I don’t give her one, but I also can’t quite hold my tongue. “Then maybe you shouldn’t be talking to me in the first place, huh?”
Simone’s eyes flash. She lifts a clenched hand, rings glinting by her knuckles, and a few other figures saunter over.
Madison might be half a foot shorter than the other girl, but her combat practice adds plenty of menace to her stance as she stares Simone down. “Lost your way, Palenti?”
Cadance lets out an airy giggle. “She must have amnesia if she thinks hassling Elodie is a good idea.”
Simone scowls at my friends but spins on her heel and stalks off without another word.
Cadance arches an eyebrow at me. “What was that about?”
I motion vaguely as if brushing the confrontation off and go with a mostly honest answer. “She seems to be offended that Salvatore was paying attention to me, because apparently being harassed by him is an honor.”
Mia snorts in amusement. Stella, who’s come over as well, simply watches Simone vanish into the school. Our friend group has fallen back into old patterns, but Stella is still rarely speaking to me directly.
Oh well. It’s not as if I was dying to paint our toenails together anyway.
As the five of us amble toward Thesan Hall, a tingling from my palm to my chest alerts me to the presence of another of my matches before I see him.
Byron strides by without so much as a glance my way. But when I fall back behind my friends going through the door, my palm pangs with a more emphatic pressure.
I glance down in time to see two conjured words glowing against my skin before they fade away.Library. Lunch.
Like I asked him to meet me before. I seek out his well-built form in the growing crowd of students, but the mass has swallowed him up.
What does Byron need to talk to me about so urgently? We’re expecting Professor Raith to call us together for another group meeting soon.
Cadance falls back and links her arm through mine, still overly chummy. “Come on, Elle. Let’s go put the rest of those dimwits in Influential Magic in their place.”
I laugh along and let her tug me in the right direction, but my mind keeps spinning around Byron’s message until the final chime before lunch. I toss out a brief excuse I forget as soon as I’ve said it and hurry across the green to the Apollo Building where the library is housed.
It feels right to head to the same nook with the lucent community records where Byron and I met in last time. When I reach it, it’s empty, but I did rush over as fast as humanly possible. I’ll forgive my match for not possessing Hermes-level speed.
Byron’s dark head pokes around the shelves a couple of minutes later. He steps fully into view and casts a glance over his shoulder before approaching me.
My pulse thrums with the nearness of him, but a twinge of concern passes through my chest at the same time. There’s a tension in his shoulders beyond what he’s usually carrying—what he’s usually concealing.
“Are you all right?” I ask in a cautious hush. Even if there’s no one nearby right now, I don’t want to risk drawing eavesdroppers.
Byron opens his mouth and hesitates, looking unusually awkward. “I saw Grady again. He’s definitely got something going on—some kind of group that he thinks is going to take him places—but I still don’t know for sure if it’s connected to Kenneth… And that isn’t the main reason I wanted to talk to you.”
His deep brown eyes hold mine so intently that I find myself stepping closer, as if I can absorb the worry right out of him. “What’s wrong?”
“I— It’s just—” He shakes his head and gathers himself with more typical Byron-like assurance. His voice evens out, though a rough edge lingers. “My parents are talking about moving the family to the UK this summer. And staying there, for a while. They want me to come too.”
The thought of my match flying thousands of miles distant wrenches at me so hard and suddenly that tears spring to my eyes before I can will them back.
My breath hitches. I paw at the pricks of moisture with my gloved fingers.
Byron’s face goes taut with concern. “Elodie, no, I—Idon’t want to go. I wouldn’t really want to even if we hadn’t— But with you here now, and everything… As long asyouwant me here, I’m staying.”
His hand rises to graze my arm. I stiffen against the contact even as my body tries to lean into it. Both of us are far too aware of the consequences if someone stumbles on us in an unguarded moment.
Should I accept his comfort at all? Should I accept his promise?
My answer swells in my throat, but a memory overwhelms it.
Byron stands in my apartment doorway, his fist raised where he was about to knock again. He looks at me so bleakly my heart stops, but then a trace of warmth blooms through his expression, softening the set of his mouth.
