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Brody snapped him a neat little salute, and Archer chuckled as he headed back towards his room, tearing the letter open as he went. But he stopped dead in the doorway as he took in the first few lines of the letter. The cramped script was a dead giveaway, even without the elaborate letterhead that took up a full third of the page. Why did his father feel the need to write to his own son on company paper? But that was the least of his problems. Archer felt his hands shaking as he finished the letter. He flipped the page over, looking for more writing, found none… he read it a second time and then a third, and then he let it fall to the ground. His whole body felt like it was made of lead as he sank down onto the edge of his bed and buried his face in his hands.
Of course. Right when he’d actually been feeling good about his life, along came his father to ruin everything, right on time.
Chapter 23 - Morgan
There was something oddly addictive about exams. The tension of the leadup, the hard work of revising and preparing, the hushed tension of the room full of candidates waiting to begin… then the burst of adrenaline when you first flipped over the page and set about demonstrating everything you’d learned over the last year. Morgan felt utterly exhausted after every exam she had that week, but the exhaustion was tempered by the sweet satisfaction of knowing that it was over, and that she’d done her absolute best.
Part of her wondered whether it might have been a mistake to spend so much time with Archer in the leadup to the exams, a treacherous workaholic that whispered that the time they’d been in bed together might have been better spent with her notes. But that simply wasn’t true. Exam revision was a marathon, not a sprint—it was about starting early and doing small, regular bursts of work, not slamming out ten-hour sessions in the immediate leadup to the exam. And even if that hadn’t been the case, she simply couldn’t entertain the prospect of skipping those delicious afternoons and evenings in Archer’s bed. She didn’t think it had cost her anything on the grades front, but even if it had, she realized with a shock that she didn’t care.
She reported as much to professor Reine when the two of them met that week. The session was technically entered on Morgan’s schedule as the final exam for her magic studies, but she knew her professor well enough now to interpret that as the elaborate joke that it was. Sure enough, when she reached the beach, she found the professor whistling merrily as she carved the words ‘Silence: Exam Conditions’ into the sand with a piece of driftwood.
The two of them sat by the water’s edge in companionable silence for a while. Professor Reine shot her a sidelong glance before she spoke, and something about her tone made Morgan straighten up a little, wondering if this might not be a slightly more significant class after all.
“So, Morgan. A whole semester has passed.”
“Almost,” Morgan pointed out. She had one exam left—the final exam for the semester, and by extension for the year, was astronomy the following afternoon. That one she was feeling particularly confident about, especially given how well she and Archer had done on their assessment… she felt herself smiling faintly, then cleared her throat, chasing the expression sternly from her face.
“Almost,” the professor echoed solemnly. “And what have you learned?”
She considered the question for a moment. “I’ve learned not to try to answer your trick questions, for a start.” She heard her teacher cackle approving laughter and grinned to herself. It felt a lot better to be trying to win laughter from her professor instead of approval. “I’ve learned a lot about myself, too.”
“Nonsense.”
“Let me finish,” Morgan said, shooting her a sidelong glance. “I’ve learned how much Idon’tknow.”
“Ah. Better.”
“I know.” She smiled faintly, looking out at the waves for a long moment and wondering if she should elaborate. She knew it didn’t matter, at the end of the day. This wasn’t some test where she had to present her knowledge and prove she deserved to keep studying. “I keep finding myself in situations where I don’t… recognize the person that I am. Does that make sense?”
“Plenty.” That surprised her. Professor Reine usually didn’t give much encouragement one way or the other when it came to introspection.
“It sounds like that should be a worrying thing, not recognizing yourself. But it’s not, is it? Everyone changes with every day that goes by. If anything, something’s wrong if youaren’tsurprising yourself. So—if magic really is the study of who I am, I can’t say I’ve really learned anything about that. But…” She trailed off, not sure how to conclude her impromptu little speech. And after a few seconds of quiet, she realized that trailing off was more appropriate than any neat conclusion she could offer. She snuck a quick glance at the professor, wondering whether her reflections had pleased her… but as always, all she saw were those pale, utterly unreadable eyes, gazing out at the ocean.
