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“I’m tired,” I lied. I wanted to get away from Craig stealing glances at me when Naomi was talking to one of the other guys.
Naomi drummed her fingers against the floor. “I bet if I persuaded Viktor to come down, you’d have a change of heart.”
“Not true.” I placed a finger in the air.
Craig was six shots in and sloppy. His hair had come loose from the tie and hung around his shoulders, and the collar beneath his robes was half up, half down. “One more drink, Ellie.”
I grimaced. Only one other person called me Ellie in my life. “Don’t call me that.”
Naomi laughed, grabbing my arm as she did. “Please.” She elongated the word, pulling me back toward the floor.
“I…” I paused. What could I say? “I need to study tomorrow.”
She let go of my arm, then crossed hers over her chest. “Since when do you suddenly care about studying?”
“I’m going to put my name forward at the call,” I announced.
Viktor rounded the corner. “What’s going on here then?” He leaned in the doorway, grinning with amusement.
“Yay.” She clapped her hands together, hurrying to Viktor. She grabbed his arm and pulled him into the room. “Come play with us.”
Craig’s smile faltered. Viktor’s appearance wasn’t entirely unwelcome. “Come in,” he said, deflated.
He looked at me. “Do you want me to stay, doll?”
“Elle was talking about going to bed.” Naomi rolled her eyes. “She needs to study tomorrow. Oh.” She squeaked. “The call. My brain.” She rolled a finger next to her temple. “I think I’m a little drunk.”
“You think?” I mumbled quietly, and Viktor laughed.
She beamed. “I’m so happy you’re putting your name forward. See, it wasn’t that hard.”
Viktor’s eyebrows raised. “Name forward for what?”
I glared at her, shaking my head.
“The call,” she announced, clearly not getting my non-verbal warning. I didn’t want him to know. Honestly, I didn’t want to give him any ideas to go ahead with it himself.
“What’s the call?”
Craig stood, almost stumbling, and caught himself by grabbing the mantel above the fire. “It means you can put your name forward to promote within the coven and become a proper member.”
“Only apprentices can do it,” Naomi said.
“Which Viktor now is.”
She mouthed a wow in my direction.
“Impressive, man,” Craig said. “You’ve not been here long. How did—ope.” He stumbled, then caught himself again. “Ah, yes, sorry. How did you manage it?”
“I’m just lucky, I guess.”
That was unexpectedly modest. He was brilliant, but I wasn’t about to stroke his ego.
“Lucky?” Naomi scoffed. “You must be like, really good if Edmund promoted you so fast. You’re only a short jump away from keeper.”
Craig cleared his throat. “Man, you should put your name in that call too.”
I glared at Craig. “He’s drunk too much.” My voice dripped with anger. “It’s a terrible idea. You need to learn like, a lot to pass, so it wouldn’t be a good idea this year. Maybe next year. There’s no way you could digest all the knowledge that fast.”
