“Ihope you’re keeping your mate in line, Sosna. Or should I say,White Rose.”
Gabby had cornered me on my way to Introduction to Portals. She placed a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow at me.
My insides curled viciously. All I wanted to do was slap her in the face, but as students passed me by I knew it’d be a bad idea to lash out. If I hurt her, I’d get into trouble for smacking the future queen, and she’d bring down more repercussions on me after.
Gabby knew my identity as a vigilante because I’d been forced to tell her. It was my only plan for keeping Ethan off her back, and thank the gods, she actually thought it was a good idea.
“The Phantom hasn’t shown up since the White Rose confronted him. I scared him off,” I said. For Fuck’s sake, what more did the bitch want from me? I was doing what she asked.
“For now,” Gabby said. “But if I know the prince, curiosity will get the best of him. It won’t be long before he’s back out there, hunting cultists. And I expect you to stop him when he does.”
“Stop him how?” I was getting impatient.
Gabby tilted her head. “By any means necessary! I’ve been informed by the cult he’s discovered their little hideout. If he does anything, and I meananything,to interfere, he’ll pay the price. The Black Claw are our allies. We need them.”
“They’re no allies of mine,” I sneered.
Gabby frowned. “Careful, Sosna. Things are changing quickly in Malovia. You’ll want to be on the winning side, if you know what’s good for you.”
Gabby swaggered off. I tried not to scream. If I didn’t choke her before this was all over, it’d be a miracle.
What did she mean bywinning side? Did she expect the Arcanea to revolt once she and Elijah brought Droga back from the dead?
Of course she did. Not so many fae would be willing to follow the god of the Unseelie. Most fae had sworn themselves to Tomir, the god of Seelie fae. They’d fight back. And Gabby and Elijah were planning to crush that rebellion as swiftly as possible.
I hated that I was working for them. But I had no choice. Not if I wanted to keep Ethan breathing.
Ethan hadn’t become the Phantom again since I’d spooked him, but he still crept around at night, which meant I had to tail him in case he got into trouble. Sleep was the last thing I was getting, which was proving detrimental to my disorder. It was the reason I’d fainted while we were fooling around last week. I’d been running on less than a few hours of rest. And he hadn’t touched me since that moment, the fucking tease. He hadn’t even kissed me. I didn’t know if we were waiting to talk about boundaries or if he was just scared to make the first move.
I resolved if Ethan didn’t do something about it soon, then I would. I was only holding off on getting close to him because Gabby was keeping an eye on us, but she didn’t have cameras in my bedroom. I could fuck Ethan all I wanted, and she didn’t have to know a damn thing about it.
Still... how could Ethan and I share our bodies when we were both hiding a huge secret? Could I give him everything while knowing he didn’t want to tell me about the Phantom? Sex was supposed to make you vulnerable. Ethan and I still had our walls up.
He’d had such pretty words for me the other day. He said that whatever mates did, they did together, for better or for worse. That both were equally responsible for the good or bad that arose, from the relationship or otherwise.
But it didn’t seem to be that way with the Phantom.
Ethan said my crimes were his to bear. But it was the same the other way around. His crimes were mine, too.
Yet that wasn’t all. Ethan had a vision we could change our society. That we could keep the good things about the fae and change the bad ones. And because he was my mate, it had become my dream, too.
Everything about our lives was becoming integrated, weaving together and spinning into threads that were so tightly bound I didn’t know where his dreams started and mine began. It was like we were one and the same.
It was overwhelming to the point I almost needed space. I hadn’t seen Ethan since that heated moment we’d shared... and to be honest, I didn’t want to. I was still trying to process our relationship and everything he meant to me.
Which was more than I could put into words.
Lord Lucien taught Introduction to Portals. I entered his classroom and took a seat near the front. Odette was in the seat beside me. She was cheerfully humming, writing into her fuzzy purple notebook with a pen that had a fluffy pink pom-pom on the end of it. She had a big, baggy sweater on over her uniform today that looked like it was eating her alive.
“Hey. I didn’t see you at lunch,” I said as I sat down.
“That’s because I didn’t have time to eat,” she gushed. “But I grabbed a fruit on the way here.”
She held up a small, singular apple. I made a face. “Odette, that’s not enough.”
Odette shrugged. “You’re a figure skater, Emma. You know how it is. We have to watch our weight.”
I did, but too many dancers and skaters sacrificed their health in an attempt to be the best. I didn’t want to see Odette become one of them.
