58. Zeina
ZEINA
The truth serum was ready.
Zeina debated using it on Lennox just to see if he was really trustworthy, but she knew in her heart he was. So, as promised, she delivered it to Loveleena’s dorm.
Loveleena and Kumani would both be at the Slayer party tonight and she breezed through the first-year dorms without worry since most of the students were absent.
She made quick work of the lock, then entered, shutting the door behind her with a soft click.
Their room was a mess—clothes thrown about, half eaten food on Loveleena’s side table, books scattered across every surface.
It looked like it had been ransacked by a wild animal.
How was a noble woman this messy? Even Zeina, who lived in a broom closet for half the year, was tidier.
Zeina looked around in search of a safe place to leave the potion.
She pulled open Loveleena’s wooden nightstand drawer as the smell of the stew that sat atop it met her nostrils. It must have been fresh because it still smelled delicious.
The old Zeina would have inhaled it, grateful for anything of substance.
But now that Zeina was well-fed, the urge had lessened.
It was still there, though, in the back of her subconscious.
A fear of scarcity that could never be unwired.
It whispered to her to eat as much as she could because she didn’t know how long she would be without.
She took a deep breath, reminding herself that things were different now.
Inside the drawer sat a wine-colored book with gold inscription. Her reading had improved, but the cursive made it more challenging. The Ancient Untold History of Magic. She sounded it out slowly, piecing together the words.
Zeina had been practicing her reading and learning from the books in the library.
Some texts were too complex for her comprehension level, but she tried to read them anyway, absorbing as much as she could.
And despite her initial resistance, she had eventually caved and allowed Lennox to help her.
She read out loud to him each night before they blew out their candles, and slowly, day by day, it became easier.
But this book drew her in, pulled at her soul, unlike any other book she had laid her hands on. She ran her fingers over the inscription before picking it up and clutching it to her chest.
In its place, she set the truth potion wrapped in a velvet satchel.
Loveleena didn’t seem like someone who would read casually. Surely, she wouldn’t care if Zeina borrowed it just for a little while.
Realising that if she left the potion here, Loveleena would know the book was missing, she pulled it back out of the drawer and placed it under Loveleena’s pillow. She would return the book soon enough anyway, and Loveleena would never know.
Besides, once she lay her head down and felt the glass vial beneath her pillow, a book would be the last thing on her mind.