbook exercises. She ignores me, moving from posture to posture with perfect ease. Her magic sways calmly within her.
I mask my surprise, lean against the door, and watch the easy flow of her movements. The progress she’s made in only a few days is absurd, and I can’t help but admire her control.
With the instinctive connection between our magic… it’s too bad she’s such a wild card.
Tearing my gaze away, I collect the relics from my desk.
A party is one of the easier places to siphon the staggering amount of magic I need.
Noise, bodies, chaos. The perfect cover.
I just need my personal source out of the way.
I don’t know what my mirrored talismans do yet, or how dangerous they may be.
I glamour myself for the night, tuck everything I need into hidden pockets, and let the Halls lead me where I need to go.