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Sadie moves with me from station to station and she shows me how she’d do it and then watches while I channel her magic until I get it right. It’s a good distraction and I actually stop thinking about Adrian.
Until he stops in front of us and watches for a few minutes. I frown at him and consider saying something or even getting inside his head. But the hurt is winning over the anger right now and I don’t want him to know how much I still want him.
I hate feeling like that. I don’t want to have these feelings for him but the pull to him isn’t lessoning.
“You okay, Harper?” Sadie asks.
I tear my eyes away from Adrian. “Yeah, I’m good. Sorry. Let’s try it again.’
We go back to practicing on the dummies and she shows me how to form icicles so I can use them as a weapon. It’s honestly really badass.
By the time the bell rings, I’m actually enjoying myself. We spent an entire class using magic and I feel exhilarated. Like I was recharged or drank a quad shot of espresso.
“Good work today, Sadie, Harper,” Adrian says.
“Thanks,” I manage to mumble. Because the last thing I want is to have to explain to Sadie that I fucked my teacher and then he developed a conscience. Or something. I still wasn’t sure what that was all about.
I glance at him, risking a look into those gorgeous violet eyes. He looks a little broken and instead of feeling justified or vindicated, my throat tightens and my heart hurts. Why do I feel this way?
Breaking his gaze, I slide my arm through Sadie’s. “It’s Friday night. What should we do?”
“Popcorn, pizza, reality TV,” she says.
“Hey, I want in!” Jule says from behind us.
I grin and look over at the others. “Trashy TV in our room tonight. Bring some booze, we’re running low.”
“See you after dinner,” Macy says.
“I’ll bring margaritas!” Ginny says.
My heart still hurts, but having friends again helps.
Sadie and I walk toward our dorm and out of habit, I stop at the ranks to see where I’m sitting. “Oh, fuck.”
Sadie grips my arm. “Was that from today’s class?”
“Must have been all the extra magic I did,” I say.
My name seems to mock me from the number two plaque. Liam is still ahead of me and I know he’s going to be tough to beat. But the bigger problem is trying to hold what I have without getting myself killed.
“You’re in this now,” Sadie says. “You can’t lose it.”
“I know,” I say. Suddenly, even a girls’ night doesn’t sound like enough of a distraction for how I’ll handle the next few weeks.
“Hey, tiger,” a voice calls.
I turn to see Liam smiling at me. “Looks like it’s you and me. An epic battle to the death.”
“Does it have to be to the death?” I ask.
He shrugs. “It’s dangerous having your name at the top, even you have to know that by now.”
“I do,” I say. “But if I get killed, how will you finish our research project?”
“Guess I’ll have to wait a few weeks before I take you out,” he says.
My stomach twists. He’s smiling and his words come across as playful, but it’s difficult to know if he’s being serious. Especially since he’s the one who benefited the most after Cain was killed.
