Page 36 of The Witch and His Crow

Romy looked over her book, her expression souring. ‘Yes, Jaz Sinclair. If the term wicked witch belonged to anyone, it would be her.’

‘You know her then?’ I got that impression from the ease with which Romy spoke about her.

‘Knowisn’t the word I’d use to explain it. She’s part of the White Tower’s guard-in-training program. Star pupil. My father adores her—in fact, I’m sure that he’s wished I was more brutal like Jaz on more than three occasions. Her power-set is unique, and if not for the fact that even theideaof bunking with her for weeks, making my own skin literally melt off, she would’ve been a smart choice.’

‘Well, I consider myself lucky she declined our invitation.’

‘No,wedeclinedhers,’ Romy corrected, echoing Jaz’s statement from last night. ‘I don’t trust her.’

Trust. There it was again.

‘Anyway, it wasn’t all bad. Since you came home last night with a man following you.’ Her eyes flicked to the closed door, more importantly to the man beyond it.

‘I wouldn’t get too excited.’

‘Hard not to,’ she said aloud, before mouthing the next words. ‘He’s hot.’

My cheeks warmed at her statement. I could’ve tried to refute her comment, but there was no point lying. Arwyn was, in fact, hot. More so, he was the type of sexy that made men hate him, and women want him.

Unlucky boy that I was, I felt both.

‘I left you last night because I thought it was a good opportunity to scope out the castle. Trust me, if I knew the first trial was going to start, let alone it being the Culling, I would have stayed close. It won’t happen again.’

She peered at me over the edge of the book. ‘Find anything interesting?’

Her question was teasing. As were her brown eyes, narrowed in my direction.

I swallowed hard. ‘I found someone… interesting, but that someone is not our next coven member.’

Romy sat up straight, suddenly the book no longer being her point of interest. She mouthed something, head jolting towards the door. I was sure her lips formed the words ‘go talk to him’.

I shook my head, unsure why a flush of warmth crept over my cheeks. ‘As he told you, he wasre-paying debts.’

‘You were away from me for an hour at most. What could you have possibly done to entrap him in a promise like that?’

‘Saved his life,’ I said. But then that didn’t make sense. Because he’d already stopped a witch from killing me, so technically his debt was already paid when I saved him. And yet he came back.

Then there was the knowledge of clues that Arwyn had exposed, but I added that to the growing list of things I had to bring up with Romy.

Romy was right, I needed to speak with Arwyn.

To thank him, perhaps. Maybe just to look into those bright eyes again. It was only partly because they were ridiculously beautiful, but more because of the way he looked at me. I hadn’t been able to place the emotion behind his gaze, which made me wary. If Arwyn was the Witch Hunter, then dealing with him now would save me a lot of bother.

But if he was a Witch Hunter, why would he bother saving you?

I couldn’t even blame Caym for the dispute my inner voice was engaged in. My familiar’s presence was still quiet—too quiet.

‘I’ll be right back,’ I said to Romy who giggled behind the pages of her book.

‘Trust me, I’m not going anywhere. And not for the reasons you think. If you hear noise inside the room, I promise it isn’t me pressing my ear against the door to overhear you both.’

I couldn’t hold back my short chuckle. ‘I admire your honesty.’

With a flick of my hand, my Gift pushed the cabinet away from the door with a horrific screech. Never had I been so nervous to face someone. But there was a silent aura about Arwyn which both excited me and put me on edge. Anyway, there was no saying he was still outside the door. The thought alone made disappointment rear its ugly head within me.

The key was in the lock, so all it took was two turns and a push for the door to open. It revealed a quiet castle. Beyond was mostly shadow, broken apart by the streams of daylight spilling in from the large window ahead of me. I wondered what the castle would look like now that the Culling had come to an end. How many witches had died? How empty would the chalkboard have been? And their bodies, would they be left to rot, or had Hekate used her power to deal with them? So many questions, and still my focus was on searching the darkness forhim.

It turned out that Arwyn found me before I found him.

---