Chapter 35: Apparently I Wasn’t That Good a Kisser

Dante called Rhea, naming the garden and explaining that Anika was awake but unsteady. He passed Anika the phone for the medical questions. Whatever mysterious power he possessed, it hadn’t supplied a nursing qualification, and she could answer for herself.

Rhea asked about pain, dizziness, and whether Anika could walk. Whatever her answers meant, they earned instructions to stay seated and contact the cafe staff if anything worsened while Rhea called student health.

"I wanted our first date remembered for something else," Dante said, offering the water he’d bought with lunch. "Preferably my mouth, for once without a formal complaint."

Anika gave him a tired look over the bottle. "If you’re trying to claim responsibility for my knees, you’ll need a considerably better performance."

Her hand shook against the bench, ending his attempt to make this feel normal. Anika admitted it had started before lunch; she had wanted an afternoon without people watching her. Dante let her finish, then asked whether she would leave him on the bench if he said the same thing.

"That is an extremely irritating question," she said, which he took as permission to keep the phone within reach.

Rhea called back after speaking to the nurse. If Anika remained steady, they could return on the next shuttle, where Rhea would meet them and walk her to the clinic; any worsening meant calling for immediate help.

They tested a few slow steps before boarding the next shuttle. Dante kept his bag clear and let Anika choose their seat. Announcing that he had everything under control would sound reassuring, provided nobody asked him a single follow-up question.

Rhea met them at student health, her red tail holding the door while the nurse took Anika inside. The reading showed low magical reserves without explaining the sudden weakness, and Dante gave the time of Posey’s failed warming charm from his notes.

The nurse said matching symptoms didn’t prove a shared cause. Dante agreed to stop practicing until Professor Bell reviewed the times. His mind offered a reassuring theory about power settling. He asked it for evidence and, for once, let the silence count as an answer.

Anika sent Jett her own message before leaving with a clinic assistant. Dante offered to walk her upstairs, but she said she wanted to change first and would meet them later.

"Don’t look so rejected," she added quietly. "The date went well until you became obsessed with my blood pressure." Dante said he wanted another one after she felt better, and she told him to choose somewhere with comfortable seats. It wasn’t the ending he’d planned, but he let himself believe she had meant the good part.

Dante offered to replace Rhea’s missed lunch, but she showed him the sandwich and fries in her bag and chose a courtyard bench. He made room for her drink and asked what reserves meant.

"Available magic, roughly, although a low reading doesn’t tell us what’s using it," she said. When he asked whether someone could be taking it, she warned him against accusing the next stranger carrying a battery.

He asked whether writing down a low reading would help if they didn’t know why it happened, because he wanted something better to offer Anika than another worried look. Rhea said a clear record could help the nurse compare changes, but he needed to leave the interpretation to someone qualified.

Dante wrote the times, symptoms, and what happened next. Every imagined secret headquarters had contained maps and intimidating chairs. Apparently his would also need filing trays, because remembering the right time might help Anika more than pointing impressively at a wall.

Rhea made room beside her textbook. A plush turtle marked the poison Chapter, and she covered it when he noticed. Dante understood immediately. A private audience who never laughed at you deserved protection, especially one trapped between instructions for poisoning people.

"Does he grade your work?" Dante asked, keeping his hands away from the turtle. "I’d like a professor I could bribe with lettuce."

"He accepts finished assignments, which may put him out of your reach," Rhea said, returning him to the page. Dante asked what she was studying, pleased when her hand stayed beside the book instead of covering him.

Rhea told him about treatments that worked differently across magical lineages. He asked whether people ever refused one because of who made it, and she said some patients took advice from anyone until they noticed her tail. She sounded practiced at making it a joke. Dante waited, and after a moment she admitted she wanted to be good enough that even those people would have to listen.

Dante admitted her seeing his underwear had worried him more than her tail. Rhea laughed into her hand, and he clarified that she’d helped him when he needed it. The tail hadn’t changed that. She left the turtle uncovered, and he considered that a small but important victory.

He set a reminder to log his practice times before eating, so the next lesson wouldn’t depend on his memory after something went wrong.

They shared her remaining fries while he asked how to keep useful records. Rhea told him to write his exercise times and ask the women before adding their information, looking pleased enough to make him wish he’d asked sooner.

Passing student health afterward, they met Professor Vale leaving her nurse appointment. She invited Dante into a consultation room while Rhea finished a study-group message outside, then played a recording Senn had recovered from Evan’s work booking.

Dante recognized the calm woman’s voice. His mind immediately supplied a hidden chamber, a watching enemy, a plan unfolding around him. He made himself listen before deciding which parts, if any, the recording actually supported.

The message said Mara would be collected after the demonstration, followed by an assurance that the arrangement would get her home. Professor Vale stopped playback and explained that Evan remembered the booking but couldn’t remember meeting the woman whose name he’d written beside it. Dante asked her to play the exact words again, because he’d already mistaken one frightening piece of evidence for a prediction and didn’t want to do it twice.

"Did anyone actually see Mara leave, or just write that she had?" Dante asked. Professor Vale said Senn was trying to find her, and Evan remained in medical care. She added his question to the reply, giving the search another claim to check.

Dante confirmed the voice for Senn’s reply. That woman had promised safety while Professor Vale bled beside him, and someone else had trusted her. He had wanted to stand at the center of a great secret. Mara might be trapped inside it, waiting for somebody useful to arrive.