“Oriel’s dad wouldn’t want to lose the future leader of the guild, but his guild wouldn’t have shit to bid on without the royals,” Zavida mutters. “The King could cut them off anytime, so… yeah, probably all of them.”
Now that we’ve identified why the fuck this asshat Major is here, I feel even less comfortable with our new member’s training. If Slash isn’t helping herlearn to shift, I’m going to deep fry that aquatic asshole. KKhasto get better with what little power she’s displaying andfast,or these ‘training’ sessions will become her doom. I’m not sure if they’ll allow her buddy, Dr. D, to just hang around the sidelines to clean her up, either.
Although Dr. D scares the piss out of most people; I could be mistaken about that.
Filing that thought away to tell Jasper later on, I push to my feet wearily as I check the position of the sun. “We have a little longer in class. If we can make it to the end, most of us could skip the late afternoon classes and go back to the dorm. It’ll take a bit to clean up, but then by the time Slash brings KK back from the gym, we’d be ready to order a damn pizza or something.”
“Worried you won’t look so fabulous today, X?” Salem smirks at me, and I roll my eyes at him in annoyance.
“I prefer not to walk around caked in dirt and dried blood; so sue me, fucker.”
His eyes widen, and I chuckle as he realizes just how damn tired I am by my tone. “Damn, X. You’re never this cranky. That almost channeled Jasper.”
“You’re straining yourself holding back the shift,” Zav says softly. “But I get why. You want to save some things for the real deal.”
Our many-tailed hacker is right, and I’m paying the price for it as we speak.
But I’m not the only one holding back, now am I?
By the timethe class finally ends, Annie and Oriel have taken their licks as well, and we look like a group of refugees from a no-holds barred fight club. I suppose that’s what the Major and Lucian made Jasper turn this class into, and I’m ready to get this shit out of my hair and off of me.
“Are we all okay?” Annie asks as he studies me with a careful eye. I know he’s worried that while I’m not the smallest, like Zav or KK, I’m not a fighter by nature. Hand-to-hand is a particular dislike for both of us given our parents, and this has been a lengthy, very arduous period.
I nod as I pick up my bag, stuffing my regular uniform into it without bothering to change. “It will be fine, love. Everyone is upright and lacks mortal wounds, so after we eat and rest, all shouldbe well again.”
Zavida takes his cues from me and shoves his clothes in his bag. “I take it we’re not going to the classes this afternoon slash evening? I can definitely get behind that idea. I’d prefer to follow X’s plan of cleaning up and meeting in Salem’s room.”
My lips twist as I look at him with a knowing expression. “You too, huh? Are we sure the prince will be okay with this? Or can you rebel without getting in trouble?” The Kitsuné gives me a dirty look, and I laugh softly, then wince. “Okay, okay. I think we should all ditch and wait for KK in their room. All in favor?”
Annie raises his hand quickly, and a happy little buzz in my chest kicks up. “I’m in. We will not need Supe Law if everyone is preparing for a post-Games war, anyway. It’ll all be in the wind once that shit starts.”
“No shit,” Oriel says as he flexes his wings, checking to make sure their range of motion is good.
He shifted more than most of us—well, he and Salem. Most demons have seen their shifted forms in various situations over the years, and they don’t have to hide. Slash and Jasper have an equally public shifter persona, but theirs is more terrifying than anything else. Annie, Zav, and I hold back and use magic from our demon lines rather than shift since our animals appear to be less dominant.
Of course, anyone who knows us well would know that’s a stupid assumption, but we don’t let people get close enough to find out. It’s strategic.
O growls as one of his wings sits a bit crooked, and I arch a brow as I ask, “Should we ask the doc to meet us at the room?”
“No,” he grumbles as the feathered appendages disappear into his back. “It will be fine after a few hours, like you said. Just pisses me off we were put in such jeopardy to satisfy two old fuckers measuring their dicks at one another. I have no interest in being fodder for their wrinkly asses.”
Chuckling, I wait for the others to grab their stuff and then throw my gross hair over my shoulders. “Agreed, man. But we didn’t have an option, and neither did Jas, so let’s maybe… cushion that so KK doesn’t go for his gonads and get into a big fight when he couldn’t have stopped it if he wanted to?”
Salem blinks, then groans. “Holy fuck, he’s gonna lose it for sure. First, Jas made him go train with the big guy—which we know isn’t fun—and now he’s missed everyone getting their asses kicked. Pizza isnotgonna do it to soothe that shit, X.”
We all look at one another, and I shrug. “Don’t look at me. I’m not the Kit-o-pedia. Someone makes a suggestion; we have to make sure he doesn’t get scared and upset.”
Oriel holds up a finger. “I can find another trinket. He likes my hoard of trinkets.”
“Jackass,” Salem mutters as he sucks in a breath then lets it out. “I can DormDash some crunkleberry stuff. He loves those, and they make him silly. Maybe cake? Who doesn’t love cake?”
I nod, approving of their suggestions. “Okay, what else?”
Zavida bites his lower lip, then raises his hand like we’re in class. “I can pirate some movies from the surface he mentioned liking? A movie marathon might be good?”
“Excellent,” I reply as I turn and look at Annie with an amused expression. “I made new pajamas I was gonna save for the next crisis, but I can give them to him now. What about you, my rainbow mate?”
Anton straightens, shaking his head so his grime-encrusted colorful hair flips over his eyes. “I found some books he wanted to read at the library that I haven’t given him yet. I read them first and… made some annotations that might help. I think he’d like that.”
