Page 119 of By the Orchid and the Owl
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“Mr. Conine thought a boar had dragged you off,” Emelle said later that afternoon, right before the last pentaball game of the season.
She was sitting cross-legged on her bottom bunk, combing through Wren’s hair while Wren cursed and I picked at my cuticles above them, deep in thought.
“Oops,” was all I could manage. After a moment’s pause from down below, where I just knew the girls were exchanging concerned glances, I cleared the apathy from my throat. “But he couldn’t have been worried for too long, right? I mean, my boar was pretty vocal about the fact that I’d ran away from a fight.”
Indeed, when I had trudged back up the slope to rejoin the class after parting ways with Sasha, Sylvie, and my spider, I’d been met with a would-be-amusing scene: Mr. Conine, on his hands and knees, consoling a pig who was grunting about how an “ugly witch” had petrified him and fled the scene of the crime.
When Mr. Conine had snapped his eyes up to where I stood, I’d told him I’d just been taking a pee and that I didn’t know what the boar was talking about.
A necessary lie, because a few of my classmates had sat up to listen in on that exchange, including Emelle, Gileon, Rodhi…
And Fergus.
I still felt the weight of Fergus’s gaze clinging to my skin, tacky and sticky and unnervingly aware. As if he alone knew exactly where I’d gone and who I’d met. I couldn’t understand how Jenia let himtouchher on a daily basis, not when her immaculate skin and hair looked as if they’d never seen a day of grease in their life.
I chanced a glance over at Jenia now, on the other side of the bunkroom.
Or, at least, where I’d thought she’d be.
Her bunk was empty, and Dazmine was pulling on sandals alone.
“I suppose not,” Emelle said finally, reeling my attention back in. “Are you going to get ready on your own, Rayna? Or do I need to attack you with this comb, too?” She shot her arm out and wiggled the comb threateningly.
“I wouldn’t advise that option,” Wren called up. “It’s like I went to hell early.”
My laugh could have been chips of ice tumbling from my mouth.
“Yeah, wouldn’t want that. I’ll get ready myself, Melle.”
Not that I cared about getting ready for the pentaball game right now—and not just because I had other things on my mind. It would also be the first time I would see Coen again, since he’d be playing for the Mind Manipulators. I wanted to see him, craved a good look at his face and form… but also didn’t want to see him.
Seeing him would crack me. Seeing him wouldshatterme.
A whisper from Emelle down below: “Go ahead. I’ll meet you in the stadium.”
A groan and a creak later, Wren had lifted herself from the bed and passed me a distinctly non-Wren smile, full of what actually looked like sympathy and warmth, before hurrying out of the bunkroom, her raven-black hair now flowing behind her.
“Rayna.” Emelle swung around and hoisted herself up my metal ladder. “Is this about Kimber?”
I blinked at her. “Kimber?”
“You know.” Emelle rounded her eyes. “Since Kimber will be playing head-to-head with… him. I thought maybe you didn’t want to watch that…” She trailed off, watching my face as it went through the various stages of realization.
“Kimber’s on the Wild Whispering team,” I said, monotone.
“Well, yeah. You knew that.”
I had known that, yeah, but I’d forgotten. “And our house won the last game, so we’ll be playing against the Mind Manipulators.” Rusty gears were clicking into place in my brain. “I’ll be watching my ex play againsthisex. Great.”
Now Emelle looked suspicious. “Please tell me you knew all this.”
I cringed internally, remembering something she’d once huffed out while running after enchanted pieces of paper with me.I know you’re hiding something, Rayna. I can see it in your eyes sometimes, something distant and—foreign.
Except Coen had erased her memory of Lord Arad, so he’d probably erased her memory of saying that to me, too. Which made my head spin with the logistics of what shedidremember. Was that same thought brewing behind her eyes right now? Or did the loss of a memory mean the loss of an idea as well?
My lips parted. I sucked in a breath to tell her everything.
