made. There’s a memorial for Trevor, and another school-wide assembly is called. Dean Hardwick assures us that every possible precaution is being taken to keep us safe, but despite his promises, a few families pull their kids out of school.
The shitty thing is, Griffin Academy is really the only option that exists for training our particular brand of magic, so dropping out leaves those students shit out of luck. I understand why they might not want to stay, given the circumstances, but it sucks that they have to make that choice. Hopefully if—no, when—the killer is finally caught, they’ll be able to return to the academy and catch up on whatever classwork they missed. They shouldn’t be punished just for not wanting to get murdered.
Most of us stay despite the danger, but we’re all a little jumpy for a few days—literally. Raul accidentally surprises me in class one afternoon and I end up on the ceiling, clutching it for dear life while Raul apologizes profusely.
But as the days pass and there aren’t any more attacks, things start to get back to normal. Well, mostly normal. Ever since the attack, Roman’s been getting an awful lot of attention from the students.
The female students, I should point out.
I actually thought people were going to be more suspicious of him. It surprised me how scared I was about it. I didn’t want Roman to be ostracized or gossiped about because of someone clearly trying to set him up, but I really shouldn’t have worried. Instead, the opposite has happened. Everyone is furious at whoever framed him and tried to smear the name of the school’s most popular teacher, and the women especially are taking it upon themselves to try and cozy up to him to offer their “condolences”.
I can’t help but notice Professor Tamlin seems amused by the whole thing. That odd curl of jealousy comes alive in my chest again. I know it’s probably because she just doesn’t care if girls flirt with him, and I’ll admit, I find the whole thing kind of amusing too. But there’s a part of my mind that whispers insidiously, telling me she’s amused because she knows she can have Roman back anytime she wants.
Worrying about that is stupid of me though. I’m the one who keeps pushing Roman away and ignoring the signs that he wants a relationship of some kind with me. If he were to go back to Josephine Tamlin I’d have nobody to blame but myself.
Damn it.
Oh, and speaking of my frustratingly gorgeous professor, Roman has finally stopped being so hard on me in class. He was easing up on me before the attack anyway, but I kind of think he’s taken my covering for him the night Trevor’s body was discovered as a sign that something else really does—or could—exist between us.
Not that he’s been inappropriate in class or anything. But he’s been paying more attention to me than the others, helping me with my techniques. It’s been good for me. I’m getting better at controlling my magic, and a lot of that is directly attributable to the work he’s done with me. I’ve finally reached the point where I’ve stopped freaking out about accidentally hurting someone with my sonic boom.
Roman’s face when I demonstrated in class how I can focus it on a target is something I’m going to treasure forever. He seemed so damn proud of me, and I couldn’t even believe how happy that made me feel.
Alyssa definitely picked up on the look I gave him, which is… I don’t know what. Trouble, probably—I just don’t know what kind yet. Her capacity for passive aggression is astounding. The other three girls follow her everywhere, sometimes gleefully and sometimes not. I get the impression that sometimes they’re tired and don’t want to deal with me that day, but they always traipse along after Alyssa and do what she says.
I can’t help but wonder if that’s what it’ll be like in the “real world” too, once I graduate. If I’m going to be playing the game of cliques and in-crowds with powerful magical families for the rest of my life.
Fuck. I really hope not.
A few weeks after Trevor’s death, just when I think everything is getting back to normal—it all goes to shit.
We’re eating breakfast in the dining hall: Cam, Asher, Dmitri, and me. Most of the school is here, since a lot of us have morning classes, and the atmosphere in the massive room is relaxed and sleepy as