Dark Nebula (The Chronicles of Kerrigan) (17 page)

Rae followed. She trusted him, but a little voice in the back of her head asked
—
Knowing he’s still holding back, that he lied to me once for the Privy Council, can I ever truly trust him again?

The following Friday morning, Rae and Molly headed to the Oratory for
the headmaster’s
class.
Molly
covered her mouth, trying to
stifl
e
another yawn.

“You look exhausted
.
”

“I don’t see why seniors have
tatù
classes in the morning.
It’s like two hours of working out.
I liked it so much better last year when we finished the day with Lanford
.”
Molly’s
eyes went
wide, when she realized what she had said
. “Not that I miss Lanford
!
Carter’s good enough and his freaky woman-hating attitude is gone, thank goodness. It’s just… you know… getting up so early for physical movement is wrong in so many ways.”

“Are you coming down with something?” Rae ignored Molly’s
babbling
. She
reach
ed
out to touch her friend’s forehead.

Molly swatted her hand away. “I’m not sick.
I stayed up till three las
t night talking to Reece on F
acebook.
He’s skiing in
Switzerland
with his uncle.”

“How’s he doing?” Rae figured talking about Reece would perk Molly up
and let her forget any thoughts of Lanford
, which suited Rae just fine
.

“He’s awesome
!
Did I tell you w
e’re dating exclusively now
?
Last night
,
he said he’
ll
come
to
the school dance next month.”

They headed down the cobble
stone
path le
a
d
ing
to the Oratory. A few other students walked in front of them.

“Are you allowed to invite him?
Do you need to ask the dean for permission?
”

“S
top being such a goodie-two-shoes
.
The boys get to see
normal
girls from
Roe
H
ampton
College
--
we should get the same allowances
.” Molly curled her pointy fingers when she said the word normal
.

Rae couldn’t hold back the laughter.
Only crazy Molly
c
ould argue a point
like that and make it work
.
“I’
d
still
double check with
Carter
or the d
ean.
I’d die of embarrassment if my boyfriend got
kicked out.”

“
I’ve already got permission
.
” Molly rolled her eyes.
“
You know, you’re turning more and more into Devon Wardell every day.
He’s mister
-
play-it-by-the-rules.
Your tutoring
sessions
are molding you into him.”
Molly stepped in front
of her
and opened the door.
“You’re like a ninety-year old couple.”

Rae said nothing but grinned behind Molly’s back
as they headed into the Oratory.

“Good morning.
”
Carter
stood at the front of the
Grand Room
auditorium
, shutting a book when Molly and Rae came in
. “Let’s get started right away.
No more
dillydallying
. The term is underway and I don’t have the patience to treat you all like beginners.
You’re all
tatùed
and understand your
ability
.
W
ell, most of you
.” H
e glanced
at Kraigan.
“We’ve a lot of ground to cover today.
This isn’t meant to be all fun and games like before.
”

A loud
groan
erupted from the class as the students
gather
ed
in
the groups
Carter
had
assigned at the beginning of the week.

Before Molly left Rae’s side, she whispered,
“Looks like
Carter’s dropped the woman-hat
ing
and
taken on Madame Elpis’ attitude.
Great
.
What a w
ay to start the weekend.” S
he rolled her eyes and shuffled to her group.

Rae search
ed for
Nicholas
.
Spotting
him standing by Kraigan
, s
he headed over.

“’Morning, Rae.”
Nicholas
smiled
.

“Hi
,
Nic. Kraigan.” S
he nodded at both of them.

“Happy
freakin’
Frida
y.
” Kraigan
shook his head at the headmaster
.
Rae grinned, despite
feeling Carter’s eyes
bea
ring down
on her.

“
You have a group assignment to do over the weekend
.”
Carter
’
s
voice stopped all student conversation. “
Due Monday is a
five-
page essay on the Privy Council.”

