Aliyah leaned forward just a little more, eyes still glued to the dragon woman across the cafeteria.
"Look at that," she said under her breath. "She looks fucking hot. And look at those tattoos."
Kaelith followed her stare with the deep weariness of someone watching a carriage roll straight toward a cliff.
"Do you want your mother to have a heart attack?" Kaelith asked flatly.
Aliyah finally tore her gaze away long enough to look offended. "Why would she have a heart attack?"
"Because you are staring at a walking bad decision like you're already planning your wedding."
"I am not planning anything," Aliyah said. Then, after a pause: "She just looks like she'd be interesting."
Neris, who had also been studying the dragon woman with the cool detachment of a scholar examining a dangerous artifact, shut his book and said, "She looks like she cheats on people for a living."
Aliyah scoffed. "You talk like Kaelith isn't a cheater too."
Kaelith put a hand to her chest. "Excuse me."
"You have no shame dating two people at the same time," Aliyah said.
Kaelith raised a finger. "It was not cheating."
"It was absolutely cheating."
"It was an overlapping emotional schedule."
Neris made a quiet sound of disgust. "That is the most terrible sentence I have heard all week."
Kaelith looked pleased with herself. "Thank you."
Aliyah rolled her eyes and looked back toward the entrance, but the dragon woman had already moved deeper into the cafeteria line.
She was very attractive, unfortunately.
Kaelith caught the look on her face and sighed. "You are going to do something stupid."
Aliyah took a calm bite of bread. "I do stupid things all the time. That doesn't narrow it down."
Before Kaelith could answer, the bell rang through the hall, low and resonant. Around them students groaned, grabbed books, and started rising from the tables.
Neris stood at once. "I have alchemy in seven minutes."
"Condolences," Aliyah said.
"I like alchemy."
"That's worse."
Kaelith rose more slowly, straightening her cuffs. "I have combat theory. Try not to embarrass the family before dinner."
Aliyah stood too, smoothing down her skirt. "No promises."
Neris adjusted the stack of books in his arms and gave her a final, deeply unimpressed look. "If the dragon woman steals your wallet, I will not help."
"Why would she steal my wallet?"
"Her face," he said.
Aliyah gasped. "You are both terrible people."
"And yet we're still easier to love than you," Kaelith said, then stepped back before Aliyah could hit her.
Aliyah aimed a murderous glare at both of them, but they were already moving away in opposite directions, Kaelith with her lazy predator stride, Neris with his cold efficiency.
She muttered several rude things under her breath and headed toward the east wing where Advanced Fire Magic was held.
The academy corridors were already packed. Students streamed between carved archways and enchanted windows.
Fire mages were easy to spot on class-change days. They moved faster than everyone else, often with singed sleeves and expressions of reckless confidence. Someone ahead of Aliyah was carrying a charred notebook and laughing.
Her boots clicked against black stone floors as she climbed the staircase to the upper practice level. She reached the classroom just before the second bell.
Advanced Fire Magic was held in one of the larger chambers, half lecture hall and half training arena.
Tiered stone desks curved around a broad sunken floor in the center, where shields and rune circles were engraved directly into the dark tile.
The walls shimmered faintly with old protective enchantments. Several scorch marks had burned too deep to erase. Professor Vaeric called those "historical texture." Everyone else called them proof that fifth-years were idiots.
Aliyah stepped inside and slowed.
There was a seating chart floating in the air above the front board.
"Oh, for fuck's sake," she muttered.
Professor Vaeric loved structure. He was one of those men who thought joy led directly to explosions.
Tall, silver-haired, and always dressed in robes so severe they looked personally offended by wrinkles, he stood near the board with his hands behind his back while students groaned and searched for their assigned places.
Aliyah scanned the chart and found her name.
Front half. Third row.
She was already annoyed.
Then she read the name beside hers.
Scarlett.
Aliyah frowned. She did not know any Scarlett.
A minute later she knew exactly who Scarlett was.
The dragon woman walked into the room.
Several students looked up at once. It was impossible not to. Up close, she was even more striking.
The dragon woman looked around the room, spotted the chart, then looked straight at Aliyah.
Aliyah felt her spine lock.
Then the woman grinned and walked down the row.
She stopped beside Aliyah's desk and dropped into the seat next to hers with easy confidence.
"You're Aliyah, right?" she said.
Her voice was low and rough around the edges, warm in a way that slid right under the skin.
Aliyah blinked once. "Yes."
"Nice to meet you."
Aliyah stared for half a beat too long before remembering how language worked. "You too."
The woman tilted her head, amused already.
Professor Vaeric's voice cut through the low noise of the room. "Settle."
Chairs scraped. Conversations died.
The professor raised one hand toward the new student. "As some of you may have noticed, we have a transfer joining the class. Scarlett Draven. She is new to the university and has been placed here based on her examination score."
There was an immediate rustle of interest at that. Advanced Fire Magic did not accept transfers easily, and definitely not ones who tested in late.
Professor Vaeric went on as if he had not just fed a room full of pyromaniacs a piece of gossip.
"Aliyah, since Miss Draven is joining mid-term, you will explain to her what material we have covered so far."
Aliyah almost laughed from sheer disbelief.
Of course the universe would do this. Not content with humiliating her romantically on a near-weekly basis, it had now shoved the hottest woman she had seen in months directly beside her and ordered her to be academically useful.
"Yes, Professor," she said.
Scarlett turned toward her with open interest, one elbow braced on the desk. "That sounds fun."
Aliyah was not weak. She had survived family dinners, political tension, Kaelith's love life, and Neris's superiority complex. She had dignity.
It was just unfortunate that dignity had become much harder to maintain with Scarlett looking at her like that.
Professor Vaeric began the lecture, something about compression theory and flame density regulation, but Aliyah's attention kept fracturing.
Not because she did not understand the lesson. Fire magic had always come naturally to her.
No, the problem was the very distracting dragon woman six inches away, who smelled faintly of smoke and cedar and had crossed one boot over the other like she owned the room already.
Aliyah kept her eyes on her notes.
Mostly.
After several minutes Scarlett leaned slightly closer. "So," she murmured, voice pitched low enough not to carry, "how much did I miss?"
Aliyah turned just enough to answer. "Foundational restraint work, internal ignition stabilization, external shaping, and the first stages of dual-heat manipulation."
Scarlett blinked. "That's a lot."
"It's an advanced class."
Scarlett's mouth curved. "You always this welcoming?"
Aliyah narrowed her eyes. "You're the one who sat down smiling like a threat."
Scarlett looked delighted. "There she is."
"There who is?"
"The girl from the cafeteria who looked like she wanted to climb me."
Aliyah nearly dropped her pen.
Beside her, Scarlett rested her cheek against her knuckles and smiled without shame, mismatched eyes bright with wicked amusement.
Aliyah stared at her, horrified, fascinated, and suddenly very aware of the heat rushing to her face.
Scarlett leaned in the slightest bit closer.
"Don't worry," she whispered. "I liked it."
Author note: Here is an image of Neris , tell me what you think of him I find him pretty handsome ;)