Page 77 of A Dusk Of Stars

“Yes.”

He gives a nod. “Serra has convinced me to allow you to keep your part-time role at the Library, but we will also require you to train more regularly. As for your mentor—”

Shit. “How often will we have to train?” I cut in. I didn’t exactly imagine making my request to replace Bane while in a meeting that he himself is attending.

Lorcan’s eyebrows shoot up at the interruption, but he just clears his throat and says, “It’s up to you really, but I believe once a week should be the bare minimum.”

I glance at Bane, who just gives me a somber nod.

To my relief, Lorcan doesn’t get into it any further. Obviously content with the arrangement, he just keeps droning on about my new schedule and all the things we’ll be covering.

I struggle concentrating. I hope this was a good idea. But even if it turns out not to be, I have a plan B.

I won’t just be waiting for that Baldur guy to just show up.

When they give me access to the Lexarcanum book — which they will have to now, maybe I won’t learn anything new.

When I manage to decipher that ritual, maybe it won’t help me in any way, but Iwillfind a way to prevent him from awakening in the first place, if it’s the last thing I do.

I won’t let any of this derail my future.

Chapter 24

It’s the very next morning that I have my first training session scheduled. I’m almost at the location, which, surprisingly, isn’t B13 but one of the larger gyms at the Academy. I’m walking down the hallway, keeping track of the numbers. B20, B21.

I’ve just found out that Serra’s declined my request to access the Lexarcanum and I’m… not exactly happy about it. If being the goddamn Aurora won’t get me in there, is there anything thatwill? And besides, the bookchoseme, for crying out loud, and wasn’t Serra trying to make me believe she was onmyside?

Come on, Anna, I tell myself just as I arrive in front of B24, a large double door that’s slightly ajar, gym smells wafting up to me from the inside.

I hesitate for a second, my mind rushing to the way Bane slipped out of the room as soon as yesterday's meeting was over, silent and with a look of unconcealed disapproval on his face.

I didn’t even expect him to be there, so it didn’t exactly register until I got to my room later that day — the fact that the man whoshowed up wasn’t that man I spent the night of the Ball with. It was the Bane from before. Intense, serious, smirking at best.That’sthe ‘mentor’ I’m about to spend yet another pointless hour with.

It’s fine, I tell myself. The goal for today is only to push through this one session before I get reassigned to someone else.

Taking a deep breath, I push the door open and step inside the room. It’s as big as a football field, with large windows flooding the parquets, the white walls and all the equipment scattered around with bright winter light.

Almost instantly, my mentor appears in front of me, hands in his pockets. It surprises me to see he seems a lot less intense, but it’s still a dead serious one — the look on his face. “I’m just going to say this,” he tells me in a somber voice. “I think you’re making a huge mistake.”

“I know,” I chuckle, squinting at him as I start making my way to one of the mats lying in the center of the room. “Youdounderstand you’ve made thatveryobvious?”

I sense him follow me as I lower myself into a lotus position, taking my books out of my tote.

“What’re you doing?” I hear him ask.

I look up to find him towering over me with a frown. “I have studying to do,” I say with a shrug, “as I’m sure you have calls to take.”

He snatches the book out of my hand, making me throw him a scowl from my spot on the floor. “No, we have ‘discussing’ to do,” he says forcefully. “Which you said would happen during the meeting, but then you went and just said yes to all that crap without so much as a second thought.”

I get up and take my book from his hand, tossing it onto the mat. I take a deep breath, giving my all to stay amicable. “For your information,” I tell him calmly, “I gave it a lot more than a second thought.” I can’t resist adding, “You might not realizethis, but other people’s lives, they happen even outsideyourinvolvement.”

He ignores the stab and just shakes his head, remaining serious. “No, I’m not buying it. There’s something else going on. I mean, there has to be,” he says, his voice taking on a mocking tone, “because otherwise I’d have to believe youactuallyagreed to work with obviously delusional members of anOrderbetting the made-up fate of the entire universe on shifter students who can’t even shift.”

“And yet I did,” I say flatly.

A muscle in his jaw twitches. “That’s not my point and you know it, smartass. I’m saying I can’t believe you bought into their bullshit.”

“What if it’s not bullshit?” I ask earnestly, shrugging my shoulders. “What if it’s true?”

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