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As I reluctantly step toward my circle of cord, Julita finally speaks up again.Well. Capturing hearts all around, aren’t you?
She lets out a giggle that I can’t help thinking sounds a bit forced. I swallow thickly as I step into the ring.
Julita has always urged me on when it comes to pursuing her men… but she might not ever have expected more than one of them would return my interest.
She might not have been prepared to think about all the experiences she can now never hope to have for herself.
I don’t know how many of those experiencesI’lleven get to have if I continue down the path I’m on.
I’ve found so much more here at Sovereign College than I could have predicted. And that means I have so much more to lose if this all goes wrong.
Nineteen
Ivy
I’m heading to one of the Quadring’s side entrances after another afternoon class when I cross paths with Anya and a couple of her friends.
The vindictive noblewoman who spent most of my early weeks at the college heckling and harassing me pauses for just an instant, a flicker of apprehension flitting across her face. I don’t think she knows what to make of me after I disarmed her with supposed friendliness.
The fact that I also threatened to let Stavros have her arrested for treason probably plays into her wariness as well.
She settles for a stiff smile and a primp of her hair and sashays on past me while her friends shoot me curious looks.
Ha, Julita says with a triumphant air.You knocked her feet right out from under her without needing to land a single blow.
My body has tensed up in anticipation of some kind of spat. It feels strange to be able to simply relax and walk on.
For all the turmoil I’ve been through with my men and our investigation in the past couple of weeks, my regular life as a supposed assistant has been relatively tame. I guess I should be thankful that the snobbish nobles have decided I don’t make an ideal target in their jockeying for dominance, settling for disdainful looks if they pay attention to me at all.
I’ve got much bigger enemies to contend with.
Enemies who may be lurking closer than I’d prefer. As I step out of the doorway, a faint prickle of a magic catches my attention.
My head jerks around in the direction it seemed to be coming from—just in time to spot a lithe, scaled form slithering through the grass toward a gap in the wall’s mortar.
It’s a smaller snake than the one I noticed in the forest three nights ago, as slim as my thumb and only as long as my forearm—the perfect size to slip into the school’s walls. And do gods know what inside the Quadring.
As I spring after it, my mind spins with a torrent of urgent thoughts. The rat lashed out at me violently—I have to assume the snake will too. But I only have a matter of moments before it’s glided out of reach.
I want to take this one alive.
My magic flickers up eagerly, offering its services, but I ignore its pull. My hand darts between the overlapping fabric of my skirt and retrieves one of my tiny stashed knives. I yank it through one of the strips of silk and return the blade to its sheath in the space of a heartbeat.
Grasping the swath of fabric I’ve cut off, I pounce on the snake.
It flings its tail like a whip and snaps its head around with fangs bared, just as I expected. But I slam the fabric down over it and clutch it through the layer of cloth.
Be careful!Julita cries, as if I’m not already trying to be.
As I flip the snake over and knot the fabric around it into a bundle, it flails against its silky prison. A seething hiss filters through the cloth.
Once the makeshift pouch is fully closed and secure, the creature squirms for several more seconds and then goes still as if giving up. Or biding its time until it senses a better opportunity for escape.
Julita’s presence shivers.I wonder what they’re trying to find out with all these horrible spies.
“A very good question,” I mutter under my breath.
I push upright from my hunched position by the wall and glance around cautiously. Several students are meandering around the field, but no one’s all that close to me.
