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The slayer wore a red checked lumberjack shirt today, and he popped the collar as he chewed. His eyes slid to me. “And you can rely on him to abandon you to help out with someone else’s non-problem.”
“Behave,” Numina hissed sharply, red flickering behind her eyes. “You’ve ditched him plenty of times for a hookup. You can be understanding now that he’s finally got a girlfriend.” She smiled at me.
“We’re not really putting labels on things,” I muttered, but Moirus was saying something at the same time and they all turned to listen to him.
Moirus looked human, though I detected a faint whiff around him that I had always associated with the undead. He wore a black T-shirt, jeans, a small diamond stud in one ear, and kept his hair short and spiked up.
“You all hear about what happened to Fabian?” he asked.
They all burst out laughing. I didn’t know what happened to Fabian, and I didn’t have time to care.
Propping my head on my hand, I wished I’d ordered some fries. Then I’d have something to do, other than eavesdrop on a conversation about someone I didn’t know. This was why I didn’t study in groups.
No one was studying.
No one cared about alchemy.
It was just an excuse to hang out while claiming they were being responsible. Coming here had been a mistake.
I was seconds away from standing when Bianca spoke. “Okay, I think I know what you’re doing wrong.”
My bad mood was replaced instantly with panic. What if everything was wrong and I didn’t have time to fix it?
Bianca tapped her finger on the tabletop. “So, first of all, you’re starting with the wrong base symbol.”
“What? Give me that.” I snatched my transformation circle back.
I couldn’t possibly have failed to catch such an obvious, and utterly stupid, mistake.
I traced the rune with one finger. “No I didn’t.”
“What’s your star sign?” she asked.
“Gemini,” I said.
“Birthday?”
“June 19th.”
“Hm.” Bianca finally looked over at the food that crowded the other end of the table. “Where’s mine?” she asked.
“You didn’t order any.” Ezric handed her his basket. Five lonely fries sat at the bottom.
She took them and dipped them in Numina’s milkshake, ignoring the other girl’s protest. “You’re on the cusp. I’m guessing you land on the Gemini side for astrology. You don’t have any trouble with horoscopes? Star charts?”
I shook my head. Astrology wasn’t that interesting to me as someone who couldn’t actually see the stars from her kingdom, but I’d never had any trouble with it.
“Well, alchemy’s different. You might be a Gemini in every other respect, but given that you’re a sea creature, your magic might be pulling you toward the Cancer sign for this. Try it.”
I wiped the rune clean with a basic incantation and bent over my paper again, feeling foolish and irritated. I should have thought of this myself.
“Too much flourish. You’re going to confuse the sign.” Bianca had leaned over the table to watch me. “That’s the other thing. Your handwriting is lush, but it’s not good for alchemy. Confuses the runes. Keep it simple.”
Deus had said the same thing.
Taking a deep breath, I started over, with Bianca editorializing from the other side of the table.
As I wrote, I was surprised to discover… I sort of liked it. Bianca was no-nonsense and eager to get her work done, like me.
