Page 109 of Mud

“I doubt it. Maybe his dad or close friends,” Kayla said.

“Guys—I willneverrecover from it,” Briar said again. “I can’t get it out of my head—I can’t!”

The girls sitting closest to her patted her back.

“Do you think he’ll make it for the Feast of Hope?” Bethany asked, looking up from her drawing for a moment.

Who cares?I wanted to say. It was just a party.

They held it in honor of the graduates, a symbol of hope that we continued to learn and grow and make our community of mages as proud out there in the world as we did in here. I’d been excited about it when they first gave us the date, but right now I couldn’t care less.

The other girls shrugged. “I hope so. It’s our last celebration before school ends,” Kayla said, and that made me flinch. I couldn’t care less about the party right now, but it would be the first and last party I’d attend with thesepeople. Even though I’d only known them for about four months now, I knew I would miss them.

It would be my first party with Taland, too, and I’d been wondering if he even knew how to dance. The thought of him sweeping me off my feet and spinning me around on the dance floor made me want to smile.

Now, I couldn’t wait to find out.

“He will, he will. Let’s be positive, ladies!” Gina said, clapping her hands, smiling so fake it hurt my eyes. “Cheer up—Chris will be just fine. It’s a magical school—of course accidents are going to happen. Remember what happened to Doris junior year?”

“Guys, I gotta run,” I said, as the girls nodded their heads, lost in thought. Whoever Doris was and whatever had happened to her junior year, I hadn’t been here then, and I didn’t have the time to listen to the story right now if I was going to meet Taland on time.

And Ialwaysmet Taland on time.

“Sure, sure. Go ahead, go creeping around like you always do,” the girls teased, waving me off.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Stifling my smile, I turned around and ran toward the third tower, and all the way up to the rooftop deck.

Taland was already there, sitting on the ledge, in the same place where we’d had our first date. Though it was later now—it had been April then, the day shorter—the timing was perfect. The sun had just touched the horizon, and the world looked like it had really caught fire.

“My favorite human makes an appearance, at last,” Taland said dramatically.

I rolled my eyes just for show, threw my backpack on the ground, and went and wrapped my arms around his side.

“I’m right on time,” I said because I was. He saidwhen the world burns,and the world was burning in the distance, right in those moments.

“You’re always late, even when you’re on time,” Taland said because that somehow made sense to him.

I shook my head, smiling, my head on his shoulder. He hopped off the ledge to hug me properly, grab my face in his hands and kiss me. I loved how the sunlight made him look when it was at his back like this, like the outline of him was burning, too.Beautiful.Absolutely breathtaking—but I was in love with the guy so maybe that made me a little bit biased.

“You okay?” he whispered, and I nodded.

“I’m fine. Chris is gonna pull through. The girls said he’ll be out of the infirmary in weeks,” I said, and he nodded.

“He will. I know Chris. He’s a tough guy—he’ll pull through,” Taland said.

When he said it, I believed him.

I sighed, putting all my weight against him, knowing he’d never let me fall. “I can’t believe they even let us use the veler in school, if it can dothat.”

“Exactly. Dangerous stuff,” Taland agreed. “Nobody should be allowed to play around with such powerful artifacts, least of all teenagers who haven’t even graduated yet. Who haven’t even prepared their first anchors.” And right now, he seemed pretty pissed off about it. Couldn’t blame him—I was, too. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

I was gladhewas okay, too.

“This is messed up,” I said, but the fear and the panic were already fading the tighter he held me with his arms around my waist.

“Let me get you some popcorn, sweetness. What do you say? We can relax for a bit tonight.”

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