Page 95 of Stormbreaker

As I survey the room, my gaze meets Knox’s. We gauge each other, and I look at the empty seat where I’d normally eat. Knox’s expression is hard to read, but we both know I can’t sit on the Fiama side anymore. Not that I think he still wants me there.

I remind myself that this was the plan. To distance myself.

I tear my eyes away and head toward Rook.

Everyone is still staring as I set my tray down across from him.

He looks up and arches a brow. “Oh, you want to sit with me now?” he asks. “Your friends don’t want you anymore, so I’m finally good enough?”

I flinch, the words a slap delivered to tender flesh. My eyes swim as I quickly snatch my tray back.

“I’m . . . I’m . . . I thought . . .”

“What? We’d be outcasts together?”

He’s absolutely right. What was I thinking? That somehow, we were on the same team now? I’ve done nothing but be horrible to him, and Knox has been even worse.

“I’m sorry,” I mumble.

I turn to leave, but he touches my wrist, fingers gently closing around it. His hand is warm, his skin a little rough, and my entire body grows hot.

“Sit,” he says, his voice low and gruff, like he’s mad about the invitation but is offering it nonetheless.

“It’s okay, I’ll—”

“Sit,” he says, more firmly this time. He releases my wrist, and I watch him wipe a palm on his thigh. I press my mouth together, then sink into the seat across from him again, inhaling sharply as his knee brushes mine.

He jerks away, and I shake out my napkin and lay it over my thighs, trying not to be hurt by how little he wants to touch me.

“Thank you,” I say, and he looks up, peering at me like he’s trying to figure something out.

He grunts in reply and then attacks his food like it’s personally wronged him.

While we eat, I pull out my phone, checking for the millionth time for something from my parents.

If my dad would just yell at me, we could get this done and move on. I know our relationship is over, but I hope to make amends with my mom, at least. I scroll through the series of unanswered texts I’ve sent, realizing the worst part is not knowing.

“Waiting for an important message?” Rook asks in a low voice that has me glancing over. “From lover boy, perhaps? But wait, he’s sitting right there, isn’t he?”

He says it with such disdain that my eyes narrow. “Not sure how that’s any of your business.”

“You made it my business when you started yelling at him near my standing spot.”

I lean in, narrowing my eyes. “Then perhaps you should find a new standing spot.”

“I’ve tried,” he says dryly before tearing into a piece of toast. “Somehow, you keep finding me.”

I’m about to retort when someone asks, “Mind if we join you?”

Domino stands with Journey, her chatty cog friend.

“Sure,” I say as they sit beside Rook and me.

“I guess we’re all the new Aria outcasts?” Domino asks, though she doesn’t seem that upset about it. I guess she’s already spent her first couple of months at Amery on the outside looking in.

“Does seem that way,” I say.

“I’m Journey,” she says to Rook and holds out her hand, but he just stares at it and then continues eating.