“Kelevra,” he tried again, “you’re hurting me.” It wasn’t a complete lie. The guy was heavy and Rin’s shoulder blades were pressing into the floor painfully.
“If you don’t give me a name,” Kelevra growled, “when I find them myself it won’t be pretty. I’ll string them up in the middle of campus for the entire student body to gawk at. At least,” he leaned in, his nose brushing against Rin’s, “half of them, anyway.”
He wasn’t kidding.
“There’s no one,” Rin admitted, and when that didn’t seem to do the trick, risked wiggling his hands out from where they were pinned on his stomach so he could rest them on the other man’s hips. “Really. I told you that already, remember? That night in your room. You asked if I was with anyone.”
“You said you were not.”
“I’m not.”
Kel searched his gaze. “Who’s the devil then, Rin? I also recall explaining to you that same night that you can’t get away with lying to me. I’ll know. I’ll always know. So, who are you protecting? A past lover? A crush? Someone you wish you were fucking instead of—”
“Myself,” Rin blurted, not seeing any other way out of this. At the rate they were going, Kelevra was two seconds away from taking a wild guess and going on a mad rampage. His friends wouldn’t be safe then, and neither would his brother. A little honesty to protect the people he cared about? Sure, whatever.
He’d survive it.
Hopefully.
“I’m the Devil, Kelevra.”
The Imperial Prince paused, and before he could think better of it, Rin took the opening.
He rolled them, catching Kel off guard, and kneed him in the side on his way up. The whole time he retreated into the locker room, he kept his eyes locked on Kelevra, keeping the danger in sight as he escaped.
The Imperial Prince stayed on the ground, clutching his side, but he was pissed, that barely contained rage aimed directly at Rin.
Which was good. Better him than an innocent person.
Better him than his brother.
“If you take one step out that door,” Kelevra wheezed, “you will regret it.”
Even knowing that was true, Rin bolted. He almost crashed into Brennon on the way down the hall, throwing an arm around his friend’s shoulders to turn him toward the exit.
“Daylen just called and said he needs to see you in your room,” Rin rattled off the lie, glancing over his shoulder, relieved to see they weren’t being followed, “it’s an emergency.”
“Yeah?” Brennon frowned. “What happened?”
“No clue.” He let him go once they were in the main area of the building. “I’ll catch you later.”
“Where are you going