Page 20 of The Stone Curse
We passed an alchemist on the stairs, and a prickle of awareness skimmed over my mind like fingers caressing my bare flesh.
“Urgh.” Curi shook his head. “I hate that they’re allowed to do that. My fucking mind is not free viewing.”
I gave him a teasing smile. “Why? What you got in there?”
He arched a brow. “Trust me, Basque, you don’t want to know.”
For a moment, we were back in the teasing, banter stage, a mode that had existed before the cadet exams, before…I dropped my gaze.
“I’m sorry,” Curi said.
I shook my head. “No.” I linked arms with him. “It’s good. It’s…normal. I want us to be normal.” Maybe it would make the deadness inside me a little less cold.
I spotted Dayn in the hallway chatting to a few cadets I didn’t recognize.
“We have new recruits,” Curi said, his tone low, “and it looks like Dayn is also recruiting for his fuckwad team.”
Dayn was a blackmailing son of a bitch. He liked to control goyles. He didn’t have friends, he had puppets, and since he’d lost his current crew, he was obviously recruiting more.
“We can’t let him do this, Curi. Not to any more goyles.”
“Trust me,” Curi said. “He won’t be.” A wicked smile tugged at his lips, the kind I hadn’t seen since my first weeks here.
A shiver rushed up my spine. “You found out something about him?”
“I sure did, and I’ve been waiting for the perfect time to use it.”
Dayn broke off conversation as we approached. His gaze dropped to our linked arms, and a dirty smirk bloomed on his face. “When I found out you were mated to the sigma, I figured you two were faking it, but I guess you weren’t.” He raked Curi up and down. “Did you enjoy fucking her while she thought of him?”
The new cadets looked uncomfortable, which said a lot about their characters. Dayn was the last person they needed to be hanging around.
“I had a little chat with my sire a few days ago,” Curi said. “We haven’t been on great terms ever since the accident with Selas.” He leaned in. “You know, the one you found out about and were going to blackmail me with?”
A couple of the cadets exchanged glances, and Dayn cleared his throat. “I dunno what you’re talking about.”
“Anyway,” Curi continued, “topic of the Lowthers came up. Turns out my sire has connections at the registration offices all around the fringe. Knows what goes on in records. The coverups. The misinformation…How names can be altered to protect the affluent goyle families from unnecessary claims from halfbloods.” He shrugged. “That type of thing.”
Dayn’s face drained of color. “Right…I suppose that could be interesting.”
“Oh, it is. It was averyinteresting conversation. But someone like you, from a family who prides themselves on having not a single halfblood in their family tree, wouldn’t be interested in such things.”
I’d never seen someone gulp before. “I should…get going,” Dayn said quickly. “Classes to prepare for.” He backed away, turned on his heel, and strode off.
“Stay away from him,” Curi warned the newer cadets. “He’s bad news. Trust me.”
“You’re Mason, aren’t you?” a slender male with a shock of blond hair asked.
“I am.”
“And Basque.” He smiled shyly at me. “We heard what happened at the cadet exams. We’re so sorry.”
My mouth was suddenly dry, but I forced it into a smile. “Thank you.”
They wandered off, and Curi steered me toward the stairs. “Not a bad bunch.”
“No. Not at all.”
We climbed side by side. “So Lowther has halfbloods in his family?”
