All That Lives Must Die - Eric Nylund [149]
Only Robert never fell behind. Was this a magnanimous gesture? Acknowledgment that he knew Fiona and he couldn’t be around each other?
“Hey.” Mitch gently jostled her elbow. “I thought maybe I could use that rain check and have our coffee date now?”
Fiona blinked, not understanding.
Then she remembered that after the field trip to Ultima Thule, she and Mitch had been going for coffee—before they got seriously distracted rescuing Eliot in that “side” alley from an army of shadow creatures.
How typical was that?
And Fiona also recalled that Mitch had called it a coffee date then, too.
Was the emphasis on the coffee—as in two students going to grab something to drink and go over homework? Or was the emphasis on the date? As in a boy-and-girl type thing? (And still technically forbidden by Audrey’s Rule 106.)
“I don’t know,” Fiona whispered. “After everything that happened this morning, maybe we should lie low for a while.”
“If you never let yourself have any fun,” Mitch teased, “you’re going to end up as dried out as Miss Westin.”
He grinned. Fiona could never resist it and found herself smiling, too.
Besides, she’d never heard anyone make fun of Miss Westin. She half expected the Headmistress to appear, standing behind them all this time—glaring right through them like they didn’t exist.
But Miss Westin wasn’t there.
And Mitch’s smile could have lit a pitch-black room.
“Okay,” she said, ducking her head in a half nod. “Coffee it is.”
She was careful not to say this was a coffee date . . . not yet anyway.
Jeremy angled toward them. “Aye, coffee with a wee nip o’ whiskey would hit the—”
Sarah and Amanda stepped in front of him, Sarah elbowing him in the ribs as the two of them jostled Jeremy back from Mitch and Fiona.
Sarah quickly whispered to her cousin.
Jeremy shrugged, then gave a conspiratorial nod to Mitch.
“We’re heading to the library,” Sarah said, a little too loud. “Must return a few books.”
She and Amanda pushed Jeremy. Fiona heard him muttering: “The library? Gods! Couldn’t you think up a better excuse?”
Fiona would have to thank Amanda and Sarah later. The last person she wanted tagging along was Jeremy Covington.
And Robert? She glanced back over shoulder.
Robert was gone.
She and Mitch crossed the silent campus, seeing only a few older students, who looked more harried than they did. Fiona didn’t want to think about what senior midterms were like.
Harlan Dells waited for them at the front gate as if he had never left his post. He nodded to Mitch and gave a tiny bow to Fiona.
“Congratulations,” he said as calmly as if they had just taken an ordinary paper-and-pencil test. “A-minus. Most impressive.” He added with a chuckle, “Mr. Ma will spend all week rebuilding his pet monstrosity obstacle course. I believe he is quite . . . cross.”
Fiona wasn’t sure what to say. “Uh, thanks,” she tried.
Mr. Dells’s laserlike gaze flickered over her head and then returned, his expression cooling a bit.
“You two have a wonderful time.” He opened the gate for them.
Fiona turned toward the direction he’d looked. In the shade of a cedar tree along the path to Bristlecone Hall sulked the unmistakable silhouette of Robert Farmington.
Mitch saw, too. “Did you want to ask him to join us?” His tone was polite, but he managed to say it such that it was clear he was only being polite.
She couldn’t believe it. Robert following them? Was he jealous? Spying on them? Fiona thought they were getting over this.
She wandered through the gate and into the alley. “He’s not joining us,” she said, clenching her jaw.
Fiona tried to smother her mounting anger. She didn’t want to show that side of herself to Mitch.
She couldn’t stop Robert from watching her. He was quick, and all Drivers were trained to track by the League. He’d be there in the shadows while she and Mitch sat and sipped coffee at the Café Eridanus.
He was going to ruin it for them.
“It’ll be fine,” she said.
Mitch read her expression and glanced