The Elder Blood Chronicles Bk 1 In Shades of Grey (27 page)

Shade took a sip from his own coffee and
examined the Danish on his plate. “It’s amazing how she guesses
which flavor to bring daily. It’s never the same and it always
seems the right choice.” He shook his head and glanced at the
waitress.

“Must be a diviner who awakens every sixth
day and meditates on what to give Lord Morcaillo for breakfast,”
Jala said with a perfectly straight face.

Shade rolled his eyes. “Please don’t call me
that. I never want to hear you call me anything other than Shade.”
His voice held a note of pleading.

“I was only teasing.” She squeezed his hand
in apology and gave him a smile. “You want to see a play today?”
she asked to change the subject.

He frowned. “I can’t today. I have things I
have to do in my quarter. I have time for breakfast and then to
walk you back to the Academy if you like, but other than that I
have no time till this evening,” he said with clear regret. “We can
go this evening if you like,” he offered.

“Maybe. I think I’ll study in the gardens
until then, and we will see what kind of mood that leaves me in
before I decide.” She paused for another sip of coffee and tried to
convince herself that studying was the best use of the day. “It’s
probably for the best that you have things to do. I have a test
coming up in history, and while my marks are good currently, if I
don’t study they could turn very bad, very fast.” She took another
sip from her coffee and leaned back in her chair. “Will you be
going by to see Sovann?” she asked.

Once Shade had learned she had been to meet
Sovann, he took her with him on the few occasions he had visited
the mage. On the last such occasion, Sovann had loaned her a couple
of books to read on the different branches of magic. She had
finished those days ago and should have gotten them back to him by
now, but between school and other trivial things she hadn’t. She
would have sent them with Finn to return to his brother, but since
that first night they had met, Finn seemed to be avoiding her. She
had noticed him a few times during her lunch break, but he always
seemed to be surrounded by fawning girls. At most, he gave her a
simple nod of greeting when he did notice her.

“I hadn’t planned on it, but I can if you’d
like me to return the books for you,” he offered.

She smiled. Shade had a knack for knowing her
line of thinking. He had, of course been with her when she had
borrowed the books, but there was no way he could have known she
had already read them all.

“That’s exactly what I was hoping. Thank you
for offering,” she said. He gave a slight nod, and they sat for a
while in a peaceful silence. Unlike with most people she knew, when
Shade was quiet it didn’t grow uncomfortable. It always seemed
soothing or relaxing to her. Of course, there were days when she
would talk nonstop about some current interest or something she had
seen in one of her classes, but today this silence was perfect.

She hadn’t really made friends at the
Academy, other than Shade and his household, but she didn’t notice
it at all. She didn’t need any more than what she had, to be
content. Shade kept her company most of the time, but on occasion,
she would play a game of tiles with Oma, or gossip with Leah. Lex
was usually quiet, and she didn’t know him as well as the other
three, but the center of her foundation was Shade, without a doubt.
Madren was still a pain, but she had learned how to avoid him, for
the most part. She didn’t share any classes with him, thankfully,
and when he was home he usually stayed near his rooms. She made it
a point of going out or staying in her own room, aside from her
tile games with Oma, which they played in Oma’s small quaint
room.

“What are you thinking about?” Shade asked
quietly. She looked up from her coffee cup and found him watching
her with a gentle smile.

“How much I enjoy your company,” she answered
honestly.

He raised an eyebrow and gave a slight nod.
So we are of a like mind there,” he said. “I find myself reluctant
to finish my breakfast because I know when I do I’ll have to part
ways with you. So I’m ignoring this excellent Danish.” He gave the
pastry a slight push with his fork and took a sip of coffee.

Jala gave a delicate snort of amusement.
“It’s not as if you don’t know where to find me at the end of the
day,” she replied in amusement.

He looked down at her own half-eaten tart and
pointed at it with is fork. “And it’s not as if you don’t know I’ll
find you,” he countered.

She gave him a grudging smile. “Point taken,”
she said and lifted her tart to finish it.

