Page 87 of Daughter Of The Ninth Line
I turned and strode up the stairs, trying to think of what to do next. Maybe I should just hand over the jacket, go back down to my dorm, and apologize to Vox tomorrow. I’d use the downtime to work out a better way to get to the roof, so I didn’t have to go up the dorm stairs and be subjected to this fun little interaction again.
We climbed the stairs in silence, with Ephily’s little troop of clones behind her. As I reached the door to the First Line’s dorm, I sent out a silent prayer that Vox hadn’t left yet and that he’d play along.
Reaching around me, Ephily knocked. She looked smug, which gave me a bad feeling. My stomach sank when it was Shay who answered the door. She looked at me, then at Ephily. “What?”
In the face of Shay’s coldness, Ephily seemed to shrink back a little. “Is Vox in?”
Shay sucked on her teeth, continuing to glare at the woman beside me. “No.”
Ephily shoved me forward a little. “This girl from the Ninth Line stole Vox’s jacket, and I’ve brought her to you for punishment.”
I whipped my head around. “You lying bit?—”
“You can’t trust those Lower Lines,” Ephily continued sweetly, talking over me like I hadn’t even spoken.
Shay just gave her a dead-eyed look. Damn, I was glad I wasn’t on the other side of that expression. “Indeed. You can go now.” She stared down the group until they left. Once they were all down the stairs, she looked back at me. Her eyes were too appraising, as if they’d weighed and measured me, and found me wanting. I resisted the urge to squirm beneath her scrutiny, untilfinally, she nodded. “You can go now too. Take the jacket with you—it’s cold up there tonight.”
I blinked at the woman in front of me. She was powerful; I knew that from the rumors that went around Boellium. But the awed whispers were not about her strength, they were about her cunning.
“You’re kind of scary, you know?” I told her softly, and she cracked a smile. A genuine smile.
“Thank you. Now go.” She waved a hand at me. As I turned, she whispered, “But Avalon? If you betray him, there isn’t a corner of Ebrus where I won’t find you and make your life a fucking misery.”
I nodded, hightailing it out of there before she decided to preemptively cut me down. I didn’t exactly know how she thought I could betray him while making maps of the sky, but I’d promise her my left tit to get out from under that all-seeing gaze.
I hurried up the short set of stairs that led to the roof, but stopped dead in my tracks. Vox was at the telescope, which was unsurprising. However, lying on the couch, his feet up on the armrest and a book in his hands, was Hayle.
I blinked and shook my head. This couldn’t be right.
They weren’t fighting or glaring at each other. Normally, they could hardly be in the same auditorium without sharing barely veiled insults and flexing their powers against one another.
“Did I trip down the stairs and injure my head again?” I asked, and Vox lifted his eye from the telescope.
“You’re late.”
I shrugged. “Apologies, Your Highness, that I’m late to this unpaid job you demanded of me,” I teased, smiling so he knew I didn’t mean it. “I had the misfortune of running into Ephily on the stairs.”
Hayle grimaced. “Did she try to grope you as you walked past?”
Vox grunted his agreement.
Surely she doesn’t actually do that.“Uh, no. She tried to have me punished by Shay for the theft of your jacket. Shay very satisfyingly put her in her place, which was almost worth it.” I shuffled over and held out the jacket to Vox. “Here it is, by the way.”
Vox looked down at me, his normally piercing eyes dark in the shadowed light. “You still aren’t warm enough. You need to bring your own jacket.” He held it up for me. “Put it on.”
I didn’t want to tell him that my father hadn’t let me leave for Boellium with my jacket. I’d known I’d have to smuggle out actual clothes, but I thought he’d at least give me the decency of letting me take my coat.
He hadn’t.
Luckily, it was spring, so even the mountains were warmish. Except at night. Those first few days, I’d almost frozen to death. But as I moved further south, it had gotten warmer, so I’d forgotten the need for one. Until now.
Not arguing with Vox, I slipped my arms in, and a soft noise behind me had us both looking at Hayle.
“Um, I’m surprised to see you here.”Without bloodshed. I kept that last bit to myself, not wanting to tempt fate.
Hayle put his book down, standing and stretching lazily like a big cat waking up from a nap. He swaggered over to me, an intimate smile on his face, the one that made my heart pound in my chest. “I enjoy being outside at night, and the rooftop atrium has the best view of the stars. Besides, you’re here, which makes it the only place in the world I want to be.” He grabbed my hips and brushed his lips across my cheek.
My eyes felt impossibly wide as they bounced between Vox and Hayle, Hayle and Vox. Waiting for something: a fight, an explanation, an exorcism.Something.
