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“Says some Antiro nutter,” Duncan yells from behind me. “Go guzzle Daddy Moncrieff’s tiny cock, aye?”
With a small growl of annoyance, Li pushes forward, rolling up the sleeves of her blazer. “Just say the word and I’ll kick his cunt in.”
“I believe that’s anatomically impossible,” Danny murmurs.
Arabella ignores this, placing a hand on Li’s arm. “No, don’t. Look at them — they want a fight. We won’t give them it.” If only she’d realized this was the best route to a peaceful life before Operation Strike First, then none of this might have happened — or at least the extremes wouldn’t have been so sharply intense.
“Yeah?” Li says, her perfect face in a frozen snarl. In a loud voice that seems directed at me, she says, “Well, I know I’d rather be banging the brother of the king than some phony chancer.”
Only at this comment does Rory peel away from the gremlins. “Et tu, Li?” he asks, strolling toward us with his hands deep in his pockets. “You want to be one of the gullible, the suggestible, the downright insane? You want to be one of their foot soldiers?” He gives her a baleful look. “Shame. I try to pick my partners better than that.”
Arabella cuts in front of Li with a self-important puff of her chest. “Is this because I’m in the running for dux and you’re not?” At first I think I’ve misheard but then she says it again. “Is this why you keep targeting me? Because I’ll be dux?”
“…Ducks?” I ask in confusion.
Arabella shoots me a scornful look.
“You honestly think the world is so limited in scope that I give the tiniest crap whether or not you’re top of the school?” Rory sounds as utterly baffled as I feel. “Whether you’re picked as the best student by a bunch of biased teachers? You’re out of your fucking tree, Belly.”
“Can everyone pleasestopswearing?” Arabella insists, looking distressed. “It’s really rather unbecoming of pupils at this schoo—”
“Grow the fuck up, Arabella,” Rory drawls, continuing as if she hadn’t spoken, and the use of her full first name has her eyes widening. “Get a life and harden up. There’s a great big world out there beyond academic achievement and being the model student, and it’s filled with people who’llloveto say the kind of offensive things you don’t like. Learn to cope with it now, when your side’s shielded from the worst of the abuse, otherwise you’re done for when the pendulum eventually swings the other way.”
I’m shocked. Rory’s wisdom is imparted almost civilly — not that Arabella sees it this way. She stares at Rory for one frozen moment before turning to me with a small sniff. “Cute you’ve turned into such a bully.”
I stare at her. I’ve saidnothingto her, and yet… “Why do you blame me for whatever Rory says?” I ask, curious. “You’ll fight with me but not him. Is it fear? Am I weaker to you than him? I deserve your criticisms because, what, I don’t have a penis?” I laugh at this, though I don’t find it amusing at all. “Maybe you should stop holding women to higher standards.”
Arabella scrunches her nose at me. “Oh, trust me, my standards for you are on the floor.”
Beside me, Rory starts suddenly toward her, and Arabella takes a hasty step backward, stumbling into Li.
“Don’t,” I murmur, touching his arm gently. “It’s not me she’s provoking, it’syou. This is what she wants. It’s what Antiro does. She so badly wants to cry about being oppressed, so she’ll use any attempt of you defending me against you.”
I watch as Rory visibly cools himself down, taking one deep breath after another. He turns away from Arabella completely, as though it’s a necessary act for him to recover. “I can’t listen to her. I’m going over to end the fighting — you coming?”
“Give me a minute,” I say, a plan forming, and Rory frowns at me. Realizing I’m serious, however, he signals at Danny to follow him instead, and the two of them move across to the gremlin butcher-fest at the other end of the corridor.
I watch them leave until they’re as far from us as possible, before saying to Li and Arabella, “You don’t have to do this.”
Li raises an eyebrow. “Do what?”
“Support Antiro. Youdon’t. I know there’s pressure to conform, and it’s scary to stand against it, but I’m telling you, it’s more doable than you think—”
“You’re out of your mind,” Arabella declares with an exaggerated laugh. “You think we support Antiro because we’rescared?”
I stare at her until she’s forced to look away. “Yes.”
“Antiro and King James are going to change this country for the better,” Li announces with the kind of baffling self-confidence that makes me wonder what evidence she has for this claim, as she valiantly sticks up for Arabella. I didn’t even believe she was half as enmeshed in the political world as Arabella, but she’s now making a convincing attempt to disprove my beliefs. “Even Oscar Munro knows it, now he’s mostly stepped aside. No wonder Rory’s so anxious these days. Another few incidents like that and he’ll be offing himself soon. Must be hard, feeling your power waning like that.”
“Is that why you were with him? Power?”
Li’s eyes narrow. “You honestly think he’s the one who had all the power between us? Please. Why the fuck would I care that his dad’s some dumb politician? I don’thaveto concern myself with stupid Westminster or St. Camford shit, either. What’s the point in chasing scraps of political power and pointless degrees when you can be a billionaire and do whatever the fuck you want instead? Our relationship — if you can call it that — benefitedhimmore than me.”
I’m not sure I believe her, not with the abundant sprinkling ofshe doth protest too muchwithin her furious speech. It seems like a rewriting of history to crown herself the victor.
“Not in Lochkelvin it doesn’t,” I point out, knowing first-hand what it feels like to have my status elevated overnight by being in mere proximity with Rory. “His followers give you no leeway now.”
“At least I have my pride. Word has it that you’re a desperate little thing with not just Rory under your thumb. You have an entirehandfull of boys at your command.” She clucks her tongue. “Bit pathetic, babes. If they’re weak enough to get withyouthen they aren’t exactly much of a catch.”
