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“Your emotions touch your face like words touch a book,” he said. “Not just any book either. The kind of books you use to teach children how to read.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re not as funny as you think you are.”
“I don’t think anyone has ever made the mistake of thinking I’m funny,” he said.
“I suppose not.”
He gave me a long look. “You know I’m not going to let anything happen to you, right?”
I opened my mouth. I wanted to tell him that I couldn’t possibly know that because I didn't know him well.
But the desire to be a smartass wasn’t enough to ruin whatever we shared in this moment. I wouldn’t exactly call it camaraderie. We weren’t friends and I wasn’t naive enough to think we were. But this was civil; we were both making an effort, and I recognized that. I didn’t want to take that god granted.
“As appreciative as I am to hear that,” I said slowly, picking up the fork and shifting some of the crumbs to one side of the plate, “I don’t think you have any idea what’s going to happen, so there’s no way to know that for sure.”
He opened his mouth, and for the briefest of seconds, I could swear he was going to go out of his way to say something nice. Maybe even comforting.
But then, the door opened and the moment was gone.
“Captain Byron,” a deeply, distinguished voice said. “I expect this kind of nonsense from Captain Rainey, butyou? I would think you had better sense than this.”
Byron shifted his focus from me to the man I recognized from dinner last night. Now that I saw him up close, I noticed his midnight blue eyes were filled with cunning, and his lips were curved into what I could only imagine being a permanent frown of disapproval.
“I tried to explain,” Rainey said, coming in from behind him. He shut the door behind him. “He demanded to see her for himself.”
Byron clenched his teeth together and took a step that positioned himself in front of me.
Almost like he was shielding me from Professor Barnes’s view.
“Well?” Barnes arched a brow. I was sure he knew I was behind Byron, but instead of stepping in either direction one way or the other, he looked at Rainey expectantly. Almost like he wasn’t going to play this game where he tried to go out of his way to do what he wanted. Instead, he was going to make Byron give him what he wanted.
Byron flared his nostrils before taking a step to the left, exposing me from Barnes. I stiffened, sitting up straight and dropping my fork, turning in the chair so I could face him directly. He held my gaze, almost as though he was already bored. His eyes scanned me up and down in a way that was uncomfortable but not inappropriate. It was more like I couldn’t hide anything from those eyes and I wasn’t going to try even though every instinct in my body was screaming at me to do just that.
“She’s a kid,” he finally said, shifting his gaze back to Byron. “She barely looks like she can even be a student here.”
“She’s eighteen,” Byron said.
“Exactly.”
“So, you won’t do it?” Rainey asked. It was only then that I noticed the book still in his hands. “Magic can manifest as early as puberty –”
“That isn’t what concerns me,” Barnes said.
“Then what is it?” Rainey asked. “I already explained the suspicion. Even you said it was a logical conclusion even if you yourself don’t believe –”
“It has nothing to do with belief,” Barnes interrupted.
Rainey threw his arms out, careful not to jostle the book too much as he kept his hand on it. “Then tell me what your problem is so I can tell you how you’re wrong,” he said. I had never heard the touch of desperation in his voice before, and while I could admit I didn’t know much about the captain and had barely interacted with him at all, he didn’t seem to be the type of guy to lose control easily. In fact, he seemed like he was always in control, no matter what situation he was in.
“Whether I believe in this magic or not isn’t going to tell us whether or not magic exists,” Barnes said. “In fact, it would contradict what we already know, which is that magicdoesexist. Shifters a prime example – and so far – the only example of transformative magic. But from The Black Equinox, we know there are five types of magic, all associated with a particular animal: the raven, the serpent, the lion, the dolphin, and the phoenix. Each magic has a particular criteria associated with it. And looking at her, I can already tell that she doesn’t fall into any such category.”
“You’re telling me you can tell whether or not this girl is a Light Bringer just by looking at her?” Rainey asked. “You might be good, Barnes, but even you aren’t that good.”
“Look at her.” He thrust out his arm, gesturing at me. “You really think she’s going to be able to handle the potion, even if I give it to her?”
“Yes.”
I didn’t realize I had been the one to speak the word until all six eyes were on me.