The garden was filled with more people than
she had expected it to be. Though, that really shouldn’t surprise
her, because it was a beautiful day and all of the flowers were in
full bloom. She scanned the area and noted Finn sitting beneath a
tree, with a blond leaning against one arm and a brunette resting
easily in the grass with her head balanced on his knee. She
appeared to be reading a book aloud to her companions. Jala rolled
her eyes. She had never seen Finn with the same girl twice. She
wondered if his current company realized they were working on
limited time.

She turned her attention away from them and
continued her search for a quiet place to read. After a moment, she
spotted a small table that was vacant under the drooping branches
of a willow. She moved around the edge of the garden toward the
table and tried to ignore how many watched her go. That was the
most unsettling thing about the Academy. It didn’t seem like she
could go anywhere without being watched. She heard a few whispered
comments, followed by tittering laughter, but they were all spoken
too softly for her to hear the jest.

She settled herself in the seat closest to
the tree’s base and opened the history book. She had heard other
students groan at the assigned chapters, but she had no complaints.
She had lived so sheltered at the Temple, that any sort of
learning, no matter the class, was fascinating to her. “The Scarlet
Jungles” labeled the chapter, and she leaned in to read. A
full-sized illustration of the famous Flame Riders covered one
page, and she studied it closely. The artist had rendered them as
if they were just emerging from a bonfire. The slender red horses
and their fierce red armored riders had been done with such loving
detail, Jala wondered if this was a smaller rendition of a famous
work. She traced her finger along the line of fire at the bottom of
the page and wondered if they could truly cross through flames. Her
history teacher had said the Firym Flame Riders often used that
tactic. A large bon fire would be erected behind their lines and
their fire mages would hurl bolts of flame into the enemy lines.
The Flame Riders would then ride through one fire and out another,
scattering their enemies in the chaos. She found it hard to imagine
a horse willing to set foot in fire. The beasts were typically
terrified of it.

“There you are!” An all-too-familiar voice
exclaimed happily when she was barely three pages into her reading.
She looked up to see Madren grinning madly at her. Part of her was
amazed to see him outside, while the other part was too busy
contemplating hitting him with the book to be amazed. She was too
tired to deal with him now. With a final longing glance back to her
book, she closed it and wished wistfully a Firym were near at hand.
She had an idiot they could use for kindling.

Madren dropped into the chair across from
her, oblivious to her mood. He gave her another huge smile and set
a rather large box down on the table in front of her. “I made this
for you,” he said. “It took me all morning and the ingredients were
not easy to get, but it’s worth it to see you smile.” He watched
her expectantly, as if she would at any second burst into a
smile.

How can he not read my expression
,
Jala wondered as she looked from him to the box.
He honestly
expects me to smile
, she realized. He looked a little
disheveled and appeared to have some sort of dark substance dotting
places on his slightly wrinkled tunic. It was unusual for him, for
Madren was usually tidy. She looked back down at the box, and with
grim determination to be done with all of this, she opened it.
Inside, resting carefully on colored paper, were little brown
squares of what she thought was chocolate that alternated in
design. The first one she saw was heart-shaped that read, “I love
you” on the top. The next was two hearts squeezed together that
read, “Marry me.” She stared in disbelief at the words. She looked
back up from the box and her jaw dropped slightly. Madren clearly
misunderstood her reaction. “I made the chocolate and the molds
myself, and I know it’s soon. But when something is so right, you
just have to act on it,” he blurted happily. She was trying to find
the proper words when a third voice she didn’t know cut in.

“You! Out of here,” the feminine voice
ordered, and Madren let out a short squeak and fled.

Jala watched him flee in disbelief. She had
never seen him move so swiftly, not even when Leah threatened him.
Jala looked back to the speaker, unsure if she should thank her or
not. The girl was, in a word, perfect. By now, Jala had gotten used
to all of the Elder Blooded being beautiful, but this girl seemed
to go beyond that expectation. Her hair was a deep burnished gold
with not a strand out of place. A jeweled hair net sparkled in the
filtered light, showing motes of red here and there where rubies
rested. Her face was delicate, her lips full, and her expression
was very controlled. Jala couldn’t decide if it was irritation in
her eyes, or fury. She wasn’t sure what she had done to earn
either. The girl carefully lifted the skirts of her flowing red
dress out of the way and sat down in the chair Madren had vacated.
She tilted her head at Jala in a way that would have been fetching,
had her blue eyes not been so stormy.

