Page 118 of A Heart of Bluestone

“They have been hot and cold for years,” she tells me, and there’s a sigh to her voice, a huff of disproval.

Asta has a date…

That’s what Serena said.

I never imagined it would be with Eric.

My Eric.

But then…

My heart flutters in my chest, the echoes of an ache.

‘They have been hot and cold for years.’

Asta watched us.

She watched Eric and I build snowmen, fall and laugh and play in the snow. Then, clinging to Dray, there was a solid week she wouldn’t leave her betrothed’s side, all the while shooting glares up at the faculty table and—

“What the fuckkkk,” I hiss, hands flailing at my sides.

I don’t ask something as silly as ‘what about Dray?’, because first, who cares about him, and second, this happens with all the betrothed pairs. All of them. Even if they like each other, as I expect is the case for Oliver and Serena. They will be happy enough when they are married. And when they are married, they will be faithful to one another. But not before the nuptials.

Sleep around but be respectful. The betrothed should always come before the flings.

It’s notthatthat has my attention, that has my face slowly twisting into a scowl. It’s that Asta hasmybackup guy melting into her, his smile brushing overherlips, and not mine!

“Fuck!” I curse the word under my breath. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!”

Serena eyes me for a long moment, then shakes her head with a loosened breath. “He is a fortune hunter, Olivia. Aim higher.”

My teeth grit but words snake through, “I can’t. I can’t reach any higher.”

Serena’s sidelong look at me is fast accompanied by a flattened mouth. “You might be surprised how high you can reach,” she says. “But enough of that, it’s our turn.”

“Huh?”

“I need a partner,” she says, and—taking me by the wrist—she steers me to the edge of the bench, right in front of the self-filling cups.

My mind splits in two.

A furious glance I aim down at Eric and Asta, canoodling, and wondering if heismine, or he was hers for longer, but my words are of a different matter entirely: “What’s in these?”

Serena glances down at the self-filling cups. She lifts a dark look at me, a smile slicked over her lovely mouth. “Potions,” she whispers dangerously.

A smile twitches my mouth. Barely, but still.

I bite it down.

The wariness sticks to me, to the stiffness of my bones, the steel of my muscles.

I keep my cheek to the cabin, to the lovefest down there I want nothing more than to set on fire.

Serena starts off the game. She bounces the ball onto the centre of the bench—it arches before it lands in a cup.

Teddy curses under his breath at the other end, then snatches the cup up. Beside him, Piper’s nose crinkles as Teddy downs the potion.

He burps—long and loud and a stream of bubbles release from his parted lips.

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