I can’t wait to tell him about this.
There’s that tug inside of my chest again, more noticeable this time. I lift my hand to my chest and press my fingertips into my skin, where the tug is originating from. And just beneath my fingers, I feel the steady beat of my heart, thoughit feels different, like it’s not just beating for me now. Like it’s beating for two.
And I wonder if Severin feels the same... and what it means if he does.
Chapter 39
Severin
THE SUN IS SETTING EARLIER every day as we trudge closer to winter, and the castle feels the change. My apartment is cold again when I arrive back from my classes despite me having lit a fire this morning. As I remove my jacket and reach to hang it up on the coatrack, I notice something—or rather the lack of something.
One of my gold cuff links is missing.
I immediately scan the floor by my boots, looking for a glimmer in the early-evening light coming through my window. I remember clearly putting my cuff links on this morning, so if it’s not here, that means I lost it somewhere in the castle today. It could be in my classroom, my office, or any one of the many corridors I walk through over the course of the day.
When my search around the apartment entryway turns up empty-handed, I let out a sigh and mumble, “Fuck.”
That’s my only good pair. And now I’m going to need a new set. There’s no way I’m walking into class tomorrow with one shirt cuff billowing open or rolled up to my elbow.
With a hot flare of irritation, I put my jacketbackon, then leave the apartment yet again.
I ride along in the horse-drawn carriage, watching out the window as the sun sinks closer to the horizon. Leaving the academy, I was fortunate to catch a driver who was about to return to Wysteria. This’ll save me a significant amount of time. Maybe I’ll even get back to the academy with enough time left this evening to continue my work on the restoration of the old botany grimoire. It’s been coming along slowly, mostly because of—
As soon as Maeve crosses my mind, I feel that tug in my chest, the same one that lingered throughout my entire lecture in Dangerous Magic Across Time this morning. And now that I’ve noticed it and am paying closer attention, it feels like the thread is... stretching, thinning, like saltwater taffy pulled too long. But it doesn’t snap, even as the carriage takes me farther and farther from campus.
It sits there in my chest, quieter now, but still present. My fingers rise, pressing into my breastbone through my jacket and waistcoat. And I find my eyes narrowing against the falling light.
“These would look exquisite on you,” the owner of the Brass Mirror says. He holds a pair of cuff links up in the candlelight flickering from the overhead chandelier, and the metal gleams. “Come, let’s put them on.” He holds out a hand, but I hesitate. One of his brows arches in the corner, and hislips pull back on one side, revealing a fang. “Really, Professor? I’m not going to bite.”
I furrow my brow, then sigh and hold out my arms. The clothier removes the one golden cuff link I still have left, then slips the new pair into the cuffs and fastens them.
“There. Much better.” He steps back and nods for me to take a look.
The new cuff links are of a high quality, though I still find myself disappointed that I lost one. I’ve had my old pair for decades, and there’s still a simmering annoyance in me for having carelessly lost one.
“These are acceptable,” I tell the man.
“Acceptable,” he mumbles, arching a sharp brow at me. “Really, Professor, you can be quite heartless.”
My gaze flicks to his, questioning.
“You are the professor Arella told me about, are you not?” he says as he moves behind the front counter and rings up my purchase at the cash register. His eyes—red, like mine—flick up to meet my gaze. “So far as I know, Coven Crest only has one vampire professor.”
I approach the front counter slowly. Wysteria is not a small city, but with few vampire inhabitants, it feels like everyone knows everyone. “You know Arella?”
“Of course.” He slips my old cuff link into a small fabric pouch with a drawstring mouth and hands it back to me. I feel better having it in my possession once again. “And she had much to say about you after Samhain.”
Samhain. The night I left her standing at the bar, mid-sentence, when I saw that human dancing with Maeve, putting his hands all over her. And I’ve not seen Arella since.
I suppose I have an apology to deliver.
And there’s no better time than now to do so.
“Do you know where I might find her?” I ask the clothier as I hand him the eldertokens I owe.
“At this hour? She’ll still be at the Crimson Cask. Late-night customers, you know.”
I nod once. “Thank you, Mister . . . ?”
