Chapter 250
“You’re late!” Faiza says, sing-song, as I push open the door to her office and skitter inside.
“I know, I’m sorry,” I say, panting a little as I shut the door behind me, leaning against it as I try to catch my breath. “I had to learn how to put my rifle away, lock it up.”
“Rifle?” she asks, raising an eyebrow, instantly interested. I grin, nodding eagerly, and Faiza likewise smiles at me from where she’s sitting behind her desk with her feet up on it, lounging back in her chair. “Cool,” she says, her eyes flashing, genuinely intrigued.
“It is cool,” I sigh happily, pushing away from the door and taking my seat across from her.
“You know, I never got into guns,” she says, pulling her feet down and leaning across the desk towards me, leaning her weight on her elbows. “Knives just seem so much more…personal.”
I just stare at my tutor, shaking my head at her. “Sometimes, Faiza,” I whisper, wrinkling my nose, “you say the weirdest stuff.”
She bursts out laughing and leans back again in her chair, grinning at me. “So,” she says on a happy sigh when her laughter fades. “Have you been practicing?”
“Yeah, but I’m crap at it,” I mutter, with a sigh and reaching into my bag, pulling out the sack of marbles she gave me and tossing them onto the desk. “Everyone found me out. Absolutely everyone.”
The last time we met Faiza began to teach me the basics of pickpocketing and sleight of hand, which apparently are going to be incredibly useful to me in my future life as a spy for this nation – though how, especially if I’m stuck up in a sniper blind, I haven’t yet quite figured out. But apparently, the easiest way to learn how to pickpocket is to start not by sneaking things out of people’s pockets – but sneaking things into them.
Unfortunately, Rafe, Jesse, Jackson, Luca, and Ben all caught me as I attempted to slip marbles into their pockets at varying points over the past two days. So did Blaze. Daphne I almost got – until I realized that her dress didn’t have pockets and the marble went clattering to the floor.
“Booo, Ariel,” Faiza says, frowning at me in disappointment. “You know that you have to be punished for this now, right?”
“What?” I gasp, sitting up straight and staring at her. “Why!? How!? It’s not my fault I’m bad at this!”
“You’re being punished because, one,” Faiza says, pressing her fingers delicately to her chest, “punishments are the great delight of my life. And two, because you’re privileging your other lessons over mine! This is just as serious as sniper rifles and poisonous substances, Ariel! Those disciplines are trying to teach you how to use weapons, but I’m trying to teach you how to become one. This is essential stuff, even if it feels basic!”
I sit back in my chair, nodding. Because when I think about it, I suppose she’s right – I did let that practice fall to the back of my homework plate.
“Ariel,” she says, snapping her fingers in my face and making me look at her. “Listen to me when I say this.”
I sit up straight, intrigued by her serious expression, her lack of glib remarks.
“These assignments – they might feel stupid right now – marbles in pockets, I know it seems silly. But being able to steal a quarter from someone’s waistcoat eventually turns into being able to slip poison into a cup unseen. To being able to hand a note to someone without anyone else noticing – or distracting a man while you steal the key to his room. Okay? So just…give it the attention it deserves.”
“Okay,” I sigh, newly determined, a little disappointed in myself. “What is my punishment?”
A wicked grin takes Faiza’s face.
“Your punishment,” Faiza says, leaning forward with a wicked grin as she pulls something out of her pocket and smacks it down on the desk between us. “Is learning close-up magic.”
“What!?”
“Yes, I’m making you an amateur magician,” she sighs, shaking her head sadly as she lifts her hand, revealing a deck of cards. “The worst fate that can befall someone. Your sexual appeal to literally anyone is about to take a serious hit, Ariel. Please apologize to the hot one for me.”
I laugh a little, shaking my head at her, not getting it. “Please, Faiza. Explain.”
“Look, close-up magic is nerdy as hell,” she says, leaning forward and talking to me seriously now. “But it teaches you a great deal about how to do things in plain sight. And if you can’t even sneak marbles into your sexy brother’s pockets –“
“Oh, don’t be gross,” I sigh, wrinkling my nose at her again.
She just laughs, grinning at me, “then you clearly need to learn how to be faster and sneakier with your hands. It all makes sense.”
I sigh, seeing her point and looking down at the cards. “Okay, I’m in. What do we do?”
“I’m going to teach you three card tricks,” Faiza says, picking up the dark and flourishing the cards in a very cool way that lets me know that she is very good at this. “And I want them mastered in two days’ time. Or else I’m going to make you learn how to mime or something even worse.”
I grin, leaning forward and nodding to my teacher, letting her know that I’m game.
Faiza spreads the cards out on the desk and begins to explain and I concentrate hard, eager to get started.
I’m still messing with the cards, attempting to flip them around in my hand lightening-fast and without being noticed the way Faiza taught me, when I turn the corner in the hall towards the gym where I meet Blaze every night.
And I nearly drop the deck of cards all over the floor when I see Luca sitting on the floor outside my gym, his back pressed against the wall, reading a book of all things. “W-what are you doing here?” I ask, stumbling a little as I grasp at the cards, clutching them to my chest so they don’t go flying everywhere.
Luca looks up at me, surprised, but then breaks into a grin, holding up a hand. “Sorry, sorry,” he says, taking in what must be a pretty ridiculous sight – his mate, dressed as a boy, with 52 playing cards held flat against her body, each of them threatening to fall at any second. “I don’t mean to interrupt – I’m just here as bodyguard to walk you back to the room when you’re done your lesson.”
I scowl a little, straightening up and managing to get some control over the cards, putting them back in order. “Did Rafe send you?” Stupid Rafe, so over-protective.
“He didn’t,” Luca says, still grinning at me. “But I took his point quite seriously, Ari – you’re still vulnerable walking these hallways alone. None of us are excited about the prospect of you going anywhere alone until you can protect yourself.”
I sigh, rolling my eyes a bit but taking his point. Before I can ask anything else, though, the door to the gym opens and Blaze peeks out, immediately taking in both me and the big Alpha sitting on the floor. “You are late, pupil,” he says, giving me a cheerful smile.
“Sorry, Blaze,” I say, grinning at him and hurrying towards the door. “I was just talking to Luca. But I’m here, and I’m ready!”
“Luca,” Blaze says, turning the name over in his mouth like it’s a mysterious new thing and looking down at my mate.
Luca looks up from his awkward position and gives Blaze a little wave. Blaze’s grin grows wider.
“Is this creature yours, little bird?” Blaze asks, pointing down at Luca on the floor.
I laugh a little at the phrasing but nod, tucking the deck of cards away into my book bag. “Yeah, he’s mine.”
“Well then,” Blaze murmurs, smiling between the two of us before he moves back into the gym, his voice floating along behind him as he goes. “You should bring it inside, then.”
I laugh a little, turning to Luca with a shrug. “You want to come in?”
His smile back at me is brilliant. “Of course I do.”
