Page 90 of Caelum

Damon’s lips twitched. “Why does each soul take over a day in your week?”

“So that each one can stretch its legs.”

“Two points for that one considering you used an idiom too.” When I beamed at him, his mouth curved into a small smile, then, he stared at me, and his eyes darkened in a way that had me sinking back into my chair.

It wasn’t lust or anything like that. It was sadness. I wasn’t sure why he would feel that around me, but it had me asking, “Damon?”

He turned away and stared out the window onto the rocks that were being crushed by the ocean’s might. “Yes?”

I was used to staring at my tutors’ backs. They often stood so they weren’t facing me. “What’s wrong?”

It took him quite a while to reply, and when he did, I’d admit to being surprised. “Are you the kind of person who likes to be kept in the dark, Eve?”

I pondered that, thought about the reason I’d been reading nonstop since I’d arrived here. There were plenty of practical lessons I’d missed, and I was so unfit it was beyond a joke, but everything that was down on paper I had slotted somewhere into my memory banks.

The things in the large textbooks, some as thick as six inches, were far easier to understand than the conversations I took part in with the boys. It was a joy to dive into something I could read without needing to have every second word translated.

Though my memory was good, and I usually remembered sayings the first time I heard them, there weresomany of them. Each with different meanings.

Fuck up and fuck off? They were totally unrelated.

Sweet vibes had nothing to do with a vibration.

And when they started talking about movies and shows? I’d only figured out that Daenerys wasn’t real after reading the entire set of GRRM’s work. The way they talked about her? I was half certain someone trulyhadgiven birth to dragons. And in this crazy world I found myself in, I still wasn’t sure if that truly was fiction.

“I like to be kept informed.” That was the only way I could describe it.

“That’s good,” he stated softly. “What if it’s something you wish you could unlearn?”

“Knowledge is power.”

He shot me a look over his shoulder. “Who told you that one?”

“Nestor.”

I only used it though because it made sense to me. If I was completely out of the loop—that was one of Eren’s—then how would I ever be able to face this new world head on? How would I ever be able toescape it and to find myself a haven where my life wouldn’t be in danger?

Keeping my head tucked under the pillow would do me nothing but set me back.

“Do you know why everyone fights so much?”

“Because we have a lot of energy that we need to burn off?” I reasoned. “Which makes sense. When I hit Samuel, I thought I was going to explode if I didn’t punch him.”

Damon snorted and turned around to face me. “I heard about that. Did it feel good?”

I nodded. “Very good. The jerk deserved it.” I tacked on, “Nestor.” He was the one who taught me ‘jerk.’ Which, quite naturally, had nothing to do with the action but a person who was intolerable.

A description that befit Alexandre quite perfectly.

The big jerk. The biggest jerkiest jerk of all Caelum.

“What did he say to you?”

“That my friends weren’t truly interested in me as a person.”

Damon’s brow puckered at that, but as I watched him, I saw, deep in his eyes, him skid away from the topic. He didn’t want to get into it, and I wasn’t sure if I blamed him. There was nothing he could do or say that would indicate whether Samuel was speaking the truth or not.

I could only go on the way my friends had treated me, which was with kindness. Only Dre was mean, and it highlighted how much the others did for me and without any irritation.

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