Page 51 of Veiled

My stomach takes that as its cue and lets out a growl that could rival a dragon. “Uhm—yea, please!”

After a quick stop at the barracks, I walk into the dining hall, looking around for the table Matt claimed for us and had sent me a photo of since “ours” was taken. The picture is of a wooden table with chairs and a stone wall behind it—not even remotely helpful in a large room full of wooden tables and stone walls.

“Lee!”

Sasha’s voice finds me, and I’m grateful since it’s coming from the opposite side of the room from where I’m currently wandering.

“Hey, Sash!”

She rushes over, beaming and pulling me into a hug, “I’m so glad you’re feeling better! Matt said you got hurt on the obstacle course this morning, and the doctors had you resting. I was going to come see you tonight. How are you out so soon? I thought they’d keep you all day.”

“I kinda just walked out?” I say, feeling a little sheepish admitting that to Sasha, who is all about medical treatments and protocols. “I already missed Combat Medicine, but there is no way I’m missing Spell Casting. I don’t know who thought we would only need two classes of each track to pick, but it seems like we should have a month at least.”

“Most recruits come in knowing what they want to do, remember?”

Yeah, I definitely forgot that part. “All the more reason I can’t miss a class.”

She snorts, “No one can ever say you aren’t committed. A little psychotic but committed.”

“Maybe a little. But, let’s go before the girls all notice Matt’s alone, and we lose our seats,” I joke, already moving in the direction Sasha said our table is.

“Three seconds,” she mutters. “I give it three seconds before some girl walks up to talk to him.”

She may have thought we were together, but there’s no missing the number of girls who make flirty eyes at him every day.

Matt’s face breaks into a full-on smile when he sees me walking his way. He pretends not to hear the group of Bravo girls talking about him like he’s a celebrity, fresh from a photoshoot, but I can hear them from here.

Right as we reach him, a pair of giggling girls slow down near the table, eyeing him like he’s dessert. Unlike usual, he doesn’t even look at them as he stands and takes a step toward me.

“Told you,” Sasha flashes me a victorious smile. “Three seconds.”

“Two and a half,” I reply with a smile as Matt pulls me into a tight hug. Thank the gods for Spellcasters who make fast-healing tinctures—for ribs and matters of the mind—and an academy that doesn’t like recruits out of commission for long.

“You scared the shit out of me.” He quietly confesses.

“How did you know where I was?”

“You know I’ll always find you,” he promises, just like he has since the first time he found me broken and bloody. “I made it to the infirmary right after they had given you the tonics. I stayed and talked to you for a while in case I could get through to your dissociation.”

He starts to pull away, then quickly pulls me back in to add, “I only told Sasha about your ribs.”

Taking a step back, I smile at him in thanks. “Hey, I had to do something to catch up on sleep. I can’t be responsible for depriving all of Scion’s women of their fun if you have to keep sleeping with me.”

Rolling his eyes, he pulls out my chair in a silent order to sit, and then slides me a plate with a burger, baked potato, garlic mashed potatoes, and fries.

“Was one form of potato not enough?” I laugh, eyeing my plate.

“Don’t pretend like you won't eat them all. They’re your favorite carb.”

He’s obviously right, so I dive in. “Can you pass me the ketchup?

He reaches for the bottle, and something catches my attention.

“Wait—what the hell happened to your hand?”

Up close, it’s impossible to ignore. His knuckles are a mess: swollen and angry-looking, skin split in several places, faint smudges of dried blood still clinging to the cuts. Bruising has already begun to settle beneath the surface, a dark purple spreading across the back of his hand. It looks like he went five rounds with a brick wall.

He flexes his fingers slightly, and I see the flash of pain before he masks it with that too-easy shrug.