Page 33 of A Dusk Of Stars

I turn to give her a curious smile. “Sure, why wouldn’t I be?”

“You have dark circles around your eyes again.”

My eyebrows shoot up.Again? Is that something she’s noticing? I let out an awkward laugh, not wanting to get into it. “Oh I’m just worried about that homework Lorcan assigned us.”

“Why?” comes the reply, along with a little blink.

I smile and frown at her at the same time. Then I shrug. “Why is anyone ever worried about homework?”

She tilts her head at me. “I don’t understand the question,” she says matter-of-factly. “There are countless reasons people are worried about homework and no single person can be worried for all of those reasons.”

I open my mouth to say something, but Alaric cuts in. “She’s trying to tell you she knows you’re a big fat liar, Anna,” he says with a grin.

“No, I’m not,” Raven says.

I believe she’s telling the truth, but I choose to lean into it. “Really?” I ask teasingly as I turn back to her. “And how wouldyouknow I’m a big fat liar, Raven?”

It surprises me, when she starts inspecting me more closely. She lets her eyes stop on the books in my hands and then the keys around my neck. “Apart from the obvious holes in your logic that suggest you’re evading the question,” she starts softly but firmly, “the books you’re carrying have nothing to do with the class, you’ve apparently been given the keys to the Library back, and based on my observations of you, it would take more than homework to make you worried.”

For a second, I just look at her, dumbfounded by the girl everyone’s underestimating by calling her the cuckoo curse girl. But feeling so closely observed is making me feel uncomfortable. “Look at you, Raven,” I tell her with a smile, eager to change the subject. “Do you solve murders or just do homework fraud?”

Alaric lets out a laugh, but there’s something that flashes through Raven’s eyes that makes me think she thinks I’m mocking her. “Oh come on,” I plead softly but firmly, “I’m only teasing you.”

She seems to relax.

“I’ll stop by the Junkyard later with some apology nachos, how about that?” I say, and I throw them both a tip of my chin and rush to the Grimm Tower.

***

Unsure about what I’m about to do, I keep sitting in the Lounge, throwing nods and tense little smiles to all the professors and faculty members passing through.

I hear him as soon as he steps onto the landing in front of the Lounge. “And you know I don’t like talking to answeringmachines, Nuala,” he says in this stern, parental voice, making me remember someone once saying he had a daughter.

As soon as he walks in, my adrenaline goes through the roof. When he puts his phone back in his pocket and stops mid step — showing he didn’t expect to see me here — and throws me this scowl, I have to warn myself I don’t really know he’s done anything suspicious to begin with. Professors move books around all the time.

I stand up, throwing him a polite nod.

“What’re you doing here, Miss Novak?” he asks as he walks up to me.

“I just need your help with something, Professor,” I tell him, using the most neutral voice possible. “Do you have a couple of minutes to spare?”

He just looks at me for a second. Then he motions at the chair I just got up from and says, “It’s my job to find them. But bear in mind,” he says as he lifts a fat forefinger in a warning gesture, “I won’t be listening to you whining about how tough the Academy is for someone as challenged as you are.”

I have to fight the urge to roll my eyes.

“I’m not here as your student,” I tell him as we take our seats.

I see his eyes narrow. “Then in what capacityareyou here in?” he asks as he leans back in his chair.

I clear my throat, trying to sound casual as I say, “There are these books — materials from Old Norse Studies — that I couldn’t find—”

“Old Norse Studies?” he cuts me off, leaning forward a little and tilting his head. “I don’t seem to know of any shifter classes requiring you to study the area.”

I shake my head, forcing myself to smile. “It’s just this research I’m doing that’s unrelated to my studies.”

“What’re you researching exactly?”

“Old Norse culture.”

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