Page 55 of Wanted: A Roommate Who Isn't Evil

“It’s exactly what it looks like,” Mor stated. “You were keeping company with that fox.”

“Seriously, you guys keep cutting him off. Let him speak!” Kate snapped at Mor.

Mor folded his arms, mimicking Lily. Thetwo looked like poorly paid interrogation guards of the Silver Castle when they stood side by side like that.

Dranian’s arm had felt heavy since the day it had stopped working properly. But right now, it felt as though his limb was filled with iron and weighing his whole body down.

“No more secrets!” Cress announced. “With Shayne on vacation, that makes me the next in charge, and I’ve had about enough of the not-telling-of-things. The next fairy—or human,” he stole a sidelong glance at Kate and Lily, “who keeps a secret shall be forever banned from Fae Café and forced to work in the nearest amethyst salt mine for three months!”

“There aren’t amethyst salt mines in the human realm,” Dranian muttered, but no one heard him—no one apart from Lily. She must have, because she held Dranian’s gaze, worry etched into her pretty human features. Worry about the one other secret the two of them were still keeping.

Dranian hadn’t had a chance to tell her that he’d learned where Shayne was. That Shayne was in a mountain of trouble—that she may never see him again. The right thing to do would be to begin talking until everything was out in the open. But there was one matter Dranian could not shake, and that was the question of why Shayne had kept it a secret from everyone.

And for that, Dranian found he could not tell the others the truth about Shayne, because it was not his secret to tell. He cast Lily the tiniest shake of his head.

Her face fell, just a smidgen. She didn’t let the others seethough. She dropped her gaze to the floor and said nothing of Shayne or his mysterious whereabouts.

Also, Dranian learned in this exact moment that he hated keeping secrets. And he perhaps hated that he was too loyal to consider revealing them to others. He wished he was bad at it like Mor and Cress.

Mor sighed. “No one’s getting banished from Fae Café,” he objected. “But Cress is right. You should have asked us for help if Luc had you trapped in a roommate contract,” he said to Dranian.

Dranian’s lips thinned a little since that little detail wasn’t one he’d shared with the group. This time, he glared over at Lily. She cleared her throat and looked off at the wall, suddenly seeming less tough.

“It’s alright to ask for help, Dranian. Even Luc knew that,” Mor said, mumbling the last part. Cress glanced at him in question, and Mor slammed his mouth shut.

“You’re one to talk,” Dranian muttered, wondering how everyone could forget that Mor had been the first brother to fly off and face Luc Zelsor on his own. “And the reason I didn’t tell you wasn’t because I was afraid of that fox. I kept it to myself because I was perfectly capable of handling it on my own!” Dranian stated, raising his voice a little. But as soon as the loud words came out, he wished he’d said them quietly.

Mor’s jaw slid to the side. “Don’t get snippy with me, you grump. That fox would kill us all ifgiven the chance.”

“Would he have? Because it looked to me like he was protecting you, Mor,” Dranian snapped. “And me, for that matter.”

Mor’s mouth parted, his next response nonexistent. It was a look Dranian was sure everyone was used to seeing onhim, and not on Mor. The others glanced between Mor and Dranian, and Dranian shifted his weight, realizing it was too late to take back his statement. His arm burned in anguish from his beating, and he felt like a fool before these perfectly whole fairies with great gifts and menacing reputations.

His shoulders dropped, reminding him of the physical agony that had found him because of Luc. Every little inch of movement sent pain shooting down his arms and into his body. “There is no one I am more loyal to than the fairies and humans in this room. But Luc Zelsor had every opportunity to leave me to die, to run to a faraway place, and to never return to face his fate. And he came back instead. Because of that, I’m now here with you all.”

“What are you trying to say, exactly?” Cress asked. His eyes felt a little colder than normal. “Are you proposing we get involved in that father-son fox fight? That is preposterous, Dranian! Don’t you know the cost if we show up anywhere near them?! Shayne’s bargain will become void, and they’ll come for us!”

Dranian looked at the floor. He wasn’t sure what he was asking. If there was even a question to be asked. “They stole me from my bed. They attacked us first,” he said.

Mor travelled to the window and gazed down at the street. “They will take Luc, they will leave, and this will be over. Onething I will never do again is put our humans in danger,” he said. “I won’t risk Violet again. I won’t join a war if she’s the cost.” Even though he said the words, his face told a different story. There was a crease between his brows that Dranian had only ever seen when Mor was either lying or was holding back what he really wanted to say. Dranian had seen that very look on Mor when Luc had taken the first arrow through the chest.

Cress tugged Kate closer to his side. She cast Cress a small smile of assurance, but Lily had an entirely different reaction. She looked bothered by Mor’s statement. Dranian eyed her rigid stance. It was almost as if the female was offended for being considered too weak and breakable to defend herself, should the wars come. But she kept her thoughts to herself. “I have to go to work,” she said, pulling her bag off the counter. Something fell out, and Dranian hopped over to pick it up, suddenly feeling the need to be of service to everyone more than ever.

He held up a plastic rectangle with Lily’s photo on it, dangling from a cloth necklace. Dranian recognized it as the mystical item she’d used to gain access at Desmount Tech Industries.

A fast blush hit Lily’s face as she grabbed it and stuffed it in her bag, glancing around to see if anyone had noticed it. “Thanks,” she muttered. Dranian watched her head out the door and listened to her footsteps down the stairs.

Behind him, there were two fairies with humans to protect. Cress wanted nothing to do with the Shadow Army. Morpretendedhe wanted nothing to do with the ShadowArmy. Either way, his brothers were right; meddling with the fox fight was a bad idea. And Dranian had always put his loyalty first and obeyed whatever orders Cress came up with. Today would be no exception—no onewanted to get their hands dirty with fox blood. What was a fairy like Dranian to do anyway with one arm and no Shayne to jump aboard his reckless idea?

But then there was Lily, and that special littlethingLily had.

It was an outrageously irrational solution. Not Dranian’s style, but perhaps a way to keep everyone happy, and alive.

Except Cress. Cress wouldn’t be happy. He might make Dranian eat rocks.

Even so, Dranian was sure his own typical way of doing things wouldn’t get the job done this time. For the first moment in his faeborn life, Dranian asked himself the question,“What if I did whatever Shayne would do in this situation?”Shayne was utterly reckless. However, he was also very effective.

“I’ll be back,” Dranian lied. He headed for the stairs and swept down with silence and grace, the complete opposite to the stomping parade Lily had performed. The café was closed, the fireplace unlit. Dranian realized he missed the place a little. Going down to part time had taken something from him, and he swore that if he survived the next twenty-four hours, he would return to work full time.

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