Chapter 150: Thirsty
Chapter 150: Thirsty
The moment Cyrus Calder stepped into senior advisory three, he ignored the scattered attention that followed him and headed toward his usual seat in the back corner.
After several days without hiding behind his old hairstyle, the staring had become easier to disregard.
What Cyrus did not notice was a small group of three boys talking about him on the other side of the room.
One of them tipped his chin toward the back.
"Doesn’t he seem a little full of himself now?"
His friend looked at Cyrus, then back at him.
"If you looked like that, you would probably be worse."
The first boy clicked his tongue.
"Should we mess with him a little?"
The reaction from the other two was immediate.
Both looked uncomfortable.
One turned his attention toward the window.
"If you want to mess with him, you can do it yourself."
The other boy nodded quickly.
"You have training, don’t you? You go first, and we will cover for you."
The one who originally suggested it looked from one friend to the other.
Something about their reactions seemed suspicious.
He glanced toward Cyrus again.
The other two exchanged a look behind his back, both struggling not to laugh.
They knew something he did not.
Neither of them had any interest in explaining what happened to the last group that decided Cyrus Calder looked easy to corner.
After several seconds, the first boy raised both hands.
"If none of you are going, then I am not going either."
That ended the matter.
Before their conversation could shift somewhere else, a familiar figure entered the classroom and walked directly toward Cyrus.
"Cyrus."
He looked up.
Audra Sloane stood beside his desk with a notebook in one hand.
A little surprise crossed his face, though not much.
"What happened?"
"The problem you asked me about yesterday. I figured out a cleaner way to solve it."
Audra opened the notebook.
"Do you have time for me to explain it now?"
"As long as it is not inconvenient."
Audra nodded.
Then, without showing the slightest concern for the attention around them, she remained beside Cyrus’s desk and leaned down enough to place the notebook where both of them could see.
One hand gathered her hair away from the page.
The other pointed toward the first line of the solution.
The problem was one Cyrus had been unable to finish during their study session the previous day. Audra had said she wanted more time to work through it, which was why she had brought the answer this morning.
Her fingertip moved carefully from one part of the equation to the next.
"You were fine up to here. The issue starts when you separate these terms."
Cyrus followed the page closely.
Audra continued explaining the logic step by step.
Her voice retained its usual coolness, but the distance she normally kept around classmates was noticeably absent.
Several boys nearby watched the scene with expressions that bordered on grief.
A good face really did make life easier.
Cyrus noticed none of that.
His attention remained on the problem.
Even Audra’s light fragrance, noticeable only because she was standing so close, failed to distract him.
That lack of reaction did not surprise her.
She had been tutoring Cyrus long enough to know exactly how little ordinary physical closeness affected him.
What made today different was the location.
Their study sessions had always happened in private.
They both went to the empty classroom on the fourth floor, worked through assignments, and left without deliberately showing anyone how much time they spent together.
Audra could have explained this problem yesterday.
She had understood the main approach then.
Bringing it into the classroom was a choice.
Over the past several days, more girls had started finding reasons to approach Cyrus.
Some asked about homework they could easily solve themselves.
Others suddenly wanted to know what he ate for lunch, whether he joined clubs, or whether he had plans after school.
Audra had watched all of it.
She did not like it.
Fortunately, Cyrus had shown almost no interest in any of them.
He answered when politeness required it, refused when he had somewhere else to go, and otherwise continued behaving exactly as before.
Even so, there was a difference between classmates hearing rumors that Cyrus and Audra were close and seeing that closeness directly.
Audra wanted them to see.
She finished the final step and tapped the answer lightly.
"This part is why the method works. Does it make sense now?"
Cyrus read over the solution one more time.
"Yes, I understand it now. Thanks."
He meant it.
Audra was genuinely good at explaining things.
If his grades continued improving at this rate, Cyrus might eventually start entertaining the possibility of winning St. Alder’s Most Improved Student Award.
He would not complain about a cash prize attached to better grades.
Audra closed the notebook.
"You are welcome."
As she straightened, she tucked the loose hair back into place.
A brief smile appeared on her face.
The classroom seemed to quiet for an instant.
Audra rarely smiled openly at school.
When she did, people noticed.
Cyrus had already returned his attention to the notes.
Audra turned toward her own seat.
As she passed Faye Larkin’s desk, her attention shifted almost casually toward the girl sitting in front of Cyrus.
Other classmates might not have understood why Faye mattered.
Audra did.
Faye occupied the most convenient position in the entire room.
She sat directly in front of Cyrus.
She had known him before most of the girls suddenly became interested in his appearance.
Cyrus had defended her publicly.
He had visited her home.
That made Faye the most obvious person to watch.
As long as Audra remained aware of what happened between them, perhaps nothing would develop far enough to become troublesome.
