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“I’d be more worried about you if you’d lost your sarcasm.”
My lips tug up in what could barely be called a smile. “It’s keeping me from losing my shite, sir. So much has gone wrong. And the people who helped me—Darwin and Gabe in the future, even Darwin’s father—they put everything aside to help me get back to my own Time. They gave me so much and now I can’t even go back to say thank you. To say a real goodbye. I feel like I’ve betrayed them.”
Lords runs his hand over his face. “I’m sorry, Teddy. Although I generally disagree with Dean Gravka about you, I agree that, for your own safety, you shouldn’t be spontaneously Time-Walking. If it helps, I’m confident that if you ask Doctor Prince to teach you how to control your Time-Walking, she will, and that as soon as she feels you can do it safely, she’ll remove the binding.”
That helps ease the weight in my chest. “Thank you, sir. I’ll ask her.”
“As for your grades, I’m sure you’re feeling shafted at the moment. I promise you, everyone who was in this room is behind you. Well, except Hector, but that can’t have been a surprise. You’re not going to fail your midterms. You’ll be fine and, given your stubbornness, I’m sure you’ll be back at the top of all your classes by finals.”
I blow out a long breath and try to articulate why it matters so much to me.
“I know my marks aren’t everything, but they’re the one thing I’ve always had. No matter what Da and my brothers said about me, they couldn’t take away how well I did at school. It’s been my way of proving everyone wrong about me and now ... I feel like I’m losing the thing I’ve always counted on.”
The rawness of that truth rips at my throat after the words leave it. I take a sip of cooled coffee to soothe it.
Lords sighs heavily. “I won’t tell you grades aren’t important, Teddy. They are. And if you want the life you saw in that future, then it’s important you do well here. But I have absolutely every faith in you. You’re much too determined to let what’s happened derail you.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up when you call me ‘sir.’ Given everything we’ve been through together, I think it’s time you called me Evan.”
I give him the same smile I once gave Doctor Prince. “No, sir.”
He chuckles. “Well, at least I know the events of the last few weeks haven’t broken you. You’re a little banged up, Teddy. And your heart is probably very bruised. Go back to your room, study hard for your History of Magic exam, and prove to everyone who didn’t already know that Hector’s a flaming asshole. Keep your head down for the rest of the semester, slam-dunk your finals, and then you and whomever you want to bring are invited to Madame Serpa and Doctor Prince’s for Yule since we’re not letting you out of our sight. Once you have some distance from everything that’s happened, I think you’ll feel much better, and you can make decisions with a clear head.”
“Da said he’d pull me off campus with two broken legs if I don’t go to the Thistlemist Court for Yule.”
Lords’s eyes harden. “He can try.”
My smile dies to a ghost but widens again. “Thank you, sir. For everything. Including the faith.”
“Thank you for protecting our world against an out-of-control Fate, for not utterly losing your shit after being thrown all over Time, and for not killing Hector. I’m pretty sure that last one was the hardest of the things you’ve done over the last few weeks.”
He's not wrong. “Is it hard for you, sir? I mean, I’m assuming you know how to kill with your Water-magic?”
He nods. “When I’m dealing with bureaucratic assholes and fae princes, sometimes it is. But the whole life-in-prison thing is a big deterrent. Keep it in mind, Teddy. I know you have a temper. You’ve done well controlling it so far. Don’t ever let it get so far away from you that you use your magic to kill. It’s the one thing you won’t be forgiven.”
I feel my breath catch with the weight of what he’s saying. “Yes, sir.”
“Good. Scoot, Teddy. You’ve taken up more than enough of my day. And keep my number handy. You can call it any time. Day or night. Even if all you need is to hear me say that I believe in you.”
My eyes prickle.
Before I can make more of a fool of myself, I thank him and scuttle out of the conference room.
Charlie’s waiting for me in the hallway. He wraps me in one of his infinitely comforting hugs before he walks me back to our suite.
Chapter13
Sometimes, A Beanie’s Just A Beanie
I’m not an idiot.
Even though The Mr. Black’s advice amounted to, “sit down and shut up,” I take it. Lords knows how to work the system, and for all that I initially doubted him, he’s clearly in my corner.
I keep my head down. I walk the other way if I accidentally cross paths with Darwin or any of his crew. I go to class. I spend every other waking minute—and many minutes when I should be sleeping—for three days studying my arse off. I take a five-hour exam that covers every single thing I’ve learned in Early History of Magic and contains five bonus questions which ask me to extrapolate and interpret a bunch of shite I haven’t learned yet. And I do it with Doctor Prince, Dean Quinn, and Dean Gravka watching me the whole time as I sit in the otherwise-empty lecture hall.
I come out of the exam shaking, collapse into Charlie’s arms, and sleep for eighteen hours.
