Page 17 of The Witch & the Tiger

“Someone’s happy,” Eva observed when he bounced into the kitchen, ready to prep breakfast and start the day strong. “Usually, you walk in here like some dead-eyed zombie.”

“I’m allowed to be happy sometimes,” he said, deftly weaving around Eva to grab a mug and place it under the coffee machine. Eva had already primed the machine, so he flicked the switch and hunted for bread and butter.

“Yeah, but you’re… really peppy.” She munched on a piece of bread, highly amused. “I take it this means you’re not really mad at anyone anymore.”

“I slept on it. I’m over it.”

“Glad to hear that,” she sang, handing him over his coffee. He drank it black. He didn’t like milk in it – he felt it ruined the overall flavor. “I don’t suppose you’ve been messaging anyone recently? Say, a certain water witch…?”

“What about it?”

“Oh, nothing,” she said in an infuriating tone that made him want to step over and shake an answer from her. He didn’t, of course.

“Have you two been talking behind my back by any chance?”

All she did was grin, which confirmed his suspicions. As much as he wanted to know what they’d been saying, he also didn’t want to ask her, as he knew she’d spend the next few months teasing him about it. It wasn’t worth the risk.

He'd rather just deal with a little light teasing and no more. His sister quickly lost interest in trying to rib him and acted relatively normal for the rest of the morning. In the end, Martin found himself slinking into the Dreadmor Academy library an hour after she left to browse the digital archives.

The librarian checked his library card, something all students were handed and didn’t need to relinquish, even when they no longer attended – and he quietly went to the second floor to the sleek row of computers with their cheap keyboards and mice.

It took him a couple of tries to remember his own log-in password, and then he was free, delving into the world of the courts, the complex nature of glamours and potions, and the places that sometimes appeared in specific conditions all over the world. Shapeshifters like Martin didn’t have any strong resistance against such enchantments either, which was a shame. He absorbed all the information until his attention started spinning, and a mild cramp crept up his thighs.

“Hello there, stranger,” a voice purred. Low, feminine, familiar. The kind of voice that sent shivers down his spine. “Fancy seeing you here doing the same thing I was planning to do.”

“Willow!” He got up to hug her, and she accepted it without question, arms, and palms pressing tight into his back. The tactile sensation threatened to overload the remainder of his ability to think. It took him a couple of blinks before he managed, “I promise I’m not stalking you or anything.”

“I promise the same. We do keep showing up in the same places,” she replied with a mischievous grin.

Damn. He blinked, taken back by her calm, casual appearance. He didn’t know a whole lot about makeup, but whatever she’d done, it somehow made her cheeks look luminous, and her eyes were warm and dark under heavy eyelashes. Her hair cascaded down her back, with little fluffy tendrils accentuating her face. A hunger stirred within him, instinctual longing.

His reaction astonished him. It took him over like an assassin, stabbing him where he was vulnerable, making him painfully aware of an acute loneliness, an acute longing to have someone fill that gap and understand and love him for who he was.

It wasn’t that he wanted to pin those kinds of expectations on Willow. It was more… clouds parting, revealing something he didn’t even realize he wanted. Up till now, his life had been clenched like a fist with the obsession with the cave and the loss of his friends.

Her fingers lightly brushed his shoulder – a casual, simple act that pressed on him heavier than she would ever know. “I’m sorry again for what happened yesterday. Eva messaged and said that you needed some time – but then you were messaging me, and I guess I got swept within it.”

“It’s fine. Really.” He flashed a smile before conspicuously patting the computer next to him. “Come and join me on my adventures at the Unseelie Court.”

“Don’t mind if I do.” She plunked herself down on the chair, booted up her own account, and glared when a pop-up asking for an update appeared, blocking the screen. “Never mind, not this one.” She shifted to the other computer. “I’m surprised there aren’t any students up here. Usually, it’s fight just to grab a spot.”

“Maybe they’ve all been whisked away to the fae realm,” Martin said. “And we can have the entire school to ourselves.”

“If we were to theoretically roam around the school because we have it all to ourselves…”

“Oh, we’d definitely strip naked and run around the corridors. Maybe try and break into some of the professors’ offices.”

“Huh, not bad.” Willow nodded, wrinkling her lips as if impressed. “I was thinking that we’d have free food in the dining hall. Maybe we could check the artifact vault the academy has as well. I bet they’ve got some neat relics hidden away there.”

“Kind of risky, no? I’ve heard some artifacts can tear your soul out, flay you – all the fun stuff.”

At that, Willow shuddered a little. “Oh no. Maybe not. I’d be the idiot who touches something I shouldn’t, and then that’d be the end of it…”

He nudged her, grinning. “Clumsy, are we?”

“Shut up.” She glared at him but failed at holding it for long. “Have you ever done any research? Maybe I should move and leave you alone.”

“No, no, please stay. I like having you here,” he said. A small flush bloomed on her cheeks, and she tilted her head so that her hair covered her face to conceal the shyness. “Also, I did some research. I did a lot of research, actually. I just didn’t find anything useful.”

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