Chapter 14 Free Period
POV: Carly
The study room on the second floor of the east wing was the quietest place on campus during free period.
That was the only reason Carly agreed to spend it here with Tommy instead of her dorm room. Quiet meant she could actually get something done. She had her grimoire open, her planner beside it, and a fresh page of notes started on the truth serum formula that she and Niko had barely scratched the surface of yesterday.
Tommy was across the table from her doing absolutely none of the reading he had brought with him.
She could feel him watching her. Had been able to feel it for the past ten minutes. She let it go on longer than she normally would have before she looked up.
"You're staring." She said it with a small smile, not looking away from her page.
Tommy grinned and leaned back in his chair. "Can't help it. I like the view."
"Cheesy." She shook her head and kept writing.
She heard him shift in his seat. Then the warmth of him was suddenly right beside her, sliding into the booth on her side without asking. His shoulder pressed against hers and his hand found her hair, pushing a strand back behind her ear slowly.
Carly kept her eyes on the page.
Teasing him by not giving him the reaction he was looking for was always more satisfying than just giving in.
"What if I told you I had very dirty intentions?" He said it low against her ear.
She shivered. Kept writing. "I'd say that's not exactly original."
He laughed softly and his lips found her cheek. She let him have that one.
"Okay look." She put her pen down and turned slightly. "I learned that new spell I've been working on since last semester. The wildfire one. Do you want to see it?"
She had been trying to nail it for months. Wrong measurements, wrong timing, wrong everything. She had finally gotten it right two nights ago and she wanted to show someone who actually mattered.
Tommy hummed against her jaw. "Later." His lips moved lower. "Much later."
She let him continue for a moment before she registered what he had said.
Later.
She picked up her pen again.
He noticed. Sighed. Sat up.
"Really Care?"
"I have a lot to get through." She kept her voice even.
"So do I." He leaned forward on the table. "I've got assignments, practice twice a week, film study on Fridays. My schedule isn't exactly light either. But I still make time."
"I know you do." She meant it.
"Do you?" He said it quieter than she expected. "Because lately it feels like I'm in a relationship with you and that book."
She looked up at him.
His jaw was tight. Not angry exactly. Something more tired than angry and she recognized it because she had been feeling a version of it herself lately and didn't know what to do with it any more than he did.
"Tommy." She started.
"I'm not trying to fight." He put his hand up. "I just miss you. We're supposed to be the golden couple of this school and I don't feel very golden when I haven't had a real conversation with you in two weeks."
She opened her mouth.
The study room door opened.
She assumed it was another student looking for a free table and didn't look up immediately. It wasn't until Tommy went very still beside her that she registered something was different.
She looked up.
The man standing in the doorway was tall. Built the way men were built when physicality wasn't something they worked at but something they simply were. Dark hair like Tommy's, square jaw, broad shoulders filling out a jacket that cost more than most students' entire wardrobes. He looked around the study room like he was assessing it rather than entering it and his eyes landed on Carly first.
He smiled.
It was a good smile. Warm and easy and completely in control of every muscle it used.
"You must be Carly." He said it like he already knew the answer.
Tommy was on his feet. "Dad." The word came out careful. Not surprised. Not happy. Careful. "What are you doing here."
Charles Lancaster didn't answer his son immediately. He walked to the table instead, unhurried, and pulled out the chair across from Carly and sat down in it like he had been invited.
"I had a meeting with Headmistress Saltzman about the spring game schedule." He said it to Tommy but his eyes stayed on Carly. "Thought I'd stop in and see you while I was here. And meet your girl properly." He smiled again. "I've heard a lot about you."
Carly smiled back. "Good things I hope."
"Of course." His eyes moved over her face slowly. Assessing. Patient. The same way he had assessed the room when he walked in. "Tommy talks about you constantly. It's always Carly this, Carly that." He paused just long enough to feel intentional. "You're important to him."
"He's important to me too." She said it steadily.
Charles nodded like she had given a very reasonable answer to a question he hadn't asked out loud yet.
"I'm sure." He folded his hands on the table. "You're a McPherson witch. Leona's daughter." Not a question.
"That's right."
"Powerful family." He said it pleasantly. "Very respected in Black River Falls. Your mother has done a lot for this community." He tilted his head slightly. "It's important to surround yourself with people who understand what legacy means. What it requires."
Carly held his gaze. "I agree completely."
Something moved behind his eyes. A flicker of something she couldn't name that came and went so fast she almost missed it.
"Good." He smiled. "Then you understand that some things can't be chosen. Some things are just what they are, whether we like it or not."
The study room felt smaller than it had sixty seconds ago.
She understood him perfectly. Every single word of it.
"Completely." She said it without blinking.
Tommy came back to the table and pulled his chair out, sitting down between them. His eyes moved from his father to Carly and back again and she watched him read the air between them and feel exactly what it was.
"What did I miss." He said it flat.
"Nothing." Charles said pleasantly. "Just getting acquainted." He pushed back from the table and stood in one easy motion. "I won't keep you both. I know you're busy." He clapped Tommy once on the shoulder as he passed. "Walk me out."
It wasn't a suggestion.
Tommy looked at Carly. She gave him a small nod that said go ahead and watched his jaw tighten before he stood and followed his father toward the door.
Charles paused in the doorway and looked back at her one more time.
"It was lovely to finally meet you, Carly." He said it warmly. Genuinely almost. "I'm sure we'll be seeing each other."
Then he was gone and Tommy followed and the study room was quiet again.
Carly sat very still with her pen in her hand and her grimoire open in front of her.
She stared at the page without reading it.
She had known about Charles Lancaster's feelings on their relationship since the beginning. Tommy had told her in one of those late night conversations where honesty came easier than it did in daylight. His father believed in the true mate bond above everything else. Carly wasn't Tommy's true mate. She was his chosen girl and in Charles Lancaster's world those two things were not the same and never would be.
She had told herself it didn't matter.
Sitting here now she was less sure about that.