Even if it were impossible to notice the day-to-day changes, Eva could see a clear difference between herself of today and herself of the past. A small shudder ran up her spine. Especially the six-year-old who called herself Evaleen.
Eva shook her head, trying to disguise the shudder with a brush of her hand. “We should get going before someone else walks in. Not to mention all the work I need to do before Tuesday.”
— — —
“Free? I can’t believe it.”
“Not just to our customers. Every student. Every room. Both the Rickenbacker and the Gillet.”
“Even the boys?”
“Almost everyone has already discovered the scrying packets,” Eva dismissed with a wave of her sharp fingers. “Besides, shouldn’t their privacy be protected just as much as ours?”
“Well, I mean…”
“Unless you’ve been scrying on some of them.”
Juliana felt her face heat up despite the ridiculousness of the accusation. “Of course not.”
“Then there is no problem,” Eva said as she shoved the box into her arms. “Your job was to collect money and distribute the packets. Hop to it.”
“But, free?”
“Consider it this way: we’re expanding our market. We’ll be charging for the next round, that’s for sure. Think about it. Twice the customers; twice the money.”
“Twice the work,” Juliana mumbled as she peeked into the box.
It was nearly full. It
“When did you even find the time to make all these?”
“Shalise helped,” Eva said as she rested her hand on the brown-haired girl’s head and gave a light scratch.
As much as she trusted Eva not to murder her unnecessarily, Juliana wasn’t sure she wanted those claws anywhere near her head. She’d seen what they could do to brick.
Yet Shalise just beamed up at Eva from her desk chair. Almost leaning into the petting.
Juliana just shook her head. “Do we need to refigure our cuts of the profits?”
“Shalise’s payment will be me teaching her a little about runes. Most of what she did for the packets was merely copying, but I’ll be teaching more in the future.”
Not that she had much to spend the money on anyway.
“What is in these packets anyway? I noticed you added a whole extra sheet that normally isn’t in the things.”
“Additional protection, specifically against certain emotion altering magics.”
“Emotion altering magics? That sounds bad.”
“It is mostly just a test. I don’t plan to leave them in the packets permanently. Way too much work.”
“A test?”
“Of my skills,” Eva said with a shake of her head. She mouthed ‘later’ with a nod towards Shalise.
The brown-haired girl was entirely oblivious to the action.
“Anyway,” Eva said, “I need them fully delivered tonight. Just tell people that we’re having a special. If no one is home, leave them at the door. All of them have a brief note about the ‘special’ and why they’re free.”
“So soon?” Juliana said. That put a hamper on her plans. There were a lot of packets. And she’d have to go to the Gillet. She had never been beyond the lobby of the Rickenbacker’s mirror dorms. All their customers had arranged for pickup in the lobby.
This would take the rest of the night.
“Can I recruit help?”
“Doesn’t matter to me.”
“Good,” Juliana said. It wouldn’t save her plans, but maybe she’d have some spare time at least. She put on her best smile and her biggest puppy-dog eyes. “Shalise?”
The brown-haired girl shook her head. “My hand is killing me,” she said with a flick of her wrist. “I don’t have some tireless demon arm to write with.” All of her excitement quickly deflated into a look of pure horror. “And I haven’t finished the essay for Professor Carr.”
Juliana nodded, quite glad she had finished said essay a week ago. “Eva?”
“Even if you weren’t taking a huge cut to perform this one job, I’ve got plans. Still have more work to do.”
Juliana frowned, but nodded anyway. She turned to the last occupant of the room. “Arach–” Eight red eyes glared out from beneath the covers of Eva’s bed. Every one of them spoke of copious amounts of pain. “Yeah, I didn’t think so.” She turned towards the door of their dorm. “Maybe Irene will help me, since none of my roommates are at all reliable.”
One of them threw a pillow at her. It struck her shoulder and almost made her drop the box. Juliana spun around to find all three of them looking intensely busy in their own tasks. Eva and Shalise at their desks, engrossed in papers, and Arachne under Eva’s covers, still glaring.
Arachne was the only one near pillows, but…
Juliana shook her head as she left the room. It couldn’t have been her.
