“Fourteen.”
My jaw drops. “So young?”
“Yeah. I was big for my age. Tyler was nineteen. Everyone assumed we were twins, and we were inseparable.”
That doesn’t make it better.
“So your parents tried to protect you?”
“Yeah. They took me out of school without telling me why, and then dropped me in my room and told me to pack everything I wanted. They were sending me to live with my grandfather, and I wasn’t coming back.” He pauses. “I lost it. I told them it was unfair, that they were being unreasonable. I wish I could take back some of the shit I said. In the end, my mum threatened to use magic to get me in the car. I reached for my grimoire, and I just… I cast without thinking.”
“Causing an earthquake?”
His head falls into his hands.
“Yeah. Buried half the town…including my parents’ house. Mum managed to shield us, but my brother was in the kitchen.”
“He was hurt.”
“Nearly died. By some miracle, no one did. Still, I caused a tonne of damage, and when I got to my grandfather’s place, he wasn’t particularly thrilled to have me.”
“I remember him. His name was Elijah…right? He was always…” Harsh. Stoic. Almost on the same level as Artemius Ó Rinn, now that I think about it.
“Strict.” Dakari finishes, a grim smile twitching the corners of his lips. “Obsessed with ‘discipline.’ He spent too much time in the army. The only reason I stayed sane was because he played chess with Jasper’s grandfather and dragged me along.”
“Is that how you two met?”
“Yeah. There wasn’t much shit I could get up to in the middle of nowhere, and Gramps used it as a reward. I figured it was only until I turned eighteen, then I could go home, but my parents didn’t want me back.”
His shoulders drop, hands fisting on his lap.
“So how did you end up homeless?”
“Gramps died, and Abe wouldn’t let me keep the house. Didn’t want to ‘encourage freeloading.’ My parents still wouldn’t talk to me.” He shrugs. “I wandered into the Arcanaeum because I had nowhere else to go. Then you made me a collector?—”
“The Arcanaeum did that.”
“Whatever. The money you paid me was enough to put me through UAA.”
Embarrassment worms its way into my throat, forcing me to clear it before I can speak again. “That wasn’t a typicalcollector’s salary. I just… You were nice. And handsome. I—I wanted to see you again.”
His lips twitch with the ghost of a smile. “Objectifying patrons, now?”
“Only the polite, quiet ones with nice muscles,” I mutter under my breath, cheeks glowing as the shelves creak in amusement. “I couldn’t help it. You were an adult, and it’s not like I ever believed anything would come of it.”
“Cougar,” he teases.
“Hey, I’m stilltechnicallytwenty-one.”
“Is this like that woman thing where you pretend you can never reach thirty, except with a few more magical excuses?”
I shush him. “Don’t you have a grimoire to find?”
Thirty-Four
Kyrith
Tracking down Leo is painfully easy.
