“So,” Serena asked carefully once we were briefly alone, “have you and Sten been together long?”
My stomach instantly flipped.
“No,” I admitted awkwardly. “Actually, um, I’m not entirely sure if we’re like together together.”
The confession hurt more aloud.
Serena blinked.
“You mean you haven’t?—”
“Oh no, we definitely did that,” I blurted immediately.
Heat exploded across my face.
Gods.
Why was I like this?
“I mean yes,” I corrected weakly. “We were together. Very together. But then he had to leave and now I’ve been sort of stuck emotionally spiraling for the last day and a half wondering what exactly we are.”
Smooth.
Very elegant.
Serena’s expression softened instantly.
“Oh, honey. I totally get it.”
The sympathy somehow made me feel worse.
“Raven tried denying what we had at first too,” she admitted gently. “But it didn’t last. The Fates are stubborn.”
My pulse skipped.
Fates.
Again with the Fates.
Professor Kenna’s warnings echoed through my brain immediately.
The Fates love games.
I tightened my grip on the project folder nervously.
Serena noticed instantly.
“What’s that?”
“Oh.” I held it up weakly. “My extra credit assignment.”
Then somehow I found myself telling her everything.
The failing grades.
The insomnia.
The endless struggle to find my magical specialty.
