Page 98 of House of Lilith

He throws me a grin and digs in, putting his headphones back on. “Bloody fang of the God of Stealth, Kurt,” he curses as he grabs his phone again, “didn’t I say go left. Left, not right!”

I shake my head, my lips curling into a smile.

But it’s at that exact moment that my ears prick up,againregistering someone saying my name. I take a deep breath and for a second, I try to fight the urge.

I fail. Taking my phone in my hand and starting to scroll so as not to seem like I’m eavesdropping, I proceed to eavesdrop. Using my vampiric hearing, I zero in on the source of the sound. All the way on the other side of the hall. A girl saying, “And I don’t know how I’m only hearing about thisnow, but did you know how she managed to get an A in Mind Magic?”

For a second, there’s silence. Then there’s a male voice saying, “No way.”

Blood rushes to my cheeks, my breathing turning heavy with anger. It’s at that very moment that I sense someone looking and my eyes dart to my right to find it’s Hilde. She’s staring at me over her book as if she’s dying to say something.

“What?” I demand.

She hesitates for a second, but then she puts her book down and, to my surprise, gets up and comes to sit right next to me. My eyebrows pull down, but I don’t say anything. I wait for her to talk.

“I know you hear them talking,” she leans in to say.

I take a deep breath, determined to snap this in the bud. “It’s none of my business,” I reply and I move to go back to scrolling on my phone.

“It won’t get any better, you know,” my cousin insists.

I turn back to her, snapping, “And what am I supposed to do aboutthat?”

She looks at me as if I’ve just told the biggest lie ever. “I don’t know where the two of you are at,” she says knowingly, “but maybe it’d be time to pull the plug.”

“What do you mean,where the two of us are at? We broke up, Hilde.”

She just looks at me for a second. Then she shakes her head a little, smiling conspiratorially. “Yeah, but not for real, right?”

My frown grows deeper. “Why would I break up with him if not for real?”

“To teach him a lesson about something,” she replies without a moment of hesitation. Then she leans a little closer and practically whispers, “Or, you know, make him want you more.”

And then she winks at me.Winks.

“Hilde,” I mutter, not knowing where to even start, “none of that would be right.”

I see the smile slide off her face and blood rush to it. “Well excuse me,” she drawls, “Your Holiness.”

The reply renders me speechless, but she’s already getting up to go back to her seat. And just as I see her gaze fix on something ahead and she slumps back into the chair, a smell overwhelms my senses and my eyes dart to follow hers.

Dahrian. It’s Dahrian she saw.

My heart stops beating as I watch him walk straight towards us. My mind scrambles to understand what’s going on. Is he coming to ask me why I haven’t texted him? I feel hot blood rush to my face.

And yes, heisthat hot, I think to myself.

It’s only when he comes to a stop in front of our table that I see Ricky by his side.

“Hi,” Howe says with a smile, his eyes sweeping over the three of us.

Theydon’tstop on mine.

With the corner of my eye, I see Nikolay look up, taking his headphones off. “Well, if it isn’t my buddy Howe.”

Howe blows out a little laugh and then says, “Sorry to bother you all.”

I want to say something, but I just give him something between a shake and a nod, my mind hopelessly blank all of a sudden.

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