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Grandfather had called me here today to spend time with him, and to make up for being unable to attend my birthday party.

Whatever business he’d been on was obviously a major deal, given that it had kept him away and off-realm for so long. Grandfather hated being away from Gramps and the family.

It was apparently a Guardian Movement matter, so discussing it had been off the table. Matters of that nature were kept secret and highly-confidential, and with me not being a member, I wasn’t privy to any of the details.

Maybe it had something to do with those sick bastards, Chimera Circle.

I shook my head to myself.

Either way, it wasn’t my concern. I knew the rules, and I was very good at following them. That one spell during my birthday party notwithstanding.

Jeez,that spell.

It had certainly caused me a load of grief. The whole thing with Kai… I didn’t know how to wrap my head around it.

And I didn’t want to think about it right now.

I needed a breather.

Seeing Grandfather today would definitely provide that.

He and I were close. We had been my whole life. We even had the same exact shade of magic, something we’d bonded over. Just one of the things, actually. We had a very special connection. Not having him at my party had been hard to stomach.

But that would all be okay now, once I laid eyes on him again, and we got to spend some time together. It would be better, actually, because there would be no crowds or judgmental interlopers around to sully the interaction and our quality time with each other.

I breathed in a peaceful sigh.

It would be perfect.

I just hoped he didn’t put together the fact that I did actually have classes to attend this week, unlike what I’d claimed when Gramps had called me on his behalf telling me he’d be back today and he really wanted to see me and make up for missing my party. Gramps had suggested the weekend, but I’d been too excited to wait, so I’d ended up telling him that I didn’t start my classes until the following week, that this first week as a fourth year was just acclimating to the environment of Maven Academy again and mostly full of parties and the like. Hopefully, Grandpa would be too busy with his first week back teaching to notice I wasn’t around at the Academy today. I wasn’t in his class until next week, so that would be easier to pull off at least.

I mean, it might have been about something more than just excitement. I never liked the first few days of classes starting up. It made me uneasy and it was always an uncomfortable adjustment getting back into it all and being around all thestudents and professors. My recentinteractionswith Kai had only served to exacerbate all of that.

Especially the last one inside the Ruminat hut.

“I wanted to experience those things, to explore that, and I wanted to get lost in the intensity. I wanted to feel.”

“And?”

“And that’s it.”

“No, it’s not. It’s far from it. Fucking admit it. Be honest.”

“You don’t know what you’re asking for.”

“Ari—”

“No. I can’t give you more than this. I can’t. My life… my existence… it isn’t built for that.”

“You’re wrong.”

To say he’d come on strong had been an utter understatement.

And none of that awkwardness had been helped by the pain I’d seen all over him that he hadn’t been able to hide in the midst of that heated discussion. A discussion I hadn’t wanted to have, one that I’d known could only go to a bad place, but one that he’d fucking pushed for in his usual relentless way.

Urgh.

I sucked in a breath and pushed it all down.