Dark Light of Day by Jill Archer Read Free Book Online Page B

motioning to them, wanting his attention directed anywhere but toward me. He turned toward Ivy first and extended his hand.
    “You’re Ivy Jaynes, right?” Ari said as they shook hands.
    “Yes,” Ivy said, clearly surprised that he might know who she was.
    “Your family’s
Alliance
has given me safe passage along the Lethe many times,” he said warmly, grasping her hand with two of his. His touch and the tone of his voice had its effect and Ivy smiled back openly at him.
    “And Fitz?” Ari said, offering his hand to the right. “Is that short for something?”
    “Fitzgerald,” Fitz said slowly, pumping Ari’s hand. Fitz had the look of an alpha dog under attack. He wasn’t growling but his ruff was up and his tail was wagging a whole lot less furiously than before. “We were just leaving,” he said, standing up.
    Ivy looked like she wanted to stay but I leapt up as if on springs. Ari was quicker than me though and grabbed my cloak off the back of my chair before I could. He opened it for me to step into. I paused, not wanting to meet his eye, and then turned so that he could drape the heavy cloak over me. He did, softly laying it across my shoulders and running his hands down my arms as he did so. I shivered and repressed a longing to fall back into his arms.
Was I crazy?
He was a demon executioner who’d come here to train as a Maegester. He had waning magic. Apparently, a lot of it. But even worse, so did I.
    Even if I could get used to the fact that he’d killed demons to pay for his tuition, he’d never get used to the fact that my magic was as deadly as his.
    I broke free, mumbled good-byes to all, and launched myself toward the door. On the way I had to pass Ari’s table where Beauty and her pretty friend waited for his return. I stared. Beauty stared. Mederies were not usually vengeful creatures but she didn’t look happy. Somehow I didn’t thinkit was the burn marks. More’s the pity for both of us. She only reminded me of everything I wasn’t. Everything I could have been. If I’d been born as I should have. I stomped out in the direction of Megiddo. Time to dig my trenches deeper and settle in.

Chapter 5

    E very waning magic user had a demon mark. I was no exception. The marks were usually dark spots of pigmentation just above the left breast—right above the heart. Mine was light but it was there. When I was nine, I’d tried to cut it off. It had been a disastrous, bloody mess. But the mark had grown back, a shade darker, with no scarring. It was the waning magic in me, I knew, and I hadn’t tried to remove it since. What I did do, however, was cover it up. Even in the summer. My entire wardrobe was primarily designed for one purpose—to cover my demon mark. In the winter it was easy. I wore a lot of high-necked sweaters. In the summer, I wore a lot of high-necked, sleeveless shirts. On the rare occasions when I had to dress up, my frocks were startlingly conservative. Or they bared skin somewhere other than my décolletage. Even that morning, heading to student orientation, I was wearing one of the twenty turtleneck sweaters my mother had shipped ahead for me.
    My clothes were always serviceable, as Mrs. Aster would put it, and today it was more of the same. My sweater was asharp, almost shiny gray and my canvas pants were very dark and very new, not at all faded or fraying. It was freezing so I had on a black hooded snow vest lined with ermine and a different pair of snow boots. The ones from yesterday hadn’t dried out completely yet. And they reminded me painfully of Ari, who I had sworn to put out of my mind. Funny how people you’d waved off as irrelevant before suddenly became irresistible.
    The sidewalks were covered with a thin coat of brittle ice. Ivy and I crunched along, our breath coming out of our mouths in puffs of white as we discussed the start of the semester. Fitz had been assigned to a room in Abaddon and he was saving seats for us in Lekai Auditorium where the