Page 11 of Monster's Heart

Of course, I was. I had no choice. I couldn’t fail and Sten was the only one who could help me with the professor’s ridiculous extra credit project.

“Okay, tomorrow,” I said, and he seemed to exhale.

I stood there for I didn’t know how long, just staring in the direction he took off in. I still didn’t know anything more about him than I had that morning, except he didn’t like being touched.

Shivering, I draped my robes around my shoulders and turned to walk back to my room, only I was surprised to see I wasn’t alone anymore.

“It’s a little late for an unsupervised stroll, isn’t it Miss Cordoza?” Headmistress Blackthorn asked.

“Oh, uh, sorry,” I mumbled inanely, but the sagely matron lifted one eyebrow and waited.

I swore the woman could conjure a confession from thin air by doing nothing more than raising her perfectly sculpted brows. I had years of being spoken down to by my mother, aunts, cousins, and sisters, so I knew all about that sort of hoity toity air that came with being a super powerful Witch.

“You were with Sten,” she said, and no, it was not a question.

“He’s tutoring me,” I replied immediately.

I didn’t know why I felt the need for clarification, but I wanted to protect him. The instinct was super strong, as was something else I had never felt. I looked down at my fingers, noting blue swirls sparking from the tips.

“What the?” I muttered.

“Have you been sleeping any better?” the headmistress interrupted me.

“What?”

“It was in your last housing survey. You said you were having trouble sleeping,” she said, but I didn’t recall reporting that.

“Um, now that you mention it. I was going to speak to my advisor about maybe starting some nocturnal classes next semester.”

“Mm. A very good idea, Miss Cordoza. Tell me, has Sten been a good tutor?”

“Oh, um, yeah, he’s brilliant. Did you know he designed a program that could map stars across the realms?”

“Really? Well, that doesn’t surprise me, considering he has an intimate knowledge of celestial things, being a descendant of Mani. Oh, look at the time. Excuse me, I must be going.”

I nodded my head, wondering why the headmistress had let that slip. It was unusual to talk about someone’s powers or supernatural heritage like that.

A descendant of Manny?

Who the fuck is Manny?

Shit.

No, she must mean Mani. I knew I’d heard that name before.

My thoughts were going a mile a minute as I racked my brain for answers. Mani. Hmmm. It sounded so familiar. Like it was just there on the tip of my tongue, but I could not recall it with any sense of clarity.

Fuck.

Where had I heard that name before?

CHAPTER 6

Sten

Eight days.

It had been eight days of sheer fucking torment, tutoring Amrin. Not because she was slow or annoying or anything like that. The torment was mine. Her tantalizing scent was driving me crazy. The way her pretty moonbeam colored eyes seemed to glow with pleasure when she understood a concept or tracked a group of stars across the skies was so fucking perfect. She had me mesmerized.

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