Dark Light of Day (33 page)

I slid into the chair beside Ari and wondered why Luck
had arranged it so that we were sharing a table for Manipulation. I took my journal and an ink pen out of my bag. I shuffled through my backpack ostensibly searching for other materials I might need. Where were Sasha and Brunus? Mercator had never been late before. Would Rochester ever start class? I glanced at my watch. Ten minutes. I didn’t think I could sit beside Ari for ten minutes not talking or even looking at him. I wasn’t sure how to act. Ari saved me by making the first move.

“You don’t look sick,” he said.

I turned toward him, almost involuntarily. His dark eyes were sunken. Deep half-moon crescents shadowed the area underneath his lower lashes. His beard had grown in coarse and thick. Unlike some men whose hair had reddish highlights, Ari’s beard was jet-black. His hair fell in uncombed waves, spilling over his collar and into his eyes. By all rights Ari should have looked unprofessional and unkempt. But to me his tousled look just made him more appealing. His animalistic appearance made me want to spar with him, both physically and magically. I was struck with a sudden desire to lash out, not in fear or anger but for fun, the way a cat would swipe at a piece of string. Ari’s eyes dilated and I suddenly wondered if I could shape my magic like a claw. I’d shaped it like knives and needles, so why not? But the thought of hurting Ari with my claws held me back. Tosca was too weak to notice the byplay but Rochester looked over and frowned. He threw a blast of cold, neutral energy and I suddenly felt like a cat that’d had water thrown on it. My magic sputtered and went out, doused by the cooling shock of Rochester’s reminder to control myself. I smiled sheepishly at Ari and mumbled something about feeling better.

“You could never hurt me, you know,” he said, his voice pitched low enough so that only I could hear it. It was uncanny the way he seemed to read my mind. “At least not with your magic,” he added. “I was worried you’d left. Let Peter cast that blasted spell over you. I would have come looking for you, you know.”

I stared at him, willing my jaw to stay closed. He was
always saying stuff like that. Making outlandish claims. I was saved from figuring out how best to reply by the arrival of Brunus and Sasha. Mercator trailed in behind them and Rochester rose to start class. I forced my attention up front.

“Angels,” Rochester said preemptively. “Does anyone know why, at least in modern times, we Maegesters have such a close association with the Angels?”

Rochester must have seen mostly blank faces because he kept prodding. “Does anyone know why we share a square with the Joshua School and celebrate most of the major holidays with them?”

I didn’t dare look at Ari now. Was it Luck’s hand again that we were discussing the very thing that had come between us?

“Does anyone know why the Demon Council works so closely with the Divinity? Why the Joshua School would go to the trouble of hosting a Barrister’s Ball at Empyr?”

Sasha raised his hand. Rochester nodded at him. “Mr. de Rocca?”

“Angels are often called as expert witnesses at trial,” he said as if reciting a passage direct from the text. “They are renowned historians and excellent linguists. Angels are often called upon to give opinions on matters concerning early post-Apocalyptic knowledge, including changing demon worship practices and the interpretation of ancient laws originally codified in Vandalic, Venetic, or Vestinian.”

“Correct. But Angels are useful even before the trial period.”

Sasha slumped. It was clear his Angel knowledge font was dry. I didn’t dare raise my hand, although I knew only too well how useful Angels could be.

“Angels can be particularly valuable in the field,” Rochester encouraged, trying to entice someone else to volunteer further information. I remained mute and no one else seemed to have anything useful to say so Rochester launched into lecture mode.

Apparently, among Barristers, the pretrial discovery phase was a relatively straightforward process involving
paper exchanges, legal
Q
and
A
, and evidence gathering. For MIT’s, however, the discovery stage is fraught with peril. Demons were notoriously secretive and deceptive. They hid everything. So instead of using the more traditional depositions and interrogatories to gain information, MIT’s often gathered the facts they needed directly. They conducted their own investigation into the other side’s business.

This news was greeted with varying degrees of enthusiasm. We were all having difficulties with our assignments. It was almost impossible to imagine going out and spying on the demons too.

“Most Maegesters engage the help of a Guardian Angel when conducting the investigation,” he said, wandering slowly throughout the room. He moved liked a glacier, his immense signature grinding and pressing down upon those around him. I could almost hear the cracking and popping as his signature rubbed up against the others, always pushing, always testing.

