I can, however, state that having what feels like the best engineered sports bra in existence holding me in place under my gym shit is light years better than the gauze. I could kiss Oriel—you know, again—for thinking of it, despite the bump his squirrel moment caused. Dottie chitters on my shoulder as we walk out of the locked room to face the dudes, and I almost laugh at her agreement. That is, until I come face-to-face with half-naked caliphate members and I have to scramble away before I embarrass the shit out of myself.
“Okay, Kit, you’re gonna have to rein it in,” I mutter to myself as I make a beeline for the field without them. “Especially because of the… stuff… with two of them.”
Ignoring everyone else as usual, I take a seat on the farthest bench with my kinkajou. Dottie perches on my knee, giving me a knowing look that I can’t decide if I’m misinterpreting. My voice is too low for most to hear as I say, “Don’t judge me, Dottie. You’ve seen it. I mean, even the tiny Kitsuné is muscled, and it’s ridiculous how fit X is when they’re not clothed. You’d never know. And yes, I feel like a creeper, so shut up.”
She just looks at me with wide eyes, and I press my palms into my eyes to rub them in frustration. If only that could remove the image of my guys topless, that would be amazing. But alas, it doesn’t, and when Salem, Oriel, X, Annie, and Zav emerge from the locker room, I want to sink into the earth like a worm. Every cell in my body sings and sparkles, distracting me enough that I miss the looming shadow standing over me until he growls.
“Why are you sitting by yourself? Didn’t we discuss the rules?”
I am not in the mood for Jasper’s bullshit at the moment; I am having a crisis of hormones.
“Fuck off, Jasper.” That’s all I got right now. My brain is way off the track, whizzing around in a combo of panic, desire, confusion, and embarrassment that trumps the prince’s pissiness.
The frown he gives me is so severe that Ifeelit despite not looking at him. “That’s it?”
My head whips up and I glare at him murderously. “Yes.”
“What the hell did Bloodstonedoto you? I’m going to beat the absolute?—”
Huh?
Before I can stop myself, my hand shoots out, grabbing the prince’s wrist before he stalks over to Oriel to do whatever he’s threatening. “Stop.”
The heat coming off of him in waves surprises me, but I guess it shouldn't. He is a dragon, after all, and though I don’t remember a lot of what happened when he intervened in the study room, I have touched him before. In fact, that’s when I?—
Oh, no.
Jasper looks at me in terror as the heat intensifies where my hand is clutching his arm, and I blink rapidly. A low snarl echoes out of his chest, then he wrenches himself away, his eyes full of flames. I realize that’s his dragon, but I don’t know why his dragon would be angry at me. I just wanted to explain, so he didn’t lose his shit, and now it looks like I’ve made him even angrier. That’s not good at all.
“Don’t. Touch. Me.”
Licking my lips, I nod mutely as the other guys arrive. Their faces fall as they catch the vibe between Jasper and me, especially Zavida. He immediately heads for the royal, cozying up to the furious dragon. That seems to help, but the looks on Annie, O, X, and Salem’s faces aren’t encouraging.
“Hey, guys. Um, sorry I came out without you. Jasper already scolded me, so uh… no need,” I mutter as I look at the ground. I don’t know why, but there’s something deep inside of me squeezing my airways and even though it’snota panic attack, I feel like I can’t breathe. I force the air out in a fake cough as Dottie scrambles up to my shoulder, putting her tiny arms around my neck.
“You okay, KK?” Salem asks carefully.
Nodding, I squash all the rioting emotions inside of me down, imagining they’re at the soles of my feet so I can walk on them like I did back home. When it feels like I can speak, I lift my head to give the panda a smile that I hope doesn’t look as fake as it is. “A-okay, man. We had a good lunch and now I’m ready to have something shitty happen that sends me to the infirmary. I mean… I’m ready for class.”
That gets laughs from everyone but the Pissy Prince,who huffs loudly before extracting himself from Zav’s grip. “If you can’t handle classes, there’s no way you’ll be able to handle the Games, shrimp. Toughen up.”
With that unhelpful advice, he stalks off to stand in front of the line-up space on the field and roars his instruction for the class to begin. All the demons line up, even me, and I look down the line nervously. Whether he’sbeing a jackass or not, Jasper isn’t wrong about the Games. I’m getting better at a lot of stuff, but every time we make progress, a big ass distraction knocks us off-kilter and we lose focus. So much so that I realize I don’t even know anyone in this damn school other than my caliphate, some staff, the bullies in class, and Dank.
How would I even know who can do what and how to strategize about their teams if I don’t know their names or species?
My revelation makes me groan internally. Between hiding my secret and my issues, I’ve been consumed by fitting in with the guys who semi-adopted me. That’s good, but if I don’t have a damn clue who is operating around us, then I won’t have the same ability to use my brains as I did at Woodlawn. Until my demon shit is under control,all I haveis my brains. I have to pay attention to the other people at Discordia, especially because I have an outsider’s perspective.
Otherwise, it won’t matter if Jasper crushes me under his boot… because we’re going to get killed.
Get It Together
Zavida
When we got to class, Jas seemed quieter than he has been lately, but I thought it was a good thing. His energy was less spiky, and he didn’t give the four of us who arrived early a ton of snarly shit. I thought it would make Weapons class better until Oriel and Kit showed up just in time to change before it was time to line up. They weren’t late, but they definitely looked like O’s ‘lunch excursion’ went well. I could sense the camaraderie in their behavior, which made KK less tense and worried. However, the second my brothers and I joined Kit in the arena, it was clear that the somewhat muted Jasper was gone.
He barked dismissive criticism at the kid, then sent the entire class on a grueling warm up of laps around the stadium with heavy weapons in tow. I know he’s been concerned about endurance—especially with our new member—but this felt retaliatory. I can’t imagine against what, though, as KK gave in to his snarky commentary without a fight before Jasper commanded this nightmare.
Well, it’s a nightmare for the others—I tapped my Kitsuné and went speeding through my set of circles around the stadium quickly.
