Page 56 of Faerie Marked

“I’m sorry.” I deflated, sinking down into my seat. “I can’t do this. Please don’t make me do this.” If I touched the ball, it would break my spell and reveal me to everyone and I was getting low on vials.

I cast a pleading glance toward Mike. He just looked confused.

“You’ve barely begun,” Marsh stated. And in her tone, I heard a mixture of incredulity and impatience. “Try again.”

“Ican’t,” I insisted.

“This is going to affect your grade, Miss Alderidge.” Marsh’s voice hardened further and I had a hard time meeting those piercing cat eyes. They made me squirm. “You do understand. Don’t you?”

“I do. But I can’t do this,” I replied miserably.

“Fine. If you continue to insist youcan’t do this, then replace the velvet cover and sit the rest of the lesson out. Without speaking.”

She wasn’t happy with me, not in the least. My skin broke out in goose bumps as she walked away. I did as she ordered and tossed the velvet cloth back over the crystal ball.

When I turned back to my friends, Mike still wore a semi-quizzical look but Roman stared at me, his eyes narrowed. He blew out a breath and turned away, like he knew the real reason I hadn’t continued.

There was no way he could know that I couldn’t touch quartz. Was there?

But a strange sense of his suspicion toward me remained. One I couldn’t shake.

20

The suspicion in Roman’s eyes tailed me closer than a predator stalking prey, and it took work not to break into a run and escape. I didn’t blame him but it added a new element to my distrust.

A normal Fae like Roman would have no way of knowing about witch magic and the rules with it.

Right?

His dubious look was just because I’d been acting weird about the whole crystal ball business, without a good explanation. Nothing else. I didn’t understand much about Faerie magic, but I knew it was different from witch magic.

It seemed I had trouble with both, because not only was I hopeless in my favorite class but I’d managed to waste multiple vials of my very precious potion over stupid mistakes.

I walked out of divination class at the sound of the bell and hurried back to my dorm before Mike or Roman could confront me over the incident. They’d have questions I couldn’t answer.

There have been too many strange things happening lately. I’d gotten myself locked into a constant state of paranoia and now I worried what my friends thought of me.

“You’re going to have to talk to me about this quartz allergy because I’m baffled, honestly,” Mike told me later when I sat across from him in the library for our study session. It was the first thing he said to me. Not even a hello. Straight into the questions.

I blinked innocently and fought to keep the heat from rising to my cheeks. “It’s the weirdest thing. I break out in a rash and my face swells. Like a bee sting but worse. I wish I knew why, because it’s a real pain in the ass. There’s certain jewelry I can’t wear.”

He clearly didn’t believe me. “I’ve never heard of an allergy to quartz.”

“What can I say?” I shrugged and tried to sound unbothered. “I’m special.”

“Yeah, one way of putting it,” Roman stated.

I jolted. I hadn’t seen him walk over. “Hey. I didn’t realize you’d be studying with us tonight.”

Roman sat down with a smirk because he knew,he knewhe was interrupting the cozy idea I’d had in mind for tonight. “You guys aren’t the only ones who need to study. Mike invited me. Figured I could use a quiet place to get some notes written for my transfiguration class.”

“Oh yeah, sure, it’s fine. Why wouldn’t it be?” I hurried to say, tossing my braid over my shoulder like the motion would show how much Ididn’tcare.

Did Mike not want to be alone with me anymore?

I really needed to get a grip. I was slowly losing my mind at this school and it showed. Still, I’d been really starting to fall for Mike and hoping our near-kiss the other day meant he liked me as well. Secretly I’d hoped for a repeat tonight.

Roman certainly was a wrench in our cozy dynamic. But he was better than Persephone, so maybe I should start thinking of it as a win.

---