Page 62 of Games of Death and Desire

The guard frowns. “There’s no one up there with you.”

“I know. She’s dead.”

I probably shouldn’t let myself get a perverse pleasure out of seeing my interrogator’s face turn even more perplexed, but he’s kind of asking for it. Surely it didn’t look as if I was actually causing any harm sitting up here, but he had to interrupt me anyway.

“Why would you talk to someone who isn’t alive?” he asks.

I shrug. “Sometimes they still have meaningful things to say, even if only inside your head. If you don’t believe there’s anything more to the world than what you can see right in front of you, you’re going to miss a lot.”

I can’t tell what the guard makes of that comment. He pauses for a second and then motions to the school buildings behind him. “You should be inside. Everyone’s sleeping now.”

“Youaren’t,” I point out pedantically, but I scoot to the edge of the roof and drop to the ground with a soft thump of my feet. “I’m going now. You can be reassured that the world is set back into order.”

I stride toward the Quadring without a backward glance, but I can feel the guard’s gaze on me the whole way.

Do you think we need to be worried about him?Julita asks.

I can only grimace in answer.

I don’t know. But I sure hope not, because it’s not as if I’ve got a shortage of worries as it is.

Eighteen

Ivy

After he’s laid out the rings of cord, Stavros points to mine. “You go first.”

Like usual. Like he thinks I’m going to inflict something terrible on his quarters if he leaves while I’m still here—as if I don’t have access all day long anyway.

He’s been even surlier and more prone to glowers all morning, though he hasn’t said much. I’m not sure if he’s forgotten our strained conversation after I woke him up last night or if he’s simply pretending it never happened.

I don’t particularly want to dwell on the way he snapped at me—the way helookedat me, like I’d just eviscerated someone—either. I’ll take avoidance over a repeat.

“Ladies first, after all,” I say with wry primness, and step into the ring.

Even after several rounds of practice, the sudden lurch of magical transportation makes my pulse stutter. I step out of the matching ring in the palace meeting room with a slight wobble in my step.

Alek is already there, waiting right by my looped cord. At my arrival, his face brightens so visibly even with his mask back in place that I can’t stop myself from smiling giddily in return.

What happened between us last night was real. Right here in this room, he cherished me like I was one of the noble ladies he should be looking to for a match.

No, he cherished me like he’d rather have a thief from Slaughterwell than any kind of lady.

Alek grasps my hand, both to give it an affectionate squeeze and to pass on a small packet. “I thought I should get this to you right away.”

The mirewort. I’ll chew on a leaf when I have a little more privacy.

Because before I’ve even had a chance to tuck the packet away, Stavros is emerging from his ring, eyeing the two of us with a puzzled frown.

I’m not sure I want to deal with the former general’s reaction to our newfound closeness. But I don’t want to pull away from Alek as if in rejection.

Thankfully, the scholar seems to have a similar sense of discretion. He bobs his head to Stavros in greeting while stroking his thumb over my knuckles in one small caress and then eases back. “It’s wonderful that Ivy returned to us unharmed, isn’t it?”

As if he’d only approached me in friendly welcome.

Stavros appears to take the comment in stride, although he doesn’t stop frowning. “There certainly could have been worse outcomes.”

I restrain myself from rolling my eyes and surreptitiously slip the packet into my pocket. “I should check the room for any roaming magical vermin.”

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