“Powerful Angels can mask a Maegester’s signature in the field, cast useful protective spells, or serve as an interpreter for any demon who doesn’t speak the common tongue. Have any of you thought about who you might ask to be your Guardian Angel?”

Well, I certainly had. And even though choosing Peter would wreak havoc on my relationship with Ari, I didn’t think I’d be able to work with anyone else. For starters, Peter and I were already working together. Rochester, the Demon Council, and the Divinity may not know of our clandestine investigation, but we were already conducting one. And it was near to completion, with as big a payoff as I could hope for—the end of classes like this one. Second, I didn’t know any other Angels, which brought me to my last and final reason. I trusted Peter. He was my oldest and (except perhaps for Ivy) closest friend.

But before I could declare my intentions, Ari’s hand shot up.

“Yes, Mr. Carmine? You have thoughts on a possible candidate?”

Ari nodded. “I’d like to work with Peter Aster.”

I blinked. Slowly. Like an owl. And then turned toward Ari, afraid if I moved any faster, my motions might turn frenetic, like when a Lethe river shark smells blood and attacks or when a wolf viciously shakes its prey to break its neck. For a moment, I almost wanted to do that to Ari.
What was he thinking?
He no more wanted to work with Peter than a Mederi wanted fire in her garden. Then I saw his mouth twitch up at the corners and my jaw dropped. I stared at Ari as he and Rochester calmly discussed his shocking, traitorous, thieving suggestion.

“An unusual choice,” Rochester said. “You know he dropped out of school recently, although I hear he’s back. His father’s not very prominent either. But he has a strong reputation at the Joshua School. I hear he’s brilliant, astute, and driven. And his specialty is an interesting and ambitious new field of study—power polarities, the
reversal
of power and negation.”

Ari clenched his jaw and pressed his lips together in a firm line. It must have been hard for him to hear Rochester sing Peter’s praises.

“I’ve also heard he’s an amateur archeologist, as interested in the history of spellcasting as its future,” Rochester said. “All things considered, he’s a fine candidate. Have you approached him yet?”

Ari shook his head.

“No? Well, despite Mr. Aster’s patchy record, I agree. He has great potential as a Guardian. Don’t wait to speak with him.”

Rochester turned to me.

“Ms. Onyx, any thoughts on who you’d like to work with over at the Joshua School?”

A
fter class, Ari quickly packed up his books and left. I sprinted to catch up with him but didn’t reach him until he was in Timothy’s Square. He was just about to turn the corner and walk down Victory Street when I called his name,
causing him to abruptly stop, but not turn around. A light, steady drizzle dribbled down from the sky, making me regret my earlier umbrella toss. I reached Ari and walked around to face him.

“What are you doing?” I cried.

“What do you mean?” Laudably, his tone wasn’t the least bit facetious. He sounded serious. I made a derisive sound that was a combination of disgust and disbelief.

“You know what I mean. Telling Rochester you want to work with Peter.”

“I do.”

“No you don’t,” I said, shaking my head.

He smiled then, but without warmth or humor. “I do,” he said simply, “because I don’t want you working with him.”

“Peter won’t work with you.”

Ari shrugged. “It’ll buy me time,” he said.

“Time for what?”

Suddenly I was too aware of the fact that we were alone for the first time since he’d said he loved me. And we hadn’t even talked about it. We were only talking around it. He stared at me. I swallowed, standing my ground.

“Time to convince you,” Ari said, glancing around to see if anyone was watching us. It was late in the day and the temperature was dropping, but it was still pretty warm for spring. The slight heat and light rain produced a misty shroud that shielded us from prying eyes. Those few students who were still out and about weren’t recognizable. They were just gray shapes walking in the rain, anonymous drifters floating around campus.

“I want you to come to the Barrister’s Ball,” Ari said. His voice had an odd catch to it that I wasn’t used to hearing.

“I’m already going,” I said. “I promised Ivy I’d go with her.”

Ari shook his head. “I want you to promise
me
. I want you to go as my date. Before you make irreversible choices, I deserve a chance to show you what one night of a life with me would be like. I deserve a real date.”

