Page 23 of The Stone Secret
“She’s a Basque, ouronlyBasque, and she’s bound for elite, so it makes sense.”
I look to Serath, expecting him to put forward an argument, but he simply nods.
“She’s safest with us,” he says. “But she should be allowed to keep her dorm rooms until after the cadet exams.”
“What have the cadet exams to do with this?” Carter asks.
“Because she wishes to take them, and I agree that it would be good for her to do so. Part of the success of any cadet is mental health. I believe the relationships she has formed in the dorm will be beneficial. Cutting her off from those so soon could prove detrimental.”
He’s minimizing the amount of time she might spend at observatory tower. Clever.
“And this is why you needed to speak to Lionel?” Carter asks.
I nod. “Yes.”
“I’ll speak to him for you,” she says. “Travani, please make sure Miss Basque gets a new timetable that includes full cadet exam training classes as well as her sessions with the elites. Prepare a room for her in the observatory and make sure she sleeps there even if she spends her days at the dorm with her cadet group. We want her protected from dawn to midday when we are the most vulnerable.”
The tension in the room ebbs, but my stomach is in knots because although I knew Cam would be coming to the observatory at some point, I thought we had time to prepare, to use the training sessions to acclimatize her to Serath’s scent and vice versa, but now…I doubt any of us will be getting much sleep.
CHAPTER10
CAM
Touron didn’t answer his door when I knocked for him at one in the afternoon, but Shar yelled a slurred, “I’m up,”and, “Meet you downstairs.”
I’d slept longer than usual and felt better for it. Derek was sleeping too. A shadowy mass in the back of my closet—I hadn’t had the heart to wake him.
Willowman would have answers, and if I didn’t see him before Friday’s lessons, I’d ask him then.
The kitchen was empty, but it wouldn’t be long before the goyles were up and about; classes started in a couple of hours. I set the coffee pot bubbling and cracked eggs for an omelet.
Sure enough, Waxen and Saffe shuffled into the room a few minutes later and grabbed coffee. Goyles were not morning people. They weren’t day people. But let the sun set, and they came to life, filled with energy and power. Right now, these two huge males looked as if they were sleepwalking.
“You want some eggs?” I held up the spatula.
Waxen raised his mug my way. “Let me help.”
“You could pop some bread in the toaster.”
“On it.”
Saffe sipped his coffee, flicking glances my way.
“Dayn isn’t here. You can talk to me if you want.”
“I…It’s not like that.”
“Then what is it like?” I flipped an omelet onto a plate and placed it on the table. “You do what he says, right?”
Saffe dropped his gaze. “We do what we have to in order to survive.”
“You don’t need to hang out with a turd, though,” Waxen said.
“Easy for you to say. Your father’s on the council.”
Waxen had a council member father? “Does your father know Ulrickson?”
Waxen snorted. “My father is an admin on the lower floors of the Stone Council HQ. He knows the basement well, but that’s about it.”