“Do you know who I am?” the girl asked,
though her tone nearly making it a demand.

Jala shook her head slowly, with her emotions
divided between curiosity and trepidation. “Should I?” she asked
quietly. The girl had chased off Madren, but the expression on her
face suggested Madren’s company might have actually been
preferable. Then, with a sinking realization, she noticed the
entire garden had gone still. Everyone else knew who this girl was,
apparently, and they expected this to be quite the show.

The girl’s eyes narrowed. “You should, but I
wouldn’t expect a peasant to know such things, so no harm done. My
name is Cassia Avanti.” Her voice was clipped and filled with
annoyance.

Jala searched her mind for why Cassia would
be so upset with her, but the only time that she could remember she
had even heard reference to Avanti, was from Finn. Surely this
didn’t have anything to do with Finn. It had been some time since
they had shared the drinks. Jala glanced in his direction, and
found him watching the table, his expression guarded, but intent.
She looked back to Cassia and raised an eyebrow, noting that no one
had called her a peasant since she had arrived, nor had anyone
really talked to her at all. This exchange had her completely off
guard. “You are obviously upset with me, but I’m not sure why,” she
prompted gently.

Cassia looked ready to spit, her expression
no longer controlled. “He hasn’t told you?” She demanded.

Jala’s eyes widened. “Who? Told me what?” She
asked.

“Christian. He hasn’t told you we are
betrothed?” She responded with venom in her tone.

Jala felt her stomach drop and her throat
grow tight, and was certain she had paled with the words. Cassia
was watching her so closely she had no doubt the enraged woman had
seen the truth written clearly on her face. She shook her head
slightly. “I didn’t know,” she whispered.

“Obviously not, so let me explain why I’m so
upset, peasant girl. Since the Spring Games, there have been rumors
about the two of you, and since the last day of the Spring Games I
have been his betrothed. I have waited patiently for over a month
for him to stop prancing about with his peasant bed warmer on his
arm, but as of yet, my patience hasn’t paid off. And then this
morning I start hearing rumors about me and how I can’t equal up to
your rustic charm. He is already a laughing stock over this whole
fiasco, and now they are laughing at me.” Her words flooded out in
a tirade.

Jala remained silent and let the words wash
over her. She fought to keep her eyes from going glassy. How could
he not tell her? As nasty as Cassia seemed to be, she had every
right to be angry. One did not keep company with others when they
were betrothed. She thought back on the plays and dinners she had
shared with Shade over the past month and cringed inside. No doubt
everyone had misunderstood their relationship. Though Shade was no
more than a friend to her, others would think it something more.
She felt herself crumbling inside. It was too much - Her nightmares
and lack of sleep, Madren, and now this. She bit her lower lip and
tightened her hand into a fist below the table. She would not cry
in front of this crowd, nor would she show weakness to Cassia. She
forced herself to swallow and took a deep calming breath.

“So, while you may not like me and I
certainly do not like you, consider Shade. Even if he doesn’t seem
to care, he should. Without a reputation, he is nothing in society
and you are killing his. I’ll give you a week to part ways with him
so you can do it without too much drama,” Cassia finished. Jala was
sure she had missed some of the girl’s words, but really didn’t
care to think what they might have been. There was obvious threat
in her last words, though, and that shouldn’t be ignored.

“Cassia, does your brother know you have
gotten out of your kennel again?” Finn asked as he dropped lightly
into the chair by Jala. Cassia looked at him in disbelief, and
outrage at his greeting. “I know he would be upset if anything
happened to you. From what I hear you are the favorite bitch of the
Avanti House,” he finished with a smile.