Page 25 of The Stone Secret
“But who would do that?” Palia said. “Oh…do you think the same person who messed with Melanie messed with Flora?”
We sat in silence.
“That coupled with the orb being switched…” Shar said.
I’d almost forgotten about that. “We have a spy. A mole. A fucking rat at the academy.”
“Which means we need to be extra careful,” Shar said. “That Ignus creature was after you, and no doubt the traitor in our midst is working for the graynites, so we need to—”
“Oi! You. Basque.” Bodi, the academy messenger, stood in the doorway. “For you.” He held out an envelope.
Palia was closest and took it. But Bodi lingered, his gaze flicking to the coffee pot, then to me.
I knew what he wanted.
I took another travel mug off the shelf and filled it for him. “Bring the cup back next time you pop over to see me.” I passed him the coffee, and he took it with a derisive sniff, but the gleam in his eyes was all gratitude.
“What the heck?” Ginia said.
I shrugged. “Coffee is a universal language.”
“What are we going to do about the mole?” Palia asked, taking us back to the main topic.
“I’ll speak to Serath when I see him at training later.” I took the envelope from Palia and tore it open to find two sheets of paper. The first was another timetable, this one with all the cadet training classes added to it, which had to mean… “I think…I think I get to take the cadet exams with you guys!” I flipped over the second sheet of paper to find Serath’s beautiful script. My cheeks warmed, expecting a romantic note, but the words on the page were instructions that spawned contradictory emotions in my belly.
“What’s wrong?” Shar asked.
“You look like you’re about to throw up,” Touron added.
I swallowed against the sudden dryness in my mouth. “It’s from Serath. It says that as of tonight, I’ll be sleeping at the observatory for my own safety.”
Touron’s face fell. “They’re moving you?”
“She was going to have to move once she became elite anyways,” Palia pointed out.
“But so soon?” Touron pouted. “Who’s going to bring me coffee in the morning?”
“I’ll still do that. I can still be here, stay here during waking hours. I get to keep my room for now, I just…I have to sleep there.”
“Oh…” Shar’s eyes went round as the implications sank in. “Let’s hope they put you on a different floor to Serath.”
“Of course they will,” Touron said.
But even if they did, would it stop us from finding each other?
I wasn’t so sure, and that…that worried the hell out of me.
* * *
There werea few surprised faces when I strolled into cadet training, but Farnell didn’t give me a second glance. He ordered us to pick a sparring partner to warm up and then retreated to the other end of the training room with his clipboard and a frown.
“You want to partner?” Shar asked.
“Only if you promise not to take it easy on me.”
“You have my word.”
I spotted Curi’s blue head as he entered the room, but he wasn’t alone today. He had Waxen with him. He scanned the room, zeroed in on me, and headed over.
