Page 62 of Shadow Caster
Payne and someone else … Mariana?
She sounded upset.
I focused my nightblood hearing to listen in, but they must have been standing quite far from the doors because I could only catch snippets of the conversation.
“… You promised.”
“I’m sorry … last time ….”
“… trust you … love you …”
“Always. I would never … love you.”
Whoa … I backed up from the door.
Well, that would explain why Madam Mariana had been so eager to get rid of Harmon and me the other day. She and Payne were a thing. I guess the tutors needed to get it on too.
My questions would need to wait for another day.
I left the lab, and this time didn’t stop till I got back to the shadow cadet dorms.
* * *
The day flewby as we trained in hand-to-hand combat and sword-to-sword, then it was back to barracks one for AM post repair training, followed by another trip to the mist where we were left to find our own way back, and finally, home for supper.
Home.
Weird how I’d been at Nightwatch for weeks and had never thought of it as home, but here, amongst the shadow cadets, my brain had finally flipped the belonging switch.
Maybe this was where I was meant to be, whether I liked it or not.
Harmon and Thomas were organizing a poker game, and I’d been invited to the lounge, but my mind was restless. I’d avoided speaking to Minnie at breakfast and hadn’t bothered to find her at lunch. Logic said it was the best course of action, that soon I’d be in the mist so often that there wouldn’t be time to see her. Soon, I’d be a shadow knight, and she’d be out in the world, and what hope was there for our friendship then, but my heart … My heart missed her and arguedfuck it. Live for the moment. Enjoy what you can now, dammit!
And it was my heart that led me out of my dorms and into the Nightwatch Academy corridors at one-thirty a.m. with only a half hour till curfew.
Minnie answered the door in her favorite purple PJs clutching a romance novel to her chest.
“Indie?” She looked at her watch. “Shit.” She pulled me into her room. “Are you crazy? You have fifteen minutes till curfew.”
“I know. I just had to see you.”
She closed the door behind me. “Is everything okay?”
Although I’d had no intention of telling her about spotting her earlier, the words just came out. “I came to breakfast this morning, saw you with Harper, and left.”
She blinked at me. “Why didn’t you come over?”
Good question. “Because I’m an idiot. I just thought, with the way things are now, with me and the shadow cadet shit, that I’ll hardly see you anyway. That maybe it would be better to just step away and let you get back to the way things were before I came here.”
“Indie. Harper and I—"
“I know. You guys were friends before, and you felt sorry for me, the loner, and you—”
“Whoa. I didnotfeel sorry for you.” Minnie ran a hand over her face. “If anything, I was intrigued. Look … truth is, I was in love with Harper, okay.” She sat back on her bed with aflumphas if the admission had taken something out of her. “But Harper started dating this guy, and I was so mad and hurt, and then you came along, and it was the perfect way to get away from her. Make friends with you. Start afresh. Get over her.” She peered up at me. “You understand?”
“Oh …”
She reached for my hands and pulled me down to sit on the bed beside her. “Don’t get me wrong. I love you to bits, and I’m so glad I took the leap to get to know you.” Her eyes misted. “And I want us to continue to be friends, no matter what. It’s easier to hang with Harper now that I’m over her is all.”
