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He’d been quoted in articles as saying that for every shifter form he’d met in the sea, there must have been hundreds more that remained a mystery.
And after earning my degrees, I planned to make it my life’s work to find them all.
At the end of the lecture, he paused to take a long drink of water. Setting the bottle down, he leaned back against his desk and addressed us again.
“You’ll remember your syllabus has a paired project. An in-depth study of the marine myth of your choice. Each group needs to pick a different myth, so the sooner you agree and come to me, the better. I’ve paired you up already. Settle down!”
The outbreak of chatter that had accompanied his announcement quieted instantly.
“I’m only going to read the list once. If you’re not listening, tough on you.” He rattled off names, waiting until each student raised their hand.
My name was fifth on the list.
“Seta sa Bering”—his eyes found mine—“Amadeus Koidos.”
Behind me, I heard more than one wistful sigh, but it took all my willpower to keep my head from dropping against the desk.
The more time I spent with Amadeus, the more certain I became that I was playing with a dangerous hurricane that could wreck my life and the lives of my clan.
Ayla had already warned me how much group work sucked, but I’d rather do the whole project with a partner who sat on his phone than try to wrangle work out of a party-life-loving partner I was drawn to like a moth to a flame.
Maybe Mackenzie would let me switch? After all, there were loads of people who’d love to be partnered with shining Deus and his dazzling smile.
“What are the odds?” Amadeus made his way to my side as soon as the bell rang. “High-five, new partner!”
He held up his hand, and I halfheartedly patted my hand against his. “Anyway, I’m due for a round of frisbee golf. If you want to tag along, we can discuss what myth we want to work on.”
I’d already thought about the project. “Narwhal shifters.”
It was one of the shifter forms Mackenzie had discovered, but even he admitted they were a secretive bunch. Acing this project would prove to him that I was serious about my studies.
Amadeus’s smile didn’t dim, but something flickered through his eyes. “What’s a narwhal?”
Huffing, I ran a hand through my hair. “You don’t know what a narwhal is? Why are you even taking Marine Mythology?”
Deus gave me a sheepish smile. “To learn what a narwhal is. Among other things. Anyway, I trust you. If you say narwhal shifters, then narwhal shifters it is! Brief me on what you know as we walk, and we’ll make a game plan.”
“I’m not going to frisbee golf.” I shoved my laptop into my bag, cringing at how rude I probably sounded.
Amadeus was undeterred. “Okay. So where are you headed now?”
My stomach chose that moment to rumble. “The dining hall,” I admitted.
Having been too wrapped up in the frustrating alchemy forms to remember the time, I’d managed to miss lunch.
“Cool. The dining hall’s on the way. We’ll go together.” He shifted his backpack to the other shoulder.
My stomach did a weird little flip-flop despite me telling it to calm down because there was no reason to be excited about spending more time with him.
But wedidhave to talk about our project. Even if it was only to establish that I’d do the work and he could just leave me alone. I shouldered my own bag and followed him out onto the lawn.
The whole week had been full of sun, but heavy, dark clouds had gathered on the horizon over the course of the early afternoon. A thunderstorm was supposed to break tonight, and I fully planned to use the bad weather to sneak off to Headmistress Losia’s freshwater pond for a much-needed swim.
I stumbled when Deus came to an unexpected stop. He drew in a deep breath. The glow that clung to him seemed to pulse, and his full lips parted.
My eyes followed the sleek line of his throat down to the little triangle of skin that peeked out from under his button-up shirt.
He caught me looking. “The smell of rain. There’s nothing like it.”
