Chapter 6

6

" B aker, wake up."

I felt someone shoving at my shoulder, but I didn't want to be pulled from my dream. I was brewing the most perfect potion, and I needed to find out how it worked.

"Henri, come on."

The sound of my first name in that voice was enough to yank me into full consciousness. I sat upright, immediately regretting the quick movement. My neck and back were stiff, my jaw hurting from where I'd been laying on it. Blinking, I took in my surroundings.

I'd fallen asleep in the brewery.

And Noah Lawrence was here?

"How…"

"Well…we fucked that up." Noah was standing over me, pointing at the cauldron. Dark green liquid the consistency of pus oozed down the side of it, our project ruined.

I stood quickly, pushing my hair away from my face. How could we have been so irresponsible?

"What time is it?" I asked groggily, grabbing the stirring ladle in the cauldron and pushing around the goop we created. I know we'd set a timer on my phone, so why didn't we wake up to finish the potion?

I pulled my phone from the top of a stack of textbooks, finding it dead. Of course.

"Half past seven." Noah shoved his hands into his pockets, looking…guilty?

"Half past seven!" I repeated, quickly gathering my things and throwing them into my bag. My first class started in less than an hour, and I wasn't wearing my uniform. I would have to run across campus to get to my dorm to shower and change then run to my Foreign class.

"Easy, witchling. You have plenty of time." Noah started grabbing some of my things as well, offering them to me. I didn't even have the extra time to think about how kind that was, coming from him. "I'll clean this up."

"Yeah, thanks. I can't believe we ruined it." I clasped my bag and threw it over my shoulder, dread pooling in my stomach. All night here, and still no antidote to the love potion. But I would worry later. I couldn't be late for class, so I made haste to the door.

"Not a big deal. Meet me here tonight at eight, and we'll try again." I stopped in my tracks, turning to him.

I'd assumed he wanted to work together on the potion simply because I was here and he knew I wouldn't leave. Yet now, he was offering for us to work on it again?

I tilted my head to assess him and his meaning.

"Or, you could go about your night, and when there's another attack, you won't be immune to my devilishly good looks and immense charm and you can crawl your way to me. I wouldn't mind seeing that, honestly."

"Bugger off, Lawrence! I'll be here, but not because I'm worried about fawning over you."

I spent the entire day caught up in worry about tonight. We failed our potion-making miserably, meaning I had to spend yet another session with Noah. Noah, who I'd hated for nearly a decade.

But that wasn't why I kept thinking about it.

He was oddly…different last night. Instead of his usual prodding and poking at my sore spots or teasing about how he was so much more intelligent than me, he just simply worked with me. We cut up ingredients and squashed plums together as though we were age-old potion partners. He praised me when I did something well—and I didn't care to admit how much I enjoyed that. We worked well together, at least until we fell asleep.

We'd set the timer for the bubbling phase of the potion, just one step away from finishing it. It had to bubble for three hours; otherwise, the seaweed extract wouldn't fully absorb. So, after the timer was set, I studied for one of my policy classes. Noah had pulled out classwork as well, and we'd sat in comfortable silence. I didn't even remember dozing off.

"You okay?" Remy asked, looking at me with curiosity from across the dining table. I was mindlessly munching on a roll and had completely zoned out.

"Fine," I responded, blinking a few times to get my mind off Noah Lawrence.

"You've been incredibly quiet." Ivy reached across the table to pat my hand. "Sure everything's alright?"

"I just didn't sleep much last night. Worried about the love potion."

"Did you find a solution yet?" Ivy asked, retracting her hand.

Just as I was about to answer, my name was called from behind me, and Ivy and Remy both straightened.

"Baker." I turned, seeing Noah standing behind me, his leather bag on his shoulder and a half-eaten apple in his hand. His eyes went to Ivy and Remy, who he'd only ever given sneering expressions, and nodded to both of them. Weird. "Figured we wouldn't want to fall asleep like we did last night, so we should start earlier."

I just raised my brow at him, wondering how we got to a point where he would approach me in public without saying something for the sole purpose of tormenting me.

"Um, sure. I'll meet you in thirty?" I responded, feeling a little out-of-body. The large clock over the entrance to the dining hall showed the time, and I immediately regretted the offer. It wasn't even six in the evening yet.

Noah nodded and left, strolling to the exit without another word.

"Excuse me, I think we've missed a chapter," Remy immediately whisper-yelled.

"Was he the reason you didn't get much sleep? You two fell asleep together last night?" Ivy's tone wasn't as quiet as her boyfriend's.

"Keep it down!" I looked around, hoping no one heard her or noticed the interaction. "It's not like that at all. We were simply working on the anti-love potion together and fell asleep while we were waiting!"

"Wait—"

"You worked together?" Ivy held a hand to her chest, her eyes wide as saucers.

"It was an unfortunate mistake that we both went to the brewery and were working on the same thing. We decided to work together and double the effort. Not that big of a deal."

"Not that big of a deal? Are pigs flying? Do you have a fever?" Remy reached across the table to touch my face, but I swatted his hand away. "You've never once had cordial dealings with that man! You hate him! And he hates you!"

"Yes, but we have the same goal. It was a practical decision, nothing else." I rolled my eyes at them and the strange expression they shared. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to head to the brewery so I can be done with him sooner rather than later."

"Mhmm," Ivy hummed, a cross between a smirk and a scowl pulling at her mouth.

I huffed, grabbing my bag and leaving without another word. They wouldn't be letting this go anytime soon.