Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

Meic

The Divination classroom is already full by the time I arrive, though thankfully, I’m not late. Which is a good thing, because I don’t think Professor Bishop will be happy if I’m late again, and I don’t want him to take anything off my grade.

Nati looks up and waves to me from the spot we’ve been sitting for the past couple of lessons and my heart constricts in response. The light glints off of the snakes on her head, and they move around lazily. I don’t know enough about them to be able to tell if that’s normal behaviour, or if they’re restless, and I don’t want to ask her. Not yet, anyway. She wasn’t so keen on talking about the gorgon stuff on our date, which is fair. It’s not like I’ve told her the ins and outs of being a ghoul.

I make my way over to her and dump my bag on the table. “Hey.”

“Hi.” A hiss sounds and she lifts a hand to bat away one of the snakes. “Shh, Frank, not now.”

“Ah, he still doesn’t like me,” I say, trying not to let the thought hurt too much. I want every part of her to like me, including the snakes on her head.

“He’ll get there,” she responds. “He doesn’t really like anyone.”

“So I shouldn’t try to take it too personally?”

“Pretty much.” She flashes me a shy smile. “So, I had a good time on our date.”

“Me too.”

“Even though all we did was hold hands?”

“We did so much more than that,” I counter. “I’m not all about sex.”

“Should I say that I’m disappointed?”

Something that’s definitely not my heart tightens at her words. “Nati...”

“Yes, Meic?”

“You’re going to be the death of me.”

“I thought I was just going to make you hard,” she muses.

“If you’re not careful, I’m going to start thinking that you like my terrible gorgon jokes,” I murmur, mostly to distract myself from the way her words are affecting me. They shouldn’t, I’m old enough that I should have control over my reactions, but when it comes to Nati, that doesn’t always seem to be the case.

“ I’m allowed to make them,” she points out. “I’m a gorgon. And sometimes the situation just calls for one.”

Professor Bishop walks into the room before either of us can say anything else, which would be disappointing if we weren’t still working on reading tea leaves and that means that we’re going to be able to talk more.

“All right, class, let’s get started. I know that there are some of you who are struggling to get to grips with this, so today is going to be about practice. If you need me to give you some pointers, let me know and I’ll come over to help,” he announces to the class.

Some of the girls titter from the back of class.

Nati rolls her eyes. “No one else is going to be able to get a moment of his attention.”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

She snorts. “You’re such a guy.”

“Something I hope you like.”

Her lips quirk up into a smile. “Believe me, I’m sure I will. But they’re going to find every excuse they can in order to get the professor to stay with them. They’re trying to attract him.”

“As in...”

“Yes. They want to sleep with the professor.” She rolls her eyes. “In clear violation of the academy rules.”

“Because you’ve never broken any of them?” I ask, curious about her answer.

“Not yet. Unless you count staying out after curfew, but I’ve not done that very often either.”

I’m briefly interrupted by the student next to me passing me two of the cups. “You sound certain that’s going to change.”

“Well, if Anja and Cethin do it...” She takes one of the cups from me, purposefully brushing her fingers against mine as she does.

It makes my entire body come alive. If this is what one touch from my fated mate can do, I can’t imagine what a kiss is going to be like. Or more than a kiss.

I shift in my seat, hoping she can’t tell why I’m having to rearrange myself, because that would be kind of embarrassing.

Nati raises an eyebrow. “Really? Just a touch?”

I groan. “It’s the fated mate thing,” I murmur.

“Even so, that’s a bit extreme, isn’t it? I mean, if I touched your leg, maybe that would be enough...”

I swallow hard as she reaches out and places her hand on my leg, much higher than she should be doing when we’re in the middle of class. “You’re going to have to stop, Nati.”

“Okay.” She pulls her hand back and picks up her tea, blowing across the top of it.

It’s slightly easier to think without her touching me, but I don’t think there’s any changing the direction of my thoughts. But from the expression on her face, I think that’s what she was trying to do.

“So, when are we going on our next date?” she asks.

“Saturday?” I venture. “We could go down to the town...”

“No. I mean, yes, that sounds nice. But I was hoping we could go to one of the secret rooms again.”

I drink some of my tea in an attempt to collect my thoughts before I say anything that makes either of us uncomfortable. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to control myself if we do that.”

“Maybe that’s the idea,” Nati responds. “My tea leaves did say I’d learn something new.”

I almost choke on the tea I’m still drinking.

“I suppose I’ll see what they say today.” She finishes drinking her tea and looks at them. “Nope, I still have nothing. Should I draw it again?”

I nod. “Tomorrow night,” I say. “For the date? I’ll ask Cethin which of the secret rooms is free.”

“Tomorrow is good.” She starts drawing the tea leaves from the bottom of her cup, a look of concentration on her face as she does it. One of her snakes slips down from her hair, seeming as if it’s following the movement of her hand over the page as she draws.

I can understand why, she’s captivating.

“So, what do you think?” she asks, sliding the drawing towards me. “I think this part is about my magic.”

I clear my throat. “Yes.”

“Okay, so let me try again.” She picks up her cup and looks into it. “I think it’s saying I’m going to use it soon. But that doesn’t make sense.”

“Why not?”

“Because I have no reason to turn anyone into stone.”

I shrug. “Maybe it’s an accident, or maybe it just means the magic that connects you to your snakes.”

“Maybe.” The pensive expression on her face says she’s not convinced, but I don’t have another explanation yet. “What does yours say?”

“That our date is going to go really well,” I joke.

She lets out an amused laugh. “Is that really what it says?”

“Yes and no.” I turn the cup so she can see it, even though it seems unlikely that she’ll be able to read mine if she can’t read her own. “It just says that things are changing in my love life.”

“That might be bad.”

I shrug. “If you were going to reject me, then it would say something about heartbreak instead. At least, that’s what I’m guessing.”

“I have no idea. You might have noticed that I don’t exactly have a gift for divination,” she says.

“I hate to say it, but you have a point.”

“It’s okay so long as I have you helping me,” she responds.

I smile at her, glad she feels that way and being unable to even consider what it would be like to have a fated mate who didn’t think I brought something good into their life. I just hope that I can convince Nati I’m a good match and that she won’t choose to reject me.

Though from everything she’s saying, that doesn’t seem likely.