Page 43 of First Ritual
She held a damp towel and a duffel and was breathless when she reached my side. “I couldn’t find you this morning.”
“I was in the library,” I replied. “Did you need something?”
She held up her towel. “You wanted to come to the hot springs, remember?”
“Did I?”
Rooke tucked her purple hair behind her ear. “Not surprised you forgot. You were very focused on Sven at the time. I thought you were going to blast him.” She quirked a brow. “Not a good idea, by the way—to blast Sven. He’s lethal.”
As was I. “Pretty sure Sven pulled strings to get my affinity test moved up. That high-handed shit makes me mad.”
“He could pull strings,” she said. “All four of them could. Not sure why Sven would though.”
“On a whim?”
Rooke pulled a face. “That’d do it.”
“I’m nervous about the test,” I decided to say. “The procedure seems personal. Like I’ll be stripped bare or something. I’m not used to being so open with magic.”
“I can understand that. This is a lot to get used to. Is there a council member you’d prefer to do the test?”
“Wild’s got the job.”
“You’ll be stripped bare by Wild,” she screeched.
Ahead of us, two middle-aged female magus turned to look.
I watched them disappear around the next bend, and my lips curved. “That may fuel the rumor mill.”
“Oops. But really? Wild? Usually esteemed do the tests. And, hold on a second, if you’re uncomfortable with him doing the test, then request someone different. It’s your magic, your choice.”
A pressure in my chest eased. Not the constant ache, but the pressure at least. “Thanks. I’ll do that.”
“Speaking of Wild. He was at the hot springs.” Rooke fixed me with a pointed look. “Always a nice time when he comes along.”
Half-naked Wild? I bet it was.
“Anyway,” she continued. “Just when I was leaving, he flipped out. Water everywhere. He stormed out the door, and Sven and Corentin raced after him.”
Chaos. “What set him off?”
“No idea. I’ve never seen him anything but cool and calm, even when he’s battling in Caves. Everyone was talking about it and wondering what happened.”
“Weird.” Not weird. Sven had three days before I’d take my concerns over Wild’s chaos to Varden. “Hey, what’s the name of the fourth guy again? Glasses guy?”
“Huxley.”
That’s right. My follow-up question died as we rounded the next corner and were prevented from going further by a thick crowd. “Caves?” I asked my cousin.
“It’s Sunday. We get our Caves missions tomorrow.”
What that meant, I had no idea.
“Hey,” she asked the closest person. “What’s happening?”
It was Bedwyr. He glanced at me and smiled, then replied, “Huxley and Wild are fighting.”
What? “Why?” I pushed up to tiptoe to see. The crowd was too thick.