Page 80 of Bonds of Magic
When the lecture finally ended, I was one of the last to straggle out of the room. Professor Romero, who was back to teaching now, was chatting with Professor Naji near the door.
“Tonight?” Romero said as I got closer. “I’m free, but I think Noah’s busy. Doesn’t Nat usually host poker nights on Tuesdays?”
“She said she had a seminar on Tuesday,” Naji replied. “So she asked if we could move poker night up. What does Bravermanhave going on that’s more important than Nat taking money from us?
Ash and I were passing through the doorway as Romero answered, “I don’t know. He just said he needed to head into Pointe Claudette tonight.”
I stopped dead, right outside the door. I barely registered Ash bumping into me a second later. A rush of heat surged through me. Noahwasgoing to Pointe Claudette on his nights off. Fuck.
“Hey, uh, you planning on moving eventually?” Ash poked the middle of my back. “We have to get to Combat.”
My entire body flushed. Noah was going to Pointe Claudette, and spending his nights with that other guy instead of me. Did I really mean so little to him?
But then, of course I did. He’d said it himself. He was only interested in something physical. But Itoldhim I was okay with that, and he’d still rejected me. It wasn’t fucking fair.
“You okay, Cory?” Romero’s voice sounded behind us.
I swallowed and forced myself to answer. “Yeah, yeah, I am. I just realized I forgot a book in the library. It’s fine.”
I walked outside to join the rest of the class, feeling dazed. Ash caught up and shot me a questioning look.
“What book? We weren’t even in the library today.”
“It’s nothing.”
I knew it was a non-answer, but I couldn’t tell Ash the truth. He didn’t even know that Noah and I had hooked up. No reason to make my humiliation even more obvious.
“You sure?” Ash arched an eyebrow.
“Yeah.” I shook my head. “Let’s get to Combat.”
We followed the rest of the group back through the trees and over to the gym, where I got to wallow in my shame some more. Today was even worse than yesterday, though, because now I knew Noah had picked someone else over me. He’d be right back at the Balsam Inn with that greasy guy, I was sure of it. And there was nothing I could do about it.
16
NOAH
Icouldn’t get to Pointe Claudette until the next evening, which meant I had to skip the poker night Nat was organizing. I thought about suggesting that Sheridan should go in my place, if Nat wanted someone she could take money from easily. But I didn’t want to foist him on people l actually liked.
I couldn’t avoid seeing Cory again in class that afternoon. Not that I didn’t try.
I divided the class into small groups, two students sparring on a mat while a few others clustered around, giving pointers and waiting their turns. It was still basic hand-to-hand combat. I didn’t move into weaponry until sophomore year.
I’d been going from group to group, assessing and instructing. I was standing one mat away from Cory. Ostensibly, I was watching the group in front of me, but it was hard for my eyes not to return to him. He was currently in the center of his mat, sparring with Felix.
To my surprise, Cory was holding his own. Granted, Felix wasn’t exactly a whiz at combat either, but Cory looked more at ease in his stance than I’d expected. He was on the balls of his feet, weight distributed evenly, waiting for Felix to advance. When he did, Cory was able to block his blows the way I’d shown everyone. He looked pleased with himself when he and Felix broke apart, and I flushed with pride. Of course, that happened to be the moment he flicked a glance in my direction.
His face went from happy to stony in an instant, and he turned away so sharply, it felt like a cut. Which was ridiculous. I wanted distance between the two of us. But I hated to think I’d hurt him.
“Looks like everyone’s doing well down here,” said a voice behind me. I turned to see Cinda walking up to me.
“They’re trying,” I said. “Whether they’re succeeding is another question. But they are trying. What brings you down here?”
Cinda smiled a motherly smile and said, “It’s been a few weeks. I wanted to check in on my patient. Cory hasn’t been back to see me.”
“Was he supposed to?” Worry flashed through me. I’d gotten the impression that he had healed from that night in the snow. But maybe I should have forced him to check in with her.
“No, no,” she said easily. “I’m pleased if he hasn’t felt the need to. But I like to check in just the same.” Her voice was soft. “I don’t think he has a lot of support here. So I figured an extra bit couldn’t hurt.”
