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Elias scoffs, “It’s not possible.”
I shake my head. “Do you know that for certain?”
He stares into my eyes briefly and then firms his lips. “No—but Terra, the headmaster consumes our hearts. That’s how he?—”
“I don’t think he does. Unless you’ve actually watched him devour your heart firsthand. His Shadow most likely has it hidden somewhere. We just need to find it,” I say with more hope than I have.
Elias looks back toward the daunting wall of the city and grits his teeth. “Any idea where to start looking?”
29
Terra
Raine nudges me playfully as we head into our sex ed class.
At least since the first one we’ve focused on the very raw and eyebrow-raising things that can happen when two people with Shadows fuck. It’s horrible all the same, but at least it doesn’t involve Kallos bending me backward over a desk and Kai laughing his ass off about it.
The rumors spread like wildfire, but to my surprise, after I saved that Dvars student in Elias’s class last week, those rumors ceased. It’s nice to feel that most respect me because of a good deed, but others see it as a weakness of mine: the reluctance to let things be.
How can I go against everything that I care about though? I still have my heart. I don’t want to kill or let anyone die around me.
Finn grins at me as we take our seats and I shoot him a soft smile back. We both fucking hate this class. He leans over and whispers, “Have you heard more on the Blood Crowns exam?” I frown and shake my head.
I told him, Raine, Aervin, and Kai in secret. There are very few I can trust not to rat me out. We’ve been trying to figure out more about it, but late nights staked out in the library haven’t proved fruitful. I think Arthur and Elias suspected I was listening in so they haven’t returned.
Raine stretches out in his seat and yawns. His health has been relatively stable, which gives me a small reprieve from my impending doom. All we have left to search is Arthur’s other study, the one he actually uses.
Kallos starts the class by discussing the last lecture’s key takeaways.
I look out the windows and think about how we’re going to get to Arthur’s study at Za’Afiel. There has to be a portal that leads there, but Ash is the most guarded student here. When I asked him which nation he was from last week, he acted as if I were trying to use the bit of information against him in a trial.
The portal won’t be too hard to find. It’s more a matter of guessing which one will take us where we want to go, and so far, we haven’t had any luck.
“Today we’re going to pair up and practice restraining our Shadows,” Kallos says as he flicks his hand and his Shadow wisps in the air, writing out today’s lesson.
Restraint is sexy.
We all groan in unison and Kallos cracks a grin. “No complaining, get to it. Terra, unfortunately, your Shadow far outranks the others, so you’re with me.”
This is the only class I’ve been thankful for Edgar’s absence. Though it makes me curious about how he’s faring.
Kai swings his head to look straight at me and the way his mouth pinches into an evil grin almost gets me laughing. Finn elbows his friend as he gets up to find a partner.
The look Raine gives me makes me feel sorry for him, but I’m already irritated with the five girls who are fighting to be his partner. He just shrugs at me. “You can’t be mad at me about it.”
I roll my eyes as I walk to the front of the class, trying as hard as I can not to look at Kallos. But how can I not when his voice is low and crisp, his hair like gilded thread, and his eyes as bright as they come?
The three power brackets on each side of his mouth still look like stitches to me, but I’ve seen him so often now that’s normal. Just like the six small earring bars through Finn’s ears, they were hard to get used to at first but I hardly notice them anymore.
It’s odd how quickly we adapt to change.
“Let’s hope we don’t have another mishap,” Kallos says casually but I can hear the uncertainty in his voice. It seems like he might dislike this process as much as I do.
It’s not that I hate being close to him or feeling the intensity between us. It’s that we’re in public and I have so many other men in my life at the moment. But what’s one more? My Shadow doesn’t seem to care.
I can’t keep my eyes off Finn and Raine as they pair up.
Kai and Finn end up being partners because there are more men than women in the class, and their cheeks couldn’t be brighter. Raine sits across from a gorgeous young woman. I’ve seen her in passing but have no clue what her name is. The different Shadow Houses don’t interconnect much.
