Eva turned to find Shelby, Juliana, and Shalise all in open-mouthed stares. They obviously did not agree with her assessment. Several students in Eva’s peripheral vision had also noticed the elf.
She met the eyes of a sighing Irene and for the barest of moments, they had an understanding. The moment was lost as she averted her eyes.
Giving a sigh of her own, Eva looked back to her other friends. “You’re gawking,” she said to nobody in particular.
“And I don’t even care,” said Shelby without breaking her stare.
Jordan had the decency to cough and look away. “I’ve never seen an elf before.”
Eva frowned. “You didn’t act half as starstruck when I told you my little secret.”
“Well, we had already seen Arachne and your hands before you said anything. The shock was dampened.”
Eva rolled her eyes. “Is an elf really all that shocking? I mean, it isn’t like humans are barred from entering their little communities.”
“True. But seeing one outside their hives? Definitely surprising. Leaving is some sort of stigma unless they were ordered to for the purpose of strengthening the hive.”
Eva glanced back over at the elf. He and the other security guard chatted quietly amongst themselves while gathering a plateful of burritos. The conversation seemed very one-sided with the elf doing most of the talking. By the time the two took their seats at a table, Eva hadn’t counted the glasses guard moving his lips more than twice.
Jordan gave Eva a flat stare. “He’s working as a security guard for a human school,” he said in a voice just as flat.
“Point taken.”
“But I suppose they aren’t all that interesting. They’ve got a basic human organ system with slightly denser bone and muscle groups, but nothing too out of the ordinary. Their inherent magical properties are interesting, but ultimately not too unique.”
“You can take a breath of air every now and again,” Eva said with a smile. “Where did you learn all this?”
“Oh,” his own smile slipped for a moment before it returned in full force. “My parents have amassed a collection of books that might rival the combined libraries of Brakket, Miskatonic, Dunholm, and Vincent. It might be impossible to read them all in my lifetime, but that’s not going to stop me from trying.”
Eva nodded. That was a respectable endeavor. She had her own pile of books she was working through.
The necromancy books she had acquired were far less interesting than she was hoping for. Eva had no real desire to kill people and bind their souls into ghosts. Zombies were even less appealing. That Ylva would likely object to most everything in those books didn’t endear her to them any further.
All in all, it was largely a waste of time. She planned on finishing the introduction to soul binding–the process of affixing spirits to items in order to create all kinds of nasty effects–and then switch back to her studies into blood magic. The rest of the books could rot in her library until she found a better use.
There were certain rituals she wanted to get into. Eva knew a few, the cleansing that she used on Shalise first and foremost. Another could be used to bolster a group’s general toughness and strength. The set up time and amount of blood required were not exactly feasible for that one. The ritual had been designed for large armies with sacrificial slaves for a boost in a coming battle. Her wards were technically considered a ritual, but it didn’t exactly act like it.
What she was really interested in was something that Sawyer had mentioned. As much as she tried not to remember, the surprise he expressed when Eva failed to simply reattach her detached toes had not escaped her. An ability to pull herself back together if she ever found herself in such a situation again would be invaluable.
Not that Eva had any intentions of allowing that to happen.
The ringing bell signaling the end of lunch broke Eva out of her thoughts.
Everyone started moving. Those who still had food left on their plates quickly ate. Eva didn’t. She tossed the remains of the burrito into a nearby trash bin. Max would have been appalled, but he had not sat with their group for a week or two.
Eva felt somewhat responsible for that. She didn’t think he had been too freaked out by her little reveal, not as much as Irene was, but maybe it just needed time to sink in. One day, Max worked on a history report with one of the other students in class. She slowly saw less and less of him until he stopped sitting with them completely.
Arachne already threatened to tear out his spine if he ever said a word. By all appearances so far, he hadn’t.
