Page 107 of Shattered Stars

“Me?”

He nods.

Am I? The chancellor is cunning. I don’t know if he saw through my act, if he knows more than he showed.

“I don’t know.”

He scrubs his hand through his hair a second time. “Maybe I should speak with my father. He’s the only one the chancellor is afraid of. If the chancellor is going to–”

“Isn’t your father far worse?”

“Yeah,” he says, nodding his head quickly, “yeah, you’re right. That’s a stupid idea.”

“It’s okay, Tristan. I won’t tell anyone about–”

“What did he want?” he asks, frowning again.

I sigh. I want to crawl into my bed and snuggle up with Pip, dissecting everything that’s happened today with Winnie. I don’t want to be standing out here in the cold with a man who makes me feel things I shouldn’t.

“He wanted to talk about my mom.”

“Your mom?”

“He knew her. She was …” I peer into the crystal blue of his eyes. Can I truly trust him? Why am I even having this conversation with him? “She was a seer. I guess he’s keen to know if I’m one too.”

He holds my gaze and peers into my eyes with the same intensity. “Are you?”

My brow crinkles. Maybe I could lie and bluff my way through a meeting with the chancellor but it’s harder with him, it’s always been harder with him. I’m already fighting, controlling so many other emotions.

“I think I had the gift when I was young, a little girl. I don’t think I have it anymore.”

“Did you see … did you see anything about us?”

My hand flies to my head. Those memories. Azlan crashing through the door. That hand stretching out to touch me – Barone’s hand. Burning – everything burning.

“Rhi?” I feel his warm hand on my shoulder, and my bond ignites. I jerk out of my reverie and take a stumbling pace away.

“Don’t touch me!”

He frowns harder, thunder clouding his expression now, all that anxiety gone. He opens his mouth as if he’s going to argue with me, then slams it shut.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” he mumbles and my jaw falls open in disbelief as I watch him storm away. He’s glad I’m okay? That might be the nicest thing he’s actually ever said to me.

I laugh, shaking my head and scurry out of the cold and into the dorm.

Winnie is at her desk, a duvet snuggled around her shoulders and Pip in her lap.

“Jeez,” I mutter, as I shut the door behind me. “I think it’s colder in here, than outside.”

“Probably,” Winnie says, “this dorm is a shithole.”

I pull my own duvet off my bed, wheel my own chair closer to Winnie and Pip, flopping down onto it.

I’ve already given Winnie a summary of my meeting with the chancellor over text message but I guess my demeanor is a giveaway that more’s happened since.

I tell her about what happened with Stone and Azlan first. Pip grunts grumpily all the way through my recounting as if hereally, really doesn’t want to hear this. Unfortunately for him, my best friend is pretty darn insistent, wanting to know all about the mechanics in a lot of detail.

When she’s satisfied, she asks me, with a dead serious expression, “Did you enjoy it, though? I mean, I know lots of dudes want to do that stuff, but you’re under no obligation if you don’t want to so–”