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I pulled out the small spellbook and started reading it, because otherwise, I’d stare too blatantly at Percy, and even if I was supposed to be his betrothed, I wasn’t his stalker. He probably had dozens of stalkers after his apples. I searched in my backpack for an apple jam cupcake and ate it with the pizza. I had almost read an entire paragraph when a guy slid into the booth across from me.
“So, you were Bellham’s daughter all along,” the guy said, the one from the last time I’d come here.
“Excuse me?”
His lips thinned, and he glanced at the stage with the contempt that came from wanting what someone else had because you’d know what to do with it while they wasted it. I felt that way often, so I could relate. “I wondered why he was always so focused on you, and now I know. He gave you that spell book? A family heirloom, and there you are getting frosting on it.”
I looked down, frowning, but I didn’t see any frosting. “This isn’t his book. I borrowed it from the library.” Hey! I could legally borrow books from the library, at least after it was cleaned up from the demon mess. Maybe it was by now. Magic could do that kind of thing.
“Did he tell you that? Why does he feel like he has to lie to you?”
I stared at him. “And why do you feel like you have to interfere in my business?” I looked around for my bodyguards, because where were four hulking body builders when you needed half of one? Percy was there instead, standing there, blocking the view, or would have been if he wasn’t the whole view plus a sunset.
He slid into the booth beside me, nudging me over while he put his arm around my shoulders and smiled at the guy. “Scott. You must not be aware that Gabriela is my betrothed.”
Scott’s lip curled. “I am aware. Congratulations on nailing the Bellham heir.”
Percy’s hand tightened on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, but that almost sounded like a slur on my beloved’s virtue.” Forget his virtue, because everyone knew that he had none.
I pushed his hand off and gave Scott my flat glare. “Scott, I don’t know you, and I don’t care what insecurity issues you’ve got going on, but if you ever interrupt my cupcake eating again, I will feed you to Rita, my orc bodyguard, after I beat your brains in with my skateboard.”
“Her bird will probably eat your brains, so it wouldn’t be a total waste,” Percy said, nodding approvingly.
I gave him a look. “Thank you for the support.”
“Any time. That’s what I’m here for.”
I rolled my eyes, but by the time I looked back over, Scott had left and was pushing through the crowd towards the door.
Percy moved around to the other side so that we could gaze into each other’s eyes more comfortably. I sniffed and took a bite of my cupcake, then a bite of the pineapple and Canadian bacon pizza.
“You’re eating cupcakes with pizza? Are you feeling… What word can I use that isn’t insulting? Normal is out, because suggesting that you ever aren’t normal would be a blatant lie, because we both know that normal is not your home address. Healthy. Let’s go with healthy, assuming that we aren’t referring to mental health, or physical health either, because operating on tiny amounts of sleep while jumping into full time magical training is incredibly unhealthy.”
I almost stuck my tongue out, but shook my head instead. You couldn’t expect more than that from someone like him. “Classes are harder than I expected, even with magic.”
He nodded soberly. “Hours and hours of hard work for five seconds of fun, but it’s satisfying to make the most of your talents, don’t you think?”
I shrugged, then winced. “I am so in over my head, but I’ll make it work.”
He nodded at the stage. “Come sing with me.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why?”
“You might like it.”
I shook my head. “No way.”
“Is that a bet? I bet that you like it, and you bet that you don’t like it. Who will win, I wonder?” He wiggled his brows.
I hesitated, then said, “We’d need stakes.” We didn’t need stakes. We didn’t need anything but studying, but I didn’t want my head to explode, and the headache was probably a sign that I shouldn’t push any harder today. Also, what would it hurt?
“If you like it, you have to carry my books to class for me all day tomorrow, and if you hate it, I have to carry your books instead.”
“Those are lame stakes. Neither of us wants another person following them around. How about if I win, you clean my kitchen cabinets?” I wiggled my eyebrows at him while he looked kind of alarmed.
“Wow. I’ve never cleaned kitchen cabinets.”
“I’m shocked to hear that.” I grinned maliciously.
