Page 54 of Faerie Marked

“Hey you,” he said right off the bat once I slid behind the desk. “What are you doing tonight?”

“The schedule is clear, my friend,” I told him with a rushed smile, dropping my bag and reaching inside for the tarot deck.

“Do you want to try studying with me again?”

Hmm, curious. “I thought you had a test and needed to get your beauty sleep?” I joked.

Roman cut in with a snicker, pushing dark hair out of his face. “If this one doesn’t get his normal ten hours of sleep then you’ll see his real face. Which is not pretty. So yes, he needs his beauty sleep, take it from me.”

Mike shut him up with a well-placed elbow to the ribs. “Idoneed to get my rest, and Idohave a test, but neither of those things mean I don’t want to study for this class. I’m still interested in learning the back-door shortcuts to being a great tarot reader. What do you say?”

My inner pep talk from earlier didn’t seem to matter. One look at his smile and I melted like butter in an Arizona heat wave. “Sure!” I replied with way too much enthusiasm.Dial it back a notch, woman. “I’d love to.”

“Let’s say our usual table in the library?” Mike clarified. “Seven o’clock? We can study in sprints and see if we can annoy the librarian during our breaks.”

“I like the way you think.”

Professor Marsh approached the class with a swish of fabric, her pencil skirt emphasizing her slender lower body, and fixed us all with a stare that silenced conversation within seconds. “Everyone!” she called out, her cat-like eyes flashing. “I’m sure you have noticed the covers on your stations today.”

In fact, I hadn’t. I’d been too busy mooning over Mike. I looked down now and noticed the plush pile of purple velvet and the hard lump beneath it.

“Today we are going to be working with crystal balls. A crystal ball is another tool for the practice of divination,” Marsh continued. She lifted her own velvet cover to reveal a clear orb of quartz crystal on a solid gold stand. “Most who stare into the depths of the crystal are able to conjure visions of the future. Now, the key lies in interpreting these visions. Interpretation is where the masters break away from the amateurs, the dabblers. Everyone, raise your cloth and see what the crystal has to show you.”

A sliver of apprehension shot through me as I recalled Barbara’s warnings. Garlic, moonlight, and…quartz crystal. Well, as long as I didn’t actuallytouchit…

I watched Mike for a moment, the cover cloth set aside and his large palms cradling the small softball-sized clear sphere in front of him.

“Have you ever done anything like this before?” I asked him as my nerves began to sing.

“No. But I’m sure there’s nothing to it,” he said.

“Clear your mind and focus on the future,” Marsh instructed, raising her voice over the low murmur of chatter. “Imagine a blank space. Stare into the crystal and picture the blank space expanding. Larger and larger. I said toclear yourmind, Roman!”

I wasn’t sure what the professor had picked up from my friend’s head and surely I didn’t want to know since it brought a chuckle from him.

Mike bit his lip, the picture of concentration. I snickered at both of them. “I’m curious to see what you conjure,” I whispered.

“Ah, so I’m going to be the guinea pig today. You want to follow my lead?”

“Seems like it.”

He had all of his focus on the ball, his hands caressing the surface, lines of tension fanning out from his mouth. As I watched, a blurry image began to form inside the crystal ball.

Fascinated, I shifted closer to him. “What is that?”

“It’s…it’sFaerie. It’s my home.”

The image solidified into stone spires and flags, a massive forest stretching out beyond the castle enclosure. I saw the turrets and the parapets where Fae would march in neat lines. I saw stained glass windows and smoke curling from chimneys.

Smoke curling fromeverywhere, it seemed.

“Mike,” I urged, shifting to get a better view, “is the castleon fire?”

We moved closer in unison, the image now blurry to the point where we were unable to make out the finer details. But I clearly saw the lick of flame and the burning of embers in multiple places.

Mike broke the connection with the ball and pulled away, his cheeks white and sweat beading along his hairline. The crystal ball turned blank and clear at once.

“Fire?” he repeated. There was so much innocence—and terror—in the single word.

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