But no one's asking too many questions. Not the students who watched from their windows as spring erupted through dead stone, and definitely not the faculty who found the church steps cracked open and empty, the White Brothers gone like they'd never been there at all.
Father Denis held a special Mass the Sunday after. Didn't mention anything specific. But he read from Revelation:Behold, I make all things new. Then he looked out at the congregation, students and professors and whoever showed up, and told us all to go outside and enjoy the sunshine.
We did.
So we’ve passed the final days of the semester outside. As much as possible. Sipping coffee on benches, walking by the lake, or sprawled on the quads, reading.
Today, we go for Option C.
I’m sitting in the grass, curled over a paperback—fun reading, not schoolwork. Kai is asleep, or pretending to be asleep, with his head in my lap, cradled in the skirt of my sundress. Kingston is at the picnic table, working on something fencing-related—summer clinics, training plans, I don’t know. Lanz and Cal are playing chess, and from the sounds of it, Lanz is losing again.
“That can’t be right,” I hear Cal say. “How did both of your bishops end up on white?”
“I don’t freaking know. Ask the Pope.” There’s a soft thud as Lanz flops onto his back. “I yield. I’m terrible at this game.”
“Don’t they call fencingphysical chess?” I ask, turning a page in my paperback. “Maybe don’t admit that in front of your team captain.”
“I didn’t hear that,” Kingston says, without looking up from his paperwork.
“Win’s a win.” Cal shrugs, sweeps the pieces into their little bag, and folds up the board. To me, he says, “How is it?”
“Hm?” I lift my head. He’s nodding at my book: I’m about two-thirds of the way throughLilith’s Gambit, the “thrilling” and “high-octane” sequel toThe Michelangelo Matrix, which I started all of this morning ago and which is, I have to say, not quite living up to the magic of the original.
I lower it slightly. “Spoilers okay?”
Cal nods.
“They killed off Fabienne.”
Cal’s eyes widen. “No way.”
“Way. Now Dr. Montgomery’s taken up with an Italian novelist.”
“Dr. Montgomery?” A shadow falls over our little group from the footpath. “I don’t suppose that’s a colleague of mine?”
I follow the shadow up to see Dr. Emrys, carrying a briefcase and still in a suit despite the high 70s temperatures, but looking quite sunny. A bit fit, even.
Younger,I realize.Slightly.
I smile and shake my head. “Not unless you’ve recently taken up a post at Collegium University. Fictional,” I hasten to add, flopping the paperback for emphasis, when Dr. Emrys looks patently befuddled at the deeply stupid name for a research institution.
Kingston, seeing the professor, looks up. “Dr. Emrys.” He stands, extends a hand to shake, which Emrys does. “It’s good to see you.”
“The pleasure is all mine,” Emrys says. “I was hoping I’d run across you somewhere—wasn’t quite sure where you’ve been posted up.”
Kingston nods. “In town. For now.”
After the fire, we’d been given temporary campus housing—I squeezed in with Morgan again, the guys given a quad in the senior dorms—but a few weeks ago, we officially took over Luther’s townhouse in Sarrasford. Morgan made sure to send me off with a bundle of sage to cleanse it. We’ll stay there over the summer until TK TK fall situation.
“Well. Good that I stumbled over you here, then.” Emrys turns to me. “I found a little, ah,extra readingfor you.”
“Pass.” Kai’s eyes are still shut. I flick him gently in the forehead and shoot Emrys an apologetic look.
“Thank you. What…is it?”
Emrys chuckles. “Only two words. Hardly a burdensome text, if you ask me, but…” He sets his briefcase on the picnictable and extracts a rolled-up tube of paper: a poster, which he unfurls. It’s narrow and wide, a grainy, somewhat faded photo of crumbling pillars and walls at the foot of a mountain with wide black borders and a caption: Γν?θι σεαυτ?ν.
“The Temple of Apollo,” Emrys says. “Delphi. Found it while I was clearing out the classroom for the semester and figured…” He shrugs. “Figured it might suit.” He rolls it back up and hands it to me.
