Page 57 of The Spell Caster

Without saying goodbye, I allowed him to lead me toward a back door.

His father followed us. “Layla.” When I turned, Grey’s steel eyes were cold. “You will not speak of this to anyone.”

I froze. My insides twisted sharply, but I said nothing. To allow myself to be commanded went against everything I knew.

“Remember what I told you, Layla,” my mother prompted, sidling up behind us. Under her sweet tone was an iron knife at my jugular.

I stared at her. “Of course.” My voice burned in my throat.

Calamus guided me outside. Even the overcast sky was too bright after being in the dark arena. I looked up at him, wanting some reassurance that my suspicions about what just happened were wrong.

“Can you believe it? That was amazing! An entirely new species,” he said, his face exuberant.

I blinked. “I guess… your old books were right.” What else were we in the dark about?

“I don’t blame you for not believing it until you saw it,” he said with a soft smile.

Irritation flared hot, and I bit my lip to keep from screaming at him.

“Thanks for trying,” I grated out. “To ask about me, I mean.”

“Of course,” he said. “With this new source of information, we’re bound to be able to find a solution.”

I thumbed open my phone to a series of messages from Costi:

I don’t hear any fire alarms, guess Grey didn’t burn anything down.

Where are you?

Layla.

Calamus cleared his throat. “Would you like to—”

“I need to get going,” I interrupted.

“You don’t want to talk about what just happened?”

Not with you. “Maybe later.”

“Sure,” he said. “We’ll talk later.”

I was already walking away.

I’m headed to the barracks, I texted Costi, heading in that direction. A misting rain picked up as I walked, but not enough to make me run.

The barracks was a stone building with two stories that wrapped around a central courtyard, much like our apartment building. When I approached, Costi was waiting outside the main door under the covered entrance. I smoothed my damp hair.

He seemed to be in one piece, but he was frozen, staring at me with his head tilted and his mouth open, one hand holding something wrapped in cloth.

“What… what’s wrong?” I had a sudden fear that something about looking into Hell had changed me in a visible way.

“You look good in red,” he said in a husky voice that tumbled around my insides recklessly.

Right. The spell caster robes.

His eyes shuttered with a sudden sadness that resonated. My lifelong desire to be his spell caster was still there. We just kept piling up wants. Too many incongruous, impossible things.

Costi pushed the small bundle he was holding into my hand. Curious, I lifted the edge.

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