Into the Ether - Complete

The Winter of Our Discontent: Part 22

"Tasha make it away ok?" I asked Lissa the next morning at breakfast. Christian had yet to arrive, so it was just the two of us sitting at our usual table.

"Yeah, she did. Turns out you could have come for dinner. Christian invited Brandon."

Well, it was nice to know I hadn't been intentionally excluded, but I wasn't sure why she was bothering to tell me now when she could have rung or sent me a text last night. Not that I minded – if she'd done so I would have had to come up with an excuse not to go, so she'd done me a favor.

I was on my second round of buttered toast when Lissa squealed beside me, causing me to immediately jump up and into a defensive position, scanning every direction for potential threats. But Lissa was looking at me.

"What's that on the back of your neck?" she gasped.

"Shh!" I grumbled, sitting back down. "I don't want everyone to know."

She was talking about my molnija. Now they'd stopped itching I'd all but forgotten about them, although I did remember to wear my hair down this morning. It was only because I'd been sitting with my cheek resting on my hand and my hair had fallen to one side that she'd noticed.

"When did you get them done?" she demanded. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Day after you went to Canada and it didn't come to mind yesterday when we were talking," I said honestly. "It's no big deal, and I don't want to make a fuss about it, ok? Please don't say anything to anyone."

Lissa promised, and I went back to nibbling at my toast. The last thing I wanted to do was draw attention to myself, but I guess it was inevitable. I had Advanced Guardian Combat Techniques in first period and Weight Training and Conditioning in third. Both hands-on classes where I'd be forced to wear my hair up. I just really didn't want people staring – especially since I wasn't looking too good these days. I appeared tired, and I'd lost a bit of weight. I was eating as often as I could, but I was also training a lot, so I was burning off a lot of calories. And it was only going to get worse now that I'd be exercising during class times, too. I probably needed to eat more than I was managing to, so I added it to my mental list of things to ask Dr. Olendzki when I came clean about things.

Christian and Brandon arrived and sat at our table. I didn't know Brandon that well. He was from one of the minor branches of the Lazar clan - so while he was royal, his part of the family was less involved in the politics and campaigning than some of the others according to Lissa. Not that any of that meant much to me. Socially he was a bit of a floater. He hung out with Jesse and Ralf sometimes but also some of the more studious Moroi students and even Aaron and that group from time to time. He and Christian were talking sport, so Lissa and I chatted while we breakfasted. The three were just standing up to head to the feeders when Eddie and Mason arrived.

"Big day, Rose!" Mason grinned, rubbing the back of his neck none too subtly. Like me, he figured today the rest of the year would find out about my molnija.

"Shut it!" I growled, with a quick eye flick to Christian and Brandon. There was no point letting the Moroi in on the gossip before it was absolutely necessary! They didn't seem to have noticed and headed off to the feeders, Lissa with a promise we'd talk at lunch.

I returned to the cafeteria queue to grab a pile of toast. Back at our table, I buttered each slice before slipping them into a take-out container and into my bag. Toast was the only thing I could reliably stomach before lunchtime, so I took a stack to nibble on between classes. I'd tried one of my favorite chocolate doughnuts the other day and immediately regretted it. So, for now, it was buttered toast. I noticed Eddie and Mason share a confused look as they watched me.