Faye, meanwhile, kept her eyes on the book in front of her.
She gave no visible indication that she cared about Audra standing beside Cyrus or explaining a problem to him in front of everyone.
Only her fingers changed.
The hand holding the page tightened slightly before relaxing again.
By lunchtime, the morning attention had finally settled into something more manageable.
Cyrus left the cafeteria area and headed back toward the academic building.
He had barely reached the entrance when he noticed a white coat ahead.
Vera Sable was leaning nearby with a faint smile, watching him approach.
Cyrus’s mood dropped immediately.
Why was it Vera again?
He had long since started regretting the day he first walked into the nurse’s office for a minor cut.
Ever since meeting her, she seemed to have developed a talent for appearing wherever he least wanted to see her.
Worse, Vera almost certainly knew things about him that she refused to admit.
Cyrus still had no idea how much of his memories she had extracted from his blood.
The uncertainty made her difficult to read and even harder to trust.
He stopped.
Then he changed direction.
Vera followed.
Cyrus continued down another hallway.
Her footsteps remained behind him.
He stopped again.
Vera stopped too.
When Cyrus turned around, she was looking toward a nearby window as though she had been admiring the campus architecture the entire time.
Cyrus stared at her.
Vera looked innocent.
He resumed walking.
She resumed following.
By the time they reached a stairwell landing where no other students were nearby, Cyrus had had enough.
He turned.
"Why are you following me?"
Vera blinked.
"Following you? I happen to be walking in the same direction."
Cyrus frowned.
"What do you want?"
Her smile returned.
"Let me have another drink."
Cyrus answered immediately.
"That is not happening."
He turned toward the stairs.
Vera followed without complaint.
They had barely climbed half a flight before her voice floated after him.
"That ring you cannot remove really is fascinating."
Cyrus slowed.
Vera continued as if speaking to herself.
"It makes me wonder whether there are other interesting rings in the world. I would love to see one."
Cyrus stopped completely.
Before he could respond, Vera added in an exaggeratedly thoughtful tone, "My throat also feels terribly dry today. What could possibly help with that?"
Cyrus understood immediately.
The glamourkin ring.
She knew about Audra’s ring.
There was no other artifact Vera could be referring to.
The meaning behind both statements was painfully clear.
Give her blood willingly, and she would remain merely curious.
Refuse, and something might happen involving Audra and the ring Cyrus relied on.
If Vera interfered with that artifact, Cyrus could no longer assume his strongest safeguard would remain available when he needed it.
He turned slowly.
Vera was smiling.
She had not directly threatened Audra.
She had not even said she knew Audra possessed anything.
Every sentence came with enough room for denial that Cyrus could not accuse her of anything concrete.
This woman even threatened people carefully.
Cyrus weighed his options.
Would Vera actually be able to get close enough to Audra to take the glamourkin ring?
Probably not easily.
Audra was cautious.
She also had no reason to trust the school nurse with something found inside Warren Sloane’s study.
But Vera was patient.
She had already manipulated conversations without appearing to do anything at all.
Cyrus remembered the way she had approached him.
A question about memory loss.
A medical excuse.
A stolen blood sample.
Then a private visit to his apartment.
Underestimating her once had cost him another year of memory.
He was not eager to repeat the mistake.
Even if Audra would normally refuse, what if Vera told her some convincing lie about the artifact?
What if she claimed it was dangerous?
What if she offered medical knowledge or information about Cyrus?
The possibility alone was enough to make Cyrus hesitate.
If Audra’s glamourkin ring ended up in Vera’s hands, Cyrus suspected he would become the person most likely to suffer from it.
He needed that ring available.
He also needed Vera to stop treating it like a toy she wanted to inspect.
After several seconds, Cyrus turned around and began walking back down the stairs.
Vera followed.
For the moment, he would deal with her.
Later, he could ask Audra to lend him the glamourkin ring and teach Vera a lesson directly.
Two apparently safe uses remained.
Spending one on Vera might be worth it.
Cyrus began considering what command would be appropriate.
Nothing harmful.
He simply needed something memorable enough to discourage Vera from ever threatening one of his safeguards again.
Perhaps he could order her to stay away from his blood.
That sounded practical, although it lacked emotional satisfaction after she had knocked him unconscious.
Maybe he could make her admit exactly how much she knew.
That would be more useful.
If the ring could compel truthful answers through instructions, he could finally find out what Vera had seen inside his memories and whether she actually knew another way to remove the ring.
Cyrus’s thoughts grew more focused as he headed toward the nurse’s office.
He did not notice Vera watching his back.
She had stopped making comments.
There was no need anymore.
Cyrus had already changed direction.
Vera followed at an easy pace, her hands tucked casually into the pockets of her white coat.
The smile at the corners of her mouth deepened.