Page 148 of Spark of Sorcery
She shrugs, then turns around and strolls to the closet. “Thirty-three years old is pretty ancient too.”
“It’s only twelve years older than you.”
She retrieves something from the closet – is it the object she hid from me the night of the trial? – then spins on her toes and strides back to me.
It’s a folded piece of paper. One I haven’t seen before. She opens it up.
“Fox,” she says, “are you lying to me? Do you truly believe I’m your fated mate?”
“I know you feel it too,” I whisper.
She meets my eyes with her penetrating green ones and something passes between us in the silence, something that tells me she does.
“Then I can trust you?”
“I told you, you can’t trust anyone.”
“But that’s shitty advice, Professor, because we have to trust in this life otherwise it’s really freaking lonely.”
“Yes,” I say, “it is.”
She huffs in annoyance. “I’m choosing to trust you. If you break that trust–”
“You’ll send those three halfwits after me.”
“No, I’ll come for you myself.”
I scoff at that. How many times has this girl nearly died?
As if reading my thoughts she says, “How many times have they tried to kill me, and I’m still here, Professor? How many times have you nearly died?”
“Only the once,” I tell her. “And now I am immortal.”
“There are ways to kill even vampires, I hear.”
“Are you going to kill me, Miss Storm?” It’s a very real possibility that she will break my stone-cold heart.
“Only if you betray me.”
She hands me the piece of paper.
“What is it?” I ask, gaze racing over the handwritten prose.
“It’s taken from a book that contains an account of the year my sister was at the academy. There are several books for every year. It details every thing that happened in miniscule detail, from what was served in the canteen to who was screwing who.”
My gaze flicks up to hers.
“And how can I help?”
“There’s an account on this page of a class my sister attended. The class you now teach. Only someone has scrubbed out the details.” Just like they scrubbed out the details of her death from the other book.
I lower my hands.
“This is dangerous, Briony. If someone has tamperedwith the records, it’s because they don’t want the truth to be known.”
“Exactly.”
I shake my head. There is no use arguing with her, and, if I’m honest, I understand. I’d feel the same way if it were someone I cared about.