I stared at him incredulously. I don’t know what I’d been
expecting after that stunt he’d just pulled in Manipulation but I definitely hadn’t expected this. And I certainly didn’t expect what came next.

“And I want you to come home with me for Beltane Break. Meet my family. I think you’ll like them. They’re Hyrkes, you know. We live in Bradbury, not Etincelle. You won’t have to talk about St. Lucifer’s unless you want to. We could just hang out and do Hyrke stuff. You’d like that, right? Matt finally decided to go to Gaillard and you and he could talk.”

He seemed to realize he sounded like Fitz and closed his mouth. He cleared his throat and looked away. But he remained silent when he looked back at me, apparently deciding whatever he had been about to say was ten things too many. His uncharacteristic rush of words had the most profound effect on me. He was nervous. Luck below, Ari Carmine, the man who was ranked
Primoris
in Manipulation class, the man who had formerly been a demon executioner for my father, the man who turned me into a melted puddle of pleading desire nearly every night in the stacks of Corpus Justica, was nervous about asking
me
on a date.

I had qualms, to be sure. It wouldn’t be a good idea to show up on Ari’s arm. For so many reasons. First, there was the fact that he was opposing counsel and we’d been warned many times to avoid even the appearance of collaboration. Certainly, appearing arm in arm at the Barrister’s Ball might be reasonable grounds for thinking we were in cahoots. Second, Rochester had warned me that he thought I was in danger of being enchanted by Ari. Swooning in Ari’s arms, as I was sure to do at some point if I went with him to the ball, would lend credence to that theory. Third, since the ball was being held at Empyr, it was inevitable that Peter would be there. If I arrived with Ari, would Peter refuse to cast the Reversal Spell over me? We were so close, was one dance worth throwing away my dream?

But I could have had a hundred qualms and I still would have agreed. Because the one thing,
the only thing
, that convinced me, was that one moment of vulnerability I’d glimpsed
before Ari had clamped his mouth shut. If Ari had tried to bribe me (by agreeing to rescind his request to work with Peter, for instance) or if he’d tried to coerce me (by attempting to assert some sort of
signare
right) or if he’d tried to threaten me (the threats he could make were limitless), I would have flatly rejected him. But he so obviously wanted me to go with him, and for such a normal reason, that I couldn’t bear the thought of saying no.

Besides, hadn’t I been incensed by Rochester’s completely inappropriate interest in my love life? Had I ever felt sick or poisoned when in Ari’s presence? Confused and muddled—yes. At times, undeniably rattled, but the feelings Ari aroused in me were as different from those I’d experienced with Serafina as a Gaillard street party was likely to be from the Barrister’s Ball. Lastly, did I really care what Peter thought of my relationship with Ari? Did I care if, in the end, Peter refused to help me?

Well… that was the million dollar question. But not one I had to answer now. Truth is, I
was
a little nervous about how Peter might react, but Ari was watching my face carefully. I knew how keenly he could sense my feelings and I wanted him to know that I wanted to go with him.

“You convinced me,” I said, reaching up and lowering his head to mine. “I’ll go to the ball with you.” I kissed him then, slow and sweet and then moved my hand lower until my fingertips rested lightly on the soft linen of his shirt just above his demon mark. Beneath my hand, he tensed. Suddenly, I knew what I wanted—at least with Ari.

“Where can we go where no one else will bother us?” I asked him. “Somewhere with no librarians, desk clerks, or classmates?”

His bold gaze met mine.

“Somewhere we could walk to right now?” I asked, reaching for his hands.

Ari’s face beamed with an emotion I hardly recognized on him—
happiness
. In fact, I was pretty sure I had just made him grin.

He grabbed my hand with his and said one word before bolting from the spot with me in tow, “Lekai.”

If I was doubtful that Lekai Auditorium would provide the privacy we needed for what I had in mind, I needn’t have worried. All lectures, classes, and events were over for the day. In fact, when we got there, the interior was so dark, I half expected the doors to be locked. Thankfully, they weren’t and we went right in.

Like all of the buildings on St. Luck’s campus, Lekai was grand. Its lobby was large, almost majestic, with rich embellishments. Front and center was an ornately carved wooden counter where students and guests could check their cloaks. On either side of the counter were twin staircases rising to the mezzanine level. Ari lit a small, glowing fireball and led me upstairs.