Page 161 of First Ritual
I asked, “How can I help?”
“The team leaders meet every Saturday to break down the week of Caves and discuss broader tactics. The possibility of you sitting in on a meeting this week came up. We were impressed with the way your magic worked last week.”
“All of you?” I said drily.
Amusement lit her gaze. “Some are harder to impress, that is true. Those people are willing to give raw talent a chance to shine.”
Barrow. We were speaking of Barrow.
“What do you say?” she prompted.
Did I want to sit in on team leader meetings? I wanted to know what my mother’s project was in the year prior to me being conceived. I wanted to know how to get this fucking demon out of me. Caves was under my skin. I’d officially caught the bug that my grandmother and mother had caught, but I didn’t believe a position of power would add to that experience. “Respectfully, I decline the invitation.”
Winona blinked.
Rooke shuffled her feet.
“I’ll pass that on to the other team leaders,” Winona said, just a little too late to cover her shock.
“I appreciate that. Will I follow you around this week?”
“The defense team,” she said, frowning. “Have a good Sunday, Miss Corentine.”
I entered Rooke’s room, and my cousin closed the door before turning to gape at me.
I sat on the bed. “What?”
“You turned down a team leader position. That’s what they mean by sit in.”
I lifted a shoulder.
Rooke stared at me. “Do you know how many magus here work their entire lives to get there?”
“A lot?”
“A lot. Are you sure you don’t want it?”
“Very sure.”
That appeared to stump Rooke well and truly.
I glanced around. “Sven’s not here.”
She winced. “Yeah, not so much. We… talked. I think. Yelled. Kissed. Then yelled more. I don’t really know what happened.” Rooke twisted her hands. “He’s really into me, Bronte. Like, super super into me.”
My cousin was impossibly sweet. She couldn’t fathom someone would be so interested in her, yet didn’t blink twice when it came to other people. “Yes. You’re a catch.”
“You knew?”
“I’d say most people with eyes can see.”
“He’s so much more into me than I am for him.” Her breath caught after. “Things feel one-sided, and I was uncomfortable last night, so I ended things.”
My brows shot up as fast as Rooke shot to her feet.
She rubbed her forehead. “Why did I end things, though? Should I have done that?”
“If you don’t have feelings for him, then you can’t create those,” I ventured. Rooke definitely had romantic feelings for Sven. She also had a skewed outlook of herself and her worth that, unfortunately, Sven had fed into in the past.