Chapter 34: Juniper Rowe
Noah groaned into his pillow at the sound of the knocking.
It was too early. Far too early. He tried to roll over and ignore it, but the knock came again, louder this time.
Reluctantly, he got to his feet and trudged to the door. He cracked it open.
Arlo stood there, blindfolded as always, his smile far too bright for how early it was. "Morning, sunshine."
Noah stared at him, deadpan. "Why are you like this?"
Arlo pushed past him into the room without answering. "You really do sleep like a corpse, don’t you? I almost thought you’d Devoured yourself by accident."
Noah muttered something unintelligible as he shut the door.
After learning Devour the day before, he’d had a quick dinner with Arlo, who had wanted every detail of how it had felt like, flipped through his notes until his eyes burned, and crashed hard onto his bed. His body still felt heavy from the drain of casting his first B-rank spell.
Dragging himself to the shared bathroom down the hall, he took a cold bath to wake up. By the time he returned, Arlo was already lounging on his bed like he owned it, casually flipping through a folded parchment.
"Guess what we’ve got today?" Arlo announced.
Noah grabbed a clean uniform from his trunk and began dressing. "Tell me."
"Alchemy first, then Theriology." Arlo held up the class schedule like a prize. "I’m expecting potions and exploding cauldrons."