The Crystal Trials

18 Taury

I had thrown my hair up in a messy knot the morning after the first trial. The whole team was exhausted. When we had returned from the island, we drank gallons of water and slumped around the dining hall. The other teams were successful after watching us fail then win. Many got injured from the falling boulders. Though they were more careful than us, mistakes were still made.

Evander walking to his seat with a limp made me angry. I had done that. I had hurt him because of my inexperience. Faolan's hand was fine, but stiff. He was back to his tail wagging self. He laid next to Evander in wolf form pretending to nap. Rion and Alden kept looking their way. Rion eying them with concern. Alden looked as if he was seeing his little brother for the first time. The Primes still flaunted their ugly silver robes but since Evander chose to sit with us peons today, the others joined. I swear I was the only one that noticed Erix burrowing his eyes into the back of our heads with his precious group of elite students slumming it.

Nik was celebrated for her success at solving and leading us to victory. The quiet beaten girl was suddenly the leader. Yippie for her. She had been keeping her distance from me. My built-in best friend since birth ditching me for a bunch of pretty nobles and a silver robe. Seraphina slamming her hands down on the tale in front of me startled me out of my spiraling thoughts.

"Hey! The other girls and I were talking. We want to go shopping for new outfits for the Night of Nix tonight. I know the fall equinox isn't for a couple weeks, but we wanted to get out of the university for a bit. You two wanna come?"

I blinked. Why was she talking to me? I had been nothing but nasty to her. And I certainly hadn't apologized and didn't plan to. I opened my mouth to speak but Nik beat me to it.

"Goddess that sounds amazing! And we can run by the savings bank and put our stipend payments in there. It's been sitting in my bag, making me nervous. Oh, and I can get a new bag too! What about you Taury?" Nik's smile was so genuine I didn't know if I wanted to smile back or scream.

"Sure," I went with. Nik frowned but covered it up with another smile and went back to talking to Ameer who was holding the last macaroon out of her reach. She was truly the most oblivious.

"Oh yay!" Rayze clenched her hands in front of her in excitement, "I can't wait to see how hot we look! We should meet in the foyer after dinner."

Sickened by the female ritual of shopping, I dumped the rest of my food and left. I headed to the library. I was still disappointed in myself for the results of Evander's leg. So, before I went to the clinic to help Lambert with the other injured students, I wanted to see where I went so wrong. And, gods willing, fix what I had butchered.

I pushed past a gaggle of students snickering in the exotic romance section to reach the medical one. Why they placed the sections next to each other was beyond me. I thumbed through the memory of healing Evander's leg and decided that I had made a mistake in either mending his muscle or tendons. Not finding anything on the shelves, I quickly rummaged through the card drawers. Finding the two books I needed, I searched the shelves for their call numbers. I groaned. Oh yeah, anything above P4 required the ladder. My anger further fueled, I stomped in search of the stupid thing. I saw it all the way back at the front of the library, in the corner. When I approached the ladder, I halted. Really?

Garren looked up from the book he was reading in a hidden seating area. It was so well concealed I wasn't sure how he found it. I looked at his book title, "The Making and Unmaking of Phaewen Temple". Strange reading material. Garren's smile was disarming. And it only pissed me off more. I yanked on the ladder and began to drag it down the wall.

"Do you want help?"

"No."

"Well, I need help," Garren stayed seated, but his book was now facedown on the small table next to him. "What if we help each other? We could accomplish a lot more."