Moans
erupted from
the class
.
Carter
continued
,
as if
he
hadn’t
heard
a
sound.
“
Right now, o
ne member
from each group
needs to come up and draw a slip of paper out of this basket.
It’
s the subject you
’
re to become experts on.
It might be the history of the Privy Council, the relationship between
the
Council and country, job descriptions, the political aspect,
etcetera
.
You’ll be doing class presentations
in two
week
s
.
We’ll do three
a day and you won’t know who’s going first so it must be complete
d
on time
.
”

More groans.
Rae shot a glance at Nic
h
olas
,
who shrugged his shoulders and
frowned
.
Rae tried to
act
dejected as well, but she actually wanted to find out more about who
Devon
worked for.

“Go get a slip,
Princess
Rae,” Kraigan
teased
. “Use
that
tatù of
yours
to get
us
a
good
one
.”

Nicholas laughed. “I agree, go get us an easy one.”

What the
—
?
Rae
stared
at him
.
“Did you just call me ‘princess’?”

Her expression must have been fierce, because Kraigan stepped back, hands raised in surrender
. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it
in a bad way
. I was just teasing. I just meant
—
”

Rae cut him off, “Don’t worry about it.”
He probably feels nervous being the new guy. Maybe. Or maybe he’s just trying to show off.

Rae walked to
Carter
, waited her
turn,
and pulled a slip out of the bucket.
She
returned to the group and
pushed it towards Kraigan. H
ands in his pockets, he nodded to Nicholas
, who took the slip and read it.

“
Assignment:
Number of members of th
e board
--
history
behind
the number
.”
Nic
h
olas
huffed
. “Crap
.
You know
all
members are
secret
, right?
No one knows who they actually
are except the Council members themselves
.
They’re all sworn to secrecy
.”
He crumpled the paper and
tossed it into his backpack
.

“Why
is it
a secret?” Kraigan
hadn’t moved from his
stance
leaning against the wall
, hands in pockets
.
“Spill the beans and they kill you for squealing?
”

“Protection
.
It’s an hono
r to serve on the board
.
E
ven when
they
step down, they still don’t let on
that
they were a member.”
Nicholas
shrugged.
“It’
d
be so cool to know who
the
president
is or
one
who has been
. The answer’s probably right under our noses, and we don’t have a clue.”

Rae smiled and gave a little laugh, causing both boys to look at her questioningly. “I was just thinking…I keep thinking of them as ‘secret squirrels’, like that old cartoon? I picture them scampering around, gathering nuts and spying on people from trees like that.” Rae
giggled
again, not immediately noticing that neither Kraigan, nor Nic seemed to be laughing with her.

“Is this another American culture reference that I have to research to understand?” Nic
looked
confused. Kraigan just looked blank.

“Never mind.” Rae
shook her head. “I don’t think you guys had the Disney channel growing up.” She sullenly turned her attention back to the assignment at hand.
Carter’s up to something.
She glanced over to the headmaster who
suddenly
seemed to be avoiding
her gaze
.
The Privy Council
’
s private, operating from the shadows, secret.
How were they supposed to gain information about an organization that by its very nature,
seemed to discourage the sharing of information?

“
S
hould we meet up Sunday night?”
Nicholas
asked
.

“What about tonight?” Rae replied.

“Uh-oh. Sorry, no-can-do
,” Kraigan said. “
I’ve already got plans.
I can swing it
sometime next week
.”

Seriously? What could you possibly have to do
in a boarding school town
where you don’t know
barely
anyone and no one knows you? I am NOT getting a bad grade on this.
“I don’t want to leave this
until the
last minute
, if we need more work… I don’t want to be screwed.”

Nicholas groaned.
“Fine, let’s meet
one night this week
at eight
in
Aumbry
House
’s library.
Both of you check your date books or calendars or whatever and email me. I’ll pick the night, and there’ll be no arguing.”

“Cool,” Kraigan said
with a smarmy grin
. “Girl’s dorm works for me.”

Rae rolled
her eyes.
Ugh…he’s such a…
gu
y.

For the rest of the class,
Carter
had them focus on inner sensations. He wanted them to center
on their
internal hum.
Within the
ir
groups, he asked the students to try
to
detect tatùs from each other.
Rae found the skill easy
.
S
he
had been doing
it all summer
,
and
it was how her tatù worked to mimic other
tatù
s
.
She had to know they were there in order to copy them.
The
other
students struggled
with the concept
.