_________
Lucas shook his head ruefully. "He got into a duel during his first week."
"A duel? Like, somebody insulted his honour? " I tried to remember what I'd learned about duels from romance novels and movies. All I knew was that Lucas's history was definitely a lot more interesting than mine. "Or was it over a girl?"
"He would'vehad to move fast, to meet a girl in the first few days of school." Lucas paused, as if he were just realizing that it was the first day of school and he had already met me. I felt this tug, like something was almost physically pulling me to lean towards him, but then Lucas turned his head and glared at the towers of Evernight, just visible through the pine branches. It was as though the building itself had offended him.
Could'vebeen anything. Back then, they'd duel at the drop of a hat.
Family legend has it that survived but not without breaking one of the stained glass windows in the great hall."
"Of course. There's one that's just clear glass, and i never understood why."
"Now you do. Evernight's been closed to my family ever since. "
"Until now. "
"Until now," he agreed? "And I don't mind.
I think I can learn a lot here. Doesn't mean I have to like everything about it."
"I'm not sure I like anything about it," I confessed. Except you, added the voice in my head, which had turned awfully bold of a sudden.
Lucas seemed to be able to hear that voice. There was something knowing in the way he gazed back at me. With his chiseled features and school uniform, he should've looked like the all-American boy, but he didn't. During chase, and in the moments afterward when he'd thought we'd be fighting for our lives, I'd glimpsed something a little wild lurking just beneath the surface. He said, "I like the gargoyles, thr mountains, and the fresh air. That's it so fa."
"You like the gargoyles?"
"I like it when the monsters are smaller than me."
"Never thought of it that way." We had reached the edge of the grounds. The sunlight was bright now, and I sensed that the school was waking up, preparing to receive its students, to swallowthem through that arched stone doorway.
"I'm dreading this."
"Not too late to run, Bianca," he said lightly.
"I don't want to run. I just don't want to be surrounded by all these strangers. Around people I don't know, I can never talk or act normal or be myself at all__why are you smiling?"
"Seems like you know how to talk to me."
I blinked astonished at myself. Lucas was right. How was that even possible? I stammered, "With you ___ I guess___ I think you scared me so badly that I got all the fear over with right away."
"Hey, if it works ___"
"Yeah." Already I sensed that there was more than that. Strangers still terrified me, but he wasn't a stranger. He hadn't since the first moment I realized that he'd been trying to save my life. I felt as though I'd always known Lucas, as if somehow I'd been waiting years for him to arrive. "I should go back before my parents realize I'm gone."
"Don't let them hassle you."
"They won't."
Lucas didn't seem sure of that, but he nodded as he stepped away from me, edging back into the shadows while I walked into the light. "See you around, then."
I raised one hand in a farewell wave, but Lucas was already gone. He'd disappeared into the forest in an instant.
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