Page 94 of The Reign of Blood

“I’m good, Princess,” he breathes, his voice raspy like Saturday night, and I can’t help but nip at my bottom lip to keep my mouth shut so I don’t say anything stupid.

“Hey, I’m talking to you,” Raiden calls out, tapping at my shoulder, but I don’t turn to face him.

“And I’m talking to Kryll. Take the hint,” I retort, making the vampire eager for my attention sigh in exasperation.

“Did I miss something?” Raiden quizzes, but I ignore him.

Brody snickers, winking at me from across the table before settling his gaze on Raiden. “You miss everything.”

Flora blurts out a giggle and quickly claps a hand over her mouth as I decide to take a bite of my bacon so, again, I don’t say anything stupid.

“Can we just fucking eat,” Cassian snaps, nostrils flared as he narrows his eyes at us.

“Cassian is so sweet with his words,” Brody says in a high-pitched voice, all whimsical and delicate.

“Fuck off, Brody,” Cassian snarls, earning an eye roll from the mage, and I can’t help but smirk at their constant back and forth.

We eat in silence, but I’m completely alight with Kryll’s thigh pressed against mine. It’s there on purpose; I know it is, but I feel too shy to turn and look at him for confirmation.

What the hell is he doing to me?

I thought he was the virgin, not me.

Taking my last bite of food, I stand, eager to put a little space between me and these guys. Cassian, because his constant growling is stressful yet hot at the same time. Brody, because all I can think about when I look at him is how he fucked me in his room. Kryll, because all I want to do is see him naked and have a piece of him no one else has, which is the most selfish shit I’ve ever heard, nevermind thought. And Raiden, because he’s the biggest asshole out of all of them and he doesn’t even see it.

“Honestly, what the fuck did I do?” Raiden blurts, grabbing onto my wrist as I go to take a step away from the table. Glancing down at where his fingers wrap around my skin, I follow his arm all the way until my gaze settles on his.

The fact that he doesn’t realize it all on his own only serves to irritate me. “You left me standing in the middle of the dance floor with an entire fucking audience while Vallie and her fucking father laid into me because of you, yet the topic of conversation was nowhere to be found,” I snap, the angerthat I’ve contained over the matter since Saturday night finally unleashing itself.

“I was?—”

I wave him off, interrupting before he can give me any of his bullshit excuses. “I don’t care. Whatever you say won’t go back and change the fact that it happened, and I can’t shake the irritation I feel toward you because of it,” I admit, yanking my wrist from his grasp, which only makes his gaze grow darker.

“That’s not fair.”

“Life isn’t fair, asshole. Get over it,” I retort with a shrug, spinning away from the table.

Flora and Arlo stand alongside me, sauntering from the room without a backward glance as I try to ease the tightness in my chest and the spike in my heart rate.

“You guys give me life. It’s too entertaining,” Arlo says with a chuckle before earning a whack to the gut from Flora.

“Arlo, shut up,” she whisper-yells, making me grin, and some of the tension radiating through me subsides.

There’s a little pep in my step as I remember that we have combat class first thing this morning, which will be the perfect way for me to release all these pent-up feelings. My steps falter when we enter the field and find Professor Tora, Kryll’s brother.

It’s a good thing he doesn’t have mind powers, so he can’t see what I think about his brother. As if sensing my thoughts about the matter, his gaze spins my way, eyes locking on mine for a moment as he assesses me before turning back to the student he’s in a conversation with.

What the fuck was that?

He can’t read my thoughts, right?

“Everybody hurry up and gather round. Today is going to hit you in the face so hard and fast, you’re going to end up with whiplash, so I’d like to get on with it sooner rather than later,”Tora hollers, and I join the other students, forming a circle around him.

“I don’t like the sound of this,” Flora whispers, panic in her voice, and it startles me to realize not everyone is pumped and ready to go with whatever he throws at us.

Glancing around at the other students, I notice the same level of uncertainty and weariness.

It’s me. I’m the odd one.

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