But it was the last item on the list that made me want to hurl. My private study. It was swimming.
“Swimming?” My voice cracked. The notion had taken a moment to register. It’d been the last thing I’d expected to face.
“Aye, that’s your private study,” Ronan said in a tone that brooked no disagreement.
Amanda stood and put on her coat. She was chuckling.
“But I don’t swim. ”
“You do now. ” He crossed his arms in front of that broad chest. “And I’m your teacher. ”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“But, seriously. ” I jogged to catch up to Ronan on his way Bout of the dining hall. “I can’t swim. ”on his way out of the dining hall. “I can’t swim. ”
Just the thought of it was enough to freak me out. I despised it. Despised the sensation of being submerged, of water going up my nose and gurgling in my ears. It was just wrong.
To top it all off, Ronan was my teacher. Ronan would be the one sitting front and center at my carnival of lameness, ineptitude, and irrational fears. Clearly, the fates did not believe in the personal dignity of Annelise Drew.
Not to mention, this did nothing for my plan. How was I to excel and escape if I had to swim? I would never excel at swimming. “What happens if I can’t learn?”
“You will. ” He held the door open for me.
I pulled on my cap and zipped up my coat, following him down the stairs, my mind racing. Surely there were Watchers out there who weren’t great in the water. We were training to be emissaries for vampires, not mermen. “But if I don’t, will I still be able to progress to the next level? I don’t care how much you try to hypnotize me—I really can’t swim. ”
“That’s why you’re in a private study. And I didn’t hypnotize you. ” With a sigh, he stopped and faced me. “Now it’s time for you to get to your first class. Do you know how to get to the science building?”
I stared at him. “I’m so not done discussing this whole swim thing. ”
He turned onto the path, ignoring my comment. “Never mind. I’m going that way. I’ll show you. ”
“But wait. ” The path appeared to head away from the buildings, so I turned away from him and stepped onto the quad instead. The snow had transformed into shoals of dingy gray ice atop mucky gray gravel, and it crunched underfoot. “Isn’t it this way?”
“Stop,” he said abruptly. “Acari aren’t allowed to stray from the path. ”
I gaped in disbelief. “You’re kidding, right? Is that supposed to be a metaphor? Some sort of Karate Kid, wax-on, wax-off thing?”
He gave me that peeved quit-your-joking look he sometimes got.
Shoulders slumping, I reined in the sarcasm and rejoined him. “So, you’re saying we have to take every corner around the quad, every time? Not just for naked midnight hazing runs?”
He gave a brisk nod and strode ahead. “No shortcuts. ”
“And if an Acari breaks the rule?” Catching up to him, I saw the expression on his face and quit that line of questioning right there. “Okay, I got it. I won’t break the rules. But you’ve got to help me at least drop swim class. ”
Ronan raised his brows. “Have you learned how to swim in the past twenty-four hours?”
“No. ” Duh.
“Do you wish to drown during your stay on the isle?”
“Of course not. I—”
“Then you have no choice, Drew. There is no dropping classes. There is no choice. You do as you’re told, and you survive. You will learn to swim. And, moreover, you will be the best. ”
Ronan had no idea what he was talking about. Surely I’d be able to fudge my way out of it. Because I not only couldn’t swim, I wouldn’t swim. I was terrified of choking, of drowning. Just the thought of it clenched my chest with panic.
I had to change the subject. I fished my course list back out of my pocket and shook it at him. “And what’s with these other classes? Come on, I have to take a class in decorum?”