Page 93 of The Tree of Spirits
“Yeah, I think my brother finds it far more amusing to tease me about my ‘boyfriends’ than he would to discover an actual boy in my house,” I chimed in.
Conner looked at Kato. “I think we could take him together.”
Kato rolled his eyes. “You are ridiculous.”
“Iam ridiculous? What about you? What was with the whole lame escort-her-to-her-door-but-not-one-millimeter-further maneuver you pulled? That’s not chivalrous. Chivalrous would have been to escort her inside. What if there were monsters under her bed? There could totally be monsters under her bed, Kato!”
Kato snorted. “Given her penchant for attracting trouble, that is very likely.”
“Hey, when did this conversation become about dissing me?” I protested.
Conner hit me with a wicked smirk. “We could always go back to talking about you and Mr. Knight Commander Perfect Date over there instead.” He made very loud kissing noises.
My stomach twisted into knots. “No thank you,” I said weakly.
“You should try not to tease her so much,” Kato told him.
“And you should try to tease her a little more,” Conner countered.
“There’s no time for nonsense.”
“Yeah, that’s kind of your personal motto, Kato. Actually, I think you havethatprinted on a t-shirt too.”
But Kato wasn’t letting himself get distracted from what he wanted to say. “Being a Polymage is a big responsibility. You need to take it more seriously.”
“Being a Polymage is also fun. Being able to do all these different kinds of magic is fun.”
They both looked at me like they wanted me to weigh in.
“I guess it can be both: serious and fun?” I suggested. “I mean, being a Polymage is about dabbling in all kinds of magic, right? So why not also dabble in all kinds of emotions too?”
“You know, I think she’s wiser than both of us,” Conner commented.
“Yes,” agreed Kato.
Cool, I’d gotten them to agree on something. I gave myself a mental pat on the back. Because giving myself anactualpat on the back would have been way too embarrassing.
“So, what’s it like being a Polymage?” I asked them.
Kato canted his head ever-so-slightly to the side. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, do the other Knightsgetyou? Because the mentors seemed kind of divided on the topic of Polymages.”
His dark brows drew together. “In what way?”
“Some of the Knights consider Polymages to be arrogant.”
Kato frowned in confusion, like he’d never considered the idea.
But Conner laughed. “Oh, Red, of course they think we’re arrogant. We have all this magic, and we aren’t afraid to use it. Meanwhile, they’re all trying to understand why they didn’t become Polymages too. If only they knew that we?—”
“No,” Kato cut him off.
“Why not?” Conner countered. “She’s one of us. She should know the truth.”
My pulse skipped a beat. “What truth?”
“We should tell her, Kato.”
