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“Well, shit. That’s what I’ve been missing all my life,” I murmured to myself contentedly as I stretched the kinks out of my spine. “An overcrowded couch in a public place.”
Then I looked over and saw the reality of it. With Jayce beneath me, Xero on one side, and Kingston draped over the back of the couch on my other side, I’d essentially spent the night in a charging port. I was buzzing with power. More than that, I was happier than I could remember being for a very, very long time.
Which would have been great if it had lasted. But after everybody woke up and we made our way toward the dining hall for breakfast, I started to sense that something was very wrong. People were glancing at my group surreptitiously. Some with fear, some with curiosity, others with seething hatred. I tried to shrug it off, but I couldn’t. This whole succubus thing had given me a sense of empathy I never wanted and didn’t know how to filter.
I stopped just outside the cafeteria, holding up a hand so my group would pull up as well. Someone was talking, and the frantic flutter in my chest told me they were talking about me.
“But then why would she have done that? She jumped up on that statue and got everyone working together!”
“To be the hero.”
“Haven’t you seen her with those guys? She can’t stand not being the center of attention. She probably did it just so she could be the hero.”
I recognized those voices. The questioner was Mia, the caramel-colored chick who routinely kicked my ass in Combat. The first to answer her question was the morose girl, Jen, who liked to hang out with Sonja. The second to answer was Sonja’s blonde sidekick, Kimi.
“I don’t know… I saw her in Combat. She was fighting with Hannah, they were putting on a huge show.”
“More distraction,” Kimi insisted. “She got the guys to do it for her. You’ve seen how they hang on her. It was probably that surfer dude, Jayce. She’s got him wrapped allll the way around her finger.”
“It had to be them,” Jen said in a rather convincing monotone. “Who else would want to?”
Jayce put a hand on my shoulder. I looked up at him. His blue eyes were distraught, and that made me furious.
Motherfucker.
A surprising wave of protectiveness and vindictive anger rose up in me. It was one thing for Sonja or anyone else in this school to talk shit about me. Another thing entirely for them to fuck with my men.
“Come on,” I said firmly. “Let’s go see how far this has spread.”
We marched into the cafeteria as a cohesive unit—except for Kai, who was about twenty paces behind us and pretending he wasn’t aware of my existence—past the cluster of gossiping girls, and made our way toward the buffet table. Silence fell in front of us. Frantic whispers buzzed behind us.
“It’s… everybody,” Jayce spoke in a low voice, glancing around the large hall. His shoulders slumped with defeat. “They all think we did it?”
I shook my head, grabbing his hand and threading my fingers through his, offering as much energy as I was taking this time. “That’s not how rumors work. Everybody’s going to bite at the interesting thing for a minute. Soon people will start relying on their own brain power. When that happens, they’ll split into factions. Eventually, everybody will have something else to think about.”
Unless something else happens to implicate us. But I wasn’t going to speak that thought out loud. He already looked a little bit more cheerful, and I loved when Jayce was happy. I didn’t want to mess that up for him.
Hannah, however, shot me a look that said you know that’s a damn lie, and I raised my brows in acknowledgment. She and I both knew how the mean girl crowd worked. Sonja was top bitch around here, and she could obviously hold a grudge forever. These rumors weren’t going to die off anytime soon.
But by the end of breakfast, we were beginning to get sympathetic looks from some of the less impressionable students, so I didn’t give it much thought. The people around here were generally forgiving; it kind of came with the territory of reluctant monsterhood. I ignored the whispers and returned the smiles and pretty much forgot all about the whole thing.
“What do you want to do today?” Hannah picked at her breakfast, clearly more affected by the rumors than I was.
“We could explore the grounds,” Jayce suggested with a shrug. “I think I’ve been just about everywhere inside the place.”
“Oh, but it’s freezing out there.” Hannah shivered.
“Hm… I don’t know if you’ve been everywhere in the castle.” I grinned at Hannah.
Her eyes lit up, but her expression faded into a frown almost immediately. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”
“If what’s a good idea?” Jayce asked.
“Why not? It’s not like we’ll get in trouble. Besides, it’s quiet. And private.”
Hannah chewed her lip. “But wouldn’t you disappearing with everybody for hours—or however long—wouldn’t that give them more to talk about?”
My cheeks puffed as I blew out a frustrated breath. She was right, but I didn’t care. People were going to talk regardless, and I didn’t feel like spending the entire day dodging glares and whispers from all sides. I knew she’d spent a lot of time cultivating relationships with other students since we’d gotten here, and I knew it was the only kind of distraction that would keep her from missing her sister and grandmother too much. I didn’t want to ruin that for her if I could possibly avoid it. Besides, the tower was her discovery. That kind of gave her the right to decide who got to go up there and when, as far as I was concerned.
