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Sleep drags my eyelids down, but my mind keeps going over tonight.
Why can’t I just hate the prince? I don’t even have a thing for dickhead bad boys.
“Mack,” I whisper.
The top bunk shakes and then she’s peering down at me with a tired, grumpy expression. “What?”
“Have you ever liked someone who was bad for you?”
Silence. When it stretches out into minutes, I assume she must have fallen asleep. But then the bed frame above wiggles and she says, “Sure. I once thought I liked my dad’s personal trainer. He had full sleeve tats, rode a Ducati, and smoked weed.”
“How’d you make it go away?”
She yawns. “I slept with him and realized his bad boy persona compensated for a dull personality and tiny dick.”
I snort. I’m fairly certain that’s not the case with the prince. “It doesn’t matter, he hates me anyway.” I stretch under the covers, yawning, “Good . . . night.”
I fall into a restless sleep, and everywhere I turn, every new dream I spin, the Winter Prince is there. Haunting me with his cruel smile.
35
My first day back at school as the prince’s shadow, my stomach is in knots. I spent all morning agonizing over what it will be like today. The hundreds of ways the prince will torment and tease me. Mack left early to finish an assignment, and I stayed an extra hour after my lesson with Eclipsa at the gym doing squats, deadlifts, and timed sprints.
At first I stayed because I didn’t want to go back to an empty dorm before school. Then, as my physical exhaustion took over, I stayed because when I’m working out so hard I’m close to puking, nothing else matters.
It was a sweet release, but I’m paying for the exertion now. The continual slide of my backpack over my shoulders makes me groan, and my thighs cry with every step I take.
And I still have to make it through the second half of the day with the prince. What torturous things will he have me do?
You can do this.
Students whisper and point as I pass. The entire student body must have heard about the Nocturus by now. Or maybe the videos of me being practically mauled to death last night has made the rounds.
Really, it’s a toss-up.
It’s even worse in the lecture hall of our Gaelic Studies class. I sit with Mack and Evelyn and a boy named Jace. Reina sits two rows back, not even bothering to whisper as she trickles poison in everyone’s ear.
“She’s sleeping with both of them,” Reina asserts to the large group of Unseelie shadows surrounding her. Our teacher, Professor Spellwart, left the class for a moment, and Reina’s taking the opportunity to spew lies. “That’s the only reason they would both fight over her. You should have seen her last night, trying to grab every male’s attention with a pheromone elixir. It’s pathetic.”
I glare back at them in time to see her sidekick, Lily, add, “I hear she got pregnant with Rhaegar’s baby and that’s why the prince destroyed him.”
Anger heats my face. But Mack shakes her head and I let it slide.
“They’ll forget about it soon,” she promises me.
I’m not sure that’s true, but the incident with the basilisk takes some of the focus off of me. Lunch is worse. The minute Mack and I take our usual table by the windows, the room goes quiet. Evelyn stops before she gets to our table, looking like she might, for once, realize I’m a social pariah and abandon ship. In class our seats are assigned, but here, she has a choice.
To her credit, she scoots beside Mack and weathers the storm of whispers and stares.
Fae ears, I hate being the center of attention.
By the time my Modern World class rolls around, I’m ready for anything. I manage to march down the Evermore corridor to my class with my shoulders back and head held high. Inside, I’m freaking out.
All I can think about is the power the prince wielded, the way it rocked the world and spun Rhaegar like a toy.
And then, when he protected me at the club . . . correction. That wasn’t protection. That was a dog guarding its favorite chew toy.
The class goes silent as I pass through the doorway. Professor Lochlan slides a quick glance over me. I cringe, ready for a lecture on tardiness followed by whispers.
