For heaven’s sake...
I quickly bent down to clear up the mess I had made and grabbed the first few sheets of paper.
I saw him bend down as well and sped up.
“I’m...” I paused as I spotted the black ink rune on the parchment in front of me, and memories flashed through my mind. Memories I wished Gloria had erased. “...sorry.”
I couldn’t help but stare at the rune. A jagged, serpentine mark with three rounds of circles, decorated with splashes of ink.
The last time I had seen a mark like this, it had been in a forbidden book. The woman who had owned it had been robbed of her memory in front of the Circle and the Councils, and the book had been burned. The reason: Umbra. Shadow magic. Magic, I didn’t know much about simply because we were not allowed to know anything about it, let alone mention it at all.
I spotted another mark.
Suddenly, his warm hand brushed mine as the professor reached for the paper, and only now I noticed the simple golden double ring on his finger.
Without removing my hand from his paper, I looked up.
His bright green eyes sparkled with indecision, eyeing mine.
“Julie...” he whispered, tugging at the paper and I finally loosened my grip.
“I’m sorry...” I replied just as quietly, realizing too late what he had just called me...and how forbidden good it had sounded...and how forbidden those marks there on that sheet were.
I stared at him while he tidied up the rest of the papers with a working jaw. I shook my head absentmindedly and reached for the pieces of paper under my feet.
As I handed them to him, his gaze lingered on my wrist.
My gray wool sweater had ridden up a bit, revealing my forearm...or rather, the thirty-seven faded scars and the two new ones.
He stared directly at it, his features tense.
My fingers began to tingle with a traitorous coolness.
I shot upwards.
He did, too.
Our eyes met...
That was too much.
“I’m really sorry,” I pressed out somehow, brushing a strand of hair behind my ears and turning around.
Before my insecurity could express itself in any way, I ran back to my seat and sat down, glad that none of the other students had noticed.
Everyone was engrossed in election gossip. Only David gave me a suspicious sideways glance.
The professor was sorting through his papers with his lips pressed together without giving me another glance before he began with the topic of today’s session: epigenetics.
He handed out worksheets and had us work with the internet, and I had time to reflect on this strange moment from just now.
No doubt those had been runes of forbidden magic. But where had he gotten them from? How had he gotten them? The paper had looked old, worn...
Without attracting attention, I looked at the professor, who was sitting behind his desk doing something on his iPad.
My gaze lingered on the glasses he had put on and the tingling in my stomach returned, with it, the warmth in my face.
Of course, this man looked hot even with reading glasses.
What had he done in his last life that the gods had blessed him like this?
My gaze slid back to the ring.
And, of course, he had a wife. How could someone like him not be married? There had probably been several women fighting over him, and the one who had managed to get him into a marriage was now fighting with his thousand female worshipers.
Shocked by my thoughts, I lowered my head.
Out there, with the other girls, I pretended to be innocent and here I was gawking at the guy just like the other female students.
What was wrong with me?
I didn’t want to have thoughts like that. Not about a married man who was ten years older than me and in addition my professor.
I pulled out my cell phone and guiltily opened the chat with Erik before I started typing. Erik was online, which increased the excitement in my stomach even more.
He read my message immediately and started typing.
I smiled, but the feeling of guilt didn’t really go away. But at least it distracted me.
