Silver: The Lost Royal

17 | The Fountain

NOSE-DEEP in a thick leather-bound book with reading glasses just below his pinched brows, his eyes scoured the page in front of him. Jamie was a perfect portrait of concentration, seated upon one chair out of the three in the library.

While she stood by the door, a mess of pants after spending the past thirty minutes searching The Vast. Not only had she found Jamie's side empty, but Gema and Marcela's territories as well. She'd resolved to search the house instead when she finally stumbled upon him in the library, seated without a care in the world except for what was in the book.

But why would he be there so early in the morning when they had decided they would reconvene every evening in the library for spell lessons?

"Are you going to stand there all day, or are we going to review your knowledge of spells?" His question shocked her out of her stare.

He was prickly. As prickly as normal Jamie would be. His calm demeanor made it seem like she hadn't almost strangled him the day before, but she couldn't mirror it. She couldn't get back to the grind like nothing had happened.

"Jamie," she started. "Look, I'm sorry about yesterday. It wasn't my intention. I... I don't even know how it happened. I'm even surprised I could do that when I was so weak and I just want to say, I'm sorry." She took in a deep breath to compensate for the one breath she used to ramble.

Jamie was silent before he placed his glasses and book on the table. Earthy brown eyes met her warm brown ones. There was a moment of silence before he smacked his lips.

"I understand. Now, have a seat. We have a lot to cover and so little time," he said in a curt tone.

"Are we spending the whole day on it?"

"Yes, and there are so many spells."

She walked over and sat opposite him after she had carried two enormous books from the shelf on their right. They were the same books she had spent her days with when Jamie wasn't around.

"So, we're good?" she asked again, for good measure, but Jamie only glanced at her before tapping on his wristwatch. Time was the message, and she got it clear.

"Alright, I'll take what I can get," she muttered.

They got straight to work, which, as expected, lasted for hours. Even though Jamie said they had a lot to cover, he wasn't rushing her, and she was catching up well. But since they sat there for hours, drowning in foreign words, it was no surprise that she got tired.

They'd paused for some food and snacks, but Jamie probed her even as they ate. So when Jamie gave her an actual break, she rushed out for fresh air that wasn't tinged with the scent of books.

She didn't stop at the garden bench this time and even though she wondered why the others weren't back, she ventured further. The grass was wet from the recent downpour and the sky had darkened, dotted with tiny stars, but she found comfort in it. So long as it wasn't the hard chair in the library, she would take it.

Distant sounds of streaming water pulled her thoughts away from the trio and the library, forcing her to search for the source until she froze.

The sight of the fountain stole her attention at once. Its three tiers which reduced in circumference the higher they went had water dribbling down from their rims with tiny lights circling and giving the water a mystical glow. Her eyes remained fixed on the endless stream but her feet moved until she sat on the edge of the fountain as an old memory of her and Kara resurfaced.

She had been crying in her room, a little older than eight, and had just been to the park with Elowen and her parents. But her tears weren't from the time spent with The Parks.