Page 89 of Architecti
She shrugs, laughter making her lips twitch.“It’s only sex.”
“Anywaaay, it’s only ever happened with one partner and it’s not really… well, that’s complicated too.”
“Is it, though?Don’t you want answers?”
“I really do.”I want to break the hold Ignatius has on me more than anything.
She squeezes my arm, encouraging me to go for it.But I push her off.
“They’re mortal…”
That makes her stand tall.“Okay, that is more complicated.”
“Exactly.”
The sun dips low in the sky, though its attempts at showering the campus in warmth are limp at best.Winter is almost upon us.The buildings, usually covered in lush, green, creeping ivy are scant.While the ivy remains, it’s sparser than in high summer.This deep into autumn, the campus buildings are covered in gnarled twigs and branches amongst the dark green leaves.
Thalia scratches at her scalp and draws my attention back to her.“Is there any chance of you falling in love with them?”
I shake my head.“It’s very unlikely.They are… younger than me.Our lives aren’t exactly on the same path.”
But something about the way the words come out seems… wrong?I’m not lying.At least, I don’t think I am.
“If that’s truly the case, and you’re not in danger of falling for them, then your magic is safe.Invite Complicated over for dinner and ask them very nicely to get on their knees for you.”
I give her a gentle slap on the arm, and she chuckles.“You’re incorrigible.”
“I like to think of it as chaotically cheeky.But I’ll go with incorrigible.”
“Thank you,” I say.
She winks.“Sometimes a little chaos is worth the results.Just stay safe and be discreet.”
As she walks off, I have to wonder whether she knows exactly who Complicated is.
29
Midnight
One Hundred Days To Go
I’m sat at the kitchen table in our House Inferos apartment when Lex strolls in.Her turquoise braids are now a deep purple, and she wears an orange jumper, tie-dye trousers and yellow platform trainers.She sticks her head over my shoulder looking at the scribbles I drew of Lucy’s runes.
“Whatcha doing?”she asks, bouncing on her toes and biting into something that looks way too healthy to be edible.
“Trying to figure out what the hell this means,” I say.
She scoffs, “You’re not going to be able to read that.”
“Oh?”I say and pluck her apple out of her hand.
“Well, it doesn’t look like a demonic or necro language.So it’s not something we study here.”
Her face scrunches as she examines it, as if the fact she can’t read it is deeply offensive.
“Evening, folks,” Bastien says, dramatically shoving open the apartment door.Aurelia is in the corridor.I narrow my eyes at her as she strolls past.But Bastien slams the door shut cutting her off and strides into the kitchen to put bread in the toaster.I’m still livid she’s in the same house as me, but grateful she found a room downstairs.Bastien has at least attempted to be civil to her, no doubt they were having a ‘civil’ conversation outside.Lex refused, claiming she was dead to her.
If only.
