Page 221 of Sigils & Spells

“Yeah.” Daniel stopped her and turned to face her, keeping his hand on her elbow, gently. “I want to date you, Ravyn. I know I haven’t asked again since the last time, because that weird thing happened and it didn’t feel appropriate to ask you to be my girlfriend after someone had died, but—”

“You want me to be your girlfriend?” Everything else sort of blurred together aside from that statement. She ceased breathing as she awaited his reply.

He grinned at her. “Yeah.”

She exhaled in relief. “You’re saying, ‘yeah,’ a lot.”

“Yeah—I mean…” He laughed. “Apparently that’s my nervous fallback word.”

She placed a hand on his cheek and lightly traced the bottom of his lower lip with her thumb. “I would very much like to be your girlfriend, Daniel. But you should probably know I haven’t had a boyfriend before. I’ll probably be bad at it.”

“You’ll be perfect.” He leaned in and kissed her lightly on the lips before she could react. “Let me walk you to your dorm, and we can plan our next date.” He wiggled his eyebrows. Then he frowned. “There really is a lot of moths out here.”

CHAPTER8

“I can’t believeit’s October already.” Aoibhe groaned. “Midterms this week and we have to have our one-on-ones with the dean about our projects. I haven’t even started writing my prospectus yet.” Genuine panic crossed her face. “What if I get an F before the paper is even written?”

Laughing, Ravyn tossed a pillow at her. It barely reached the other bed, and then tumbled from the edge of the mattress to the floor instead of making contact with Aoibhe. “I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work that way.” She didn’t dare admit that she was also worried about a similar issue. Not that she thought she’d get a failing grade before writing her paper, but she did wonder if her paper being about her kind would somehow reveal her to anyone who read it—or be enough to send Daniel down the path of discovering what she was. But she didn’t know what else to write about that would be in her interest. Hell, she might learn some things she didn’t even know yet.

“So, are you and Daniel doing anything fun this week after midterms?”

The topic had somehow come back to her and Daniel. Now that he was officially her boyfriend, which was surreal in itself, that’s all Aoibhe wanted to talk about. “I don’t know yet. We haven’t made plans.” She narrowed her eyes. “Did you and Gabe make any plans?”

“W-what?” Aoibhe stopped giggling and stared at her. She couldn’t possibly be surprised by the question. “The only person he seems to like talking to is you.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

“I’m sure it is.”

Her friend rolled off the bed and stretched. “You lot shouldn’t be so hard on Gabe. Some people have a harder time fitting in. He’s a bit introverted.”

“Has a funny way of showing it.”

“No, I’m serious.” Aoibhe collected a towel, her pajamas and her shower tote, then turned to face her. “He’s a good guy. One day you’ll see.” She whirled around and exited.

When the door shut, Ravyn flopped back on her bed, groaning when she remembered her fluffiest pillow was currently on the floor. With a loud sigh of sheer laziness, she managed to get off her bed and made her way to the pillow. When she snatched it up, she paused. The antique silver comb she’d seen her friend fidget with on occasion—a family heirloom had been all Aoibhe had ever said about it—lay on the floor. The pillow must have knocked it off Aoibhe’s bed without either of them noticing.

She bent down, intending to move the item back to the bed, but before she could touch it, the door flung open.

“Do not. Touch. That.” Aoibhe’s voice held an iciness that Ravyn had never heard. It stopped her dead in her motion.

Bent over, pillow clutched to her chest, hand stretched out, Ravyn gawked at her roommate. She had never seen Aoibhe…angry. But there was no denying that she was. Eyes narrowed into dangerous slits as she looked from Ravyn to the comb and back. A scowl made her delicate features into something harsh. Something malevolent.

This wasn’t the friend she knew at all.

This was someone—something—else entirely. Ancient instinct ripped through her, similar to the time she’d seen the woman in white.

Ravyn stood up slowly, never taking her eyes off her friend. The urge to run, to cover her ears, coursed through her, but that didn’t make any sense. “I was only going to put it back on your bed. I didn’t mean to knock it off.”

Aoibhe didn’t say anything but slowly advanced into the room. The light from the window emphasized an odd shape on her friend’s pale cheek, silvery and nearly invisible against the flesh.

“Did you get a tattoo?” An odd placement choice for one, but she wasn’t going to judge her for it.

Her friend froze, right hand lifting to touch her face. Some of the anger melted, shifting into another foreign concept from what had been the norm. Fear. Aoibhe looked…afraid by whatever was on her face. “You can see it?” The words were barely a whisper.

“Aoibhe, what is going on?” Whatever it was, Ravyn didn’t find it amusing. “You’re freaking me out.”

She cocked her head to the side, long pale-blonde hair covering her cheek. Aoibhe watched her as though seeing her for the first time. “You’re like me, only…not?”

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