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“Dang. I miss George.” She flips to face me, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. “Whatever, we’ll make Fred work.”
I hate that Reina has made Mack question her rightful place here. Sure, Mack’s a legacy, and that helped, but she’s also the hardest working student on campus. She’s earned her spot like everyone else.
She watches me slip on my sneakers. “Where are you going? Extra training?”
“No,” I say too quickly. “Eclipsa wanted to cover some stuff I don’t understand, but it’s not actual training.”
Not a lie, but my face burns with guilt anyway, and I focus on double and triple knotting my laces.
Regular after school guardian training starts this week, but ever since the gauntlets were announced, worried Keepers have already started booking out the gym for private sessions with their shadows.
Mine are mostly in the morning with Eclipsa, but Valerian texted late last night to inform me we have two sessions a week after regular combat class together.
I waited for funny emojis or a clever remark in the message, but that was it. The single text he sent me Saturday morning, after I’d slept off the entire embarrassing ordeal, was just as short.
I’m sorry things got out of hand.
Not sure what I was expecting, but after going full on horny hooker, I expected more than seven measly words in a text.
“Asher said the gym schedule this week is already full,” Mack adds, “so he talked the ILB into letting him train me during your appointment. Apparently Instant Lady Boner rented the entire gym out so you two could be alone.” She flashes a devilish grin that brings out both cheek dimples. “If you want that—some time alone with him—I’ll tell Asher this week is no good.”
I look away before she can see the conflicting emotions raging through me. Sometimes I wonder if she suspects that the mating ceremony wasn’t a fluke after all. I kind of just let her assume it was after I was expelled because that was easier than trying to explain the truth.
And when I discovered the danger attached to my history . . .
No way will I subject Mack to that hot mess.
“Summer?” Mack says, concern in her eyes.
“What?” I blink as her last question slowly surfaces. “Hell no. Chicks before dicks, bae before Fae, remember? And you’re my only bae. Besides, you deserve extra training time like everyone else to prepare for the gauntlet. If you didn’t pass . . .” I shake my head, sending the idea back to the dark hole from whence it came. “That will never happen because A, you’re the best student here and B, I need you. Got it? Even if that means training five times a day with dragon boy.”
“I mean, if that’s what it takes to pass, I’ll force myself to do extra sessions with Asher, but I won’t like it.”
We break into hysterical laughter, earning more than a few weird looks from our dormmates passing by the open door.
Tears of laughter stream down her face as she wraps me in a hug. “I don’t deserve you, bae.”
I hug her back, knowing the opposite is true: Mackenzie Fairchild is the love of my life, and I’ll never understand why she chose me as her best friend. Never.
“Can we please demand George back?” I whisper.
She squeezes me harder. “Shh, Fred will hear you! He’s temperamental.”
Great. I’m so going to punish Reina for this.
I find Eclipsa wiping down her eggplant purple yoga mat. Her text said to wear comfortable clothes, and I realize why when she pats the pink mat beside hers. I settle next to her, glancing at the two empty mats behind us.
“Someone joining us?” I say, but my heart already knows, and it stutters into a frantic rhythm just as the doors swing open and Valerian enters, followed by Asher.
Both wear black joggers and soft cotton tees that show off their athletic bodies. Holy hell, they could be models in a sportswear campaign.
This time, I’m prepared for the lightning bolt that spears my middle as our eyes meet. But prepared or not, I still gasp beneath my breath as the raw strength of the connection pulses to life.
Valerian stiffens before dragging his focus away. As they both prowl toward us like the badass predators they are, Asher throws me a wink.
“Princess,” dragon boy says by way of greeting as he somehow fits his bulky body onto his mat and falls into a surprisingly graceful pose. He ignores the pink and yellow Hello Kitty mat Eclipsa provided for him, much to Eclipsa’s disappointment.
Valerian, at least, hesitates for a hot second as he spots his SpongeBob SquarePants mat. Wrinkling his nose, he peers at the giant image of Patrick, slides his gaze to Asher’s Hello Kitty print, and says, “Why did he get the adorable cat and I get the weird . . . whatever this is.”
