The Gold in the Dark

Chapter Fourteen

Wynna chewed a bite of honey cake, lost in thought. "The upside is... Never mind, there is no upside."

Tia stabbed a piece of the cake with her fork. The setting sun washed the whole avenue in a golden glow, shining through the red autumn leaves of the street-side trees so they lit up like lanterns. Yet the world around Tia had seemed dull and drab ever since Mistress Oerfall had informed her that she would be moving from her single guest room into Annalise's former room. Annalise, who had just so happened to have Selitta as a roommate. Annalise, who would have been privy to the details of Selitta's life, like that she was writing a letter to Lord d'Wygst, because they'd lived in the same room. Mired in her gloom, Tia saw none of the beauty around her.

She brought her fork down for another bite and heard the screech of metal tines on porcelain. The plate was empty save for a few crumbs, but she didn't even remember eating the cake.

"I can ask the waitress to bring over another slice," Wynna offered. "Alindy always says sweets are her favorite way to drive away a bad mood."

"Don't bother," she said, dropping the fork onto the plate with a clatter. "I'm not hungry anyway."

"Self-pity isn't becoming," Wynna said, calling for the waitress.

Moments later the waitress delivered two giant, steaming mugs of hot chocolate to the table, complete with a plate of rock sugar cookies for dunking. They sipped their drinks as the sun dipped below the buildings and twilight wrapped the streets in hazy purple shadows.

She wanted to relax as the city slid into dusk, could feel that old, familiar comfort of darkness. In Fenlick, nighttime had always been her time, when she could sneak up to the shop attic and play at being somebody else, free from buckets of myreskeet and ledger books and sales pitches. Even though it had now been weeks since she'd first met Master Maaj and decided to leave Fenlick, it was still off-putting to show anyone her dancing in the light of day.

And now she couldn't feel completely comfortable at night either, she remembered with a stab of anger. The Firefly Hollow Killer was still out there somewhere, maybe even stalking the streets for his next victim right this second. The female students at the academy had taken to only going out into the city in groups of two or more.

And even forgetting the fact that there was a killer on the loose, she didn't relish sleeping in the same room with someone who adopted a murderous look whenever they happened to lock eyes.

After a while she tried to string a sentence together from the knot of words and feelings squirming around in her head. "It's not just that she hates me. I'm worried she'll find some way to send me back home. Her father's a lord, after all."

And it was true. She didn't want to go home anymore, not even with the awkwardness of being new and the killer and Selitta and all the rest. She wanted to stay, to get to know her classmates... to audition for the Queen's Fair... to see where the delicious awkwardness of partnering class led.

Wynna swirled a cookie in her hot chocolate, thinking. "I doubt she'd ask her father to send you home. If anything, Selitta might try to do something herself to get you dismissed." She saw Tia's stricken face and waved her hands. "Don't worry. If she tries anything, the teachers will see right through her. She's been at the academy for years and years; everyone knows her games. Besides, now that Selitta's staying you're just her classmate, not her direct competition, so maybe she'll relax."

"But that would also mean I'm stuck with her as a roommate."

"Quit your moping," Wynna teased with a smile.

Tia glowered in response and downed the rest of her hot chocolate, then had a sudden thought. "What's your story, anyway? How'd you end up at the academy?" It had already been several days since she'd told Wynna about the long chain of events that had brought her from Fenlick to Haplyr, but she realized now that Wynna hadn't offered a story in return.