When their time came to a close, Morgan got to her feet a little reluctantly. She’d come to enjoy these quiet, cryptic little sessions on the beach. She turned to professor Reine, half-smiling as she prepared herself for the standard goodbye… the professor would wait until she was halfway through a sentence, then abruptly shift and hurl herself into the ocean without a backwards glance. Why should today be any different?
And then she felt arms around her, and she yelped in surprise as she stumbled forward into a fierce hug that threatened to crush the breath right out of her lungs. She hugged the slender woman back after her shock released her, grinning broadly against her shoulder.
“What’s on the curriculum for semester two?” Morgan asked breathlessly, her voice hoarse. “I’d love to get a head start on the reading list over the break—”
Professor Reine cackled as she released her from the embrace, giving her a warning smack on the shoulder as she did. “Very good, very funny. Next semester is when the real work starts.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
“So am I.” Professor Reine’s smile widened a little, and Morgan could see her preparing to shift. “You make sure you straighten things out with that soulmate of yours before then, hmm?”
That got her. Morgan was halfway through a spluttered protest as professor Reine sprang into the air, her wings already spread to catch the afternoon breeze. Even braced as she had been for the trick, she’d still fallen for it… and she shook her head as she walked up the beach towards the school, half laughing and half genuinely annoyed with her. No wonder Scorpios had such a mixed reputation, she thought with a grimace. Professor Reine was a delight, but she was also a monster. What exactly had she meant by her soulmate? Was she talking about Archer? She’d barely mentioned him. She’d been meaning to bring up the subject, actually, but professor Reine had always seemed to manage to shift the conversation away before she could. But why? She must have already known, somehow. That much didn’t surprise Morgan. Professor Reine knew everything. Did she have some deeper, more mystical reason for not letting Morgan talk about it, she wondered? Or had she just avoided the subject in the interest of pulling off that infuriating little prank back there? The most exasperating thing about the professor was that either could be true… or both. Or even neither. Giving up on trying to read into professor Reine’s motivations was perhaps the most difficult lesson of all.
She gave serious thought to swinging by Archer’s dorm that night as she headed for the Dining Hall for a subdued dinner among the exhausted exam candidates. With their last exam scheduled for the following morning, and the end-of-year party later that very night, it wasn’t looking likely that the two of them would get much more time alone together before the end-of-semester break was upon them. She didn’t know what Archer’s plans were for the four-week break between semesters—there hadn’t been a way to ask without sounding too much like she was worried about being away from him for that long, so she’d simply not brought up the subject. He’d get around to telling her eventually. One more night together might be nice, but she hardened her heart against the temptation. She knew from experience that she and Archer had a tendency to stay up late when they spent the night in each other’s beds, and she wouldn’t forgive herself if sleep deprivation impacted either of their performances in the last exam of the year.
Still, it took her a long time to get to sleep that night, tossing and turning in her lonely little bed.
The exam was tough, but Morgan was surprised by how quickly she finished it. She had time to read back over her answers carefully, making a few adjustments and catching a few silly errors that could have cost her valuable marks. When the invigilator finally called for them all to pass in their papers, she felt the silent but palpable sigh of relief ripple through the Great Hall. Once every paper had been collected, a huge roar of celebration rippled through the room, and she couldn’t help but laugh at the explosion of relief, tired-looking dragons suddenly full of energy as they sprinted from the Hall and into the sunshine. Outside, she looked up to see dozens of dragons already diving and playing in the sky above the university. She took a deep breath of the warm air, then let it go. That was it. Her last exam for the semester, done and dusted. Nothing left now but to wait for the results… and to look forward to seeing her family. Just like the party at the start of the year, family and loved ones had been invited to attend the end-of-semester celebration, too.
“How badly did you do? You can be honest with me.”
She felt a smile spring onto her face at the sound of Archer’s voice, and she forced it down a few notches, a little embarrassed by how happy she was to see him. “Nice try,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “Piece of cake. I finished early.”
“You did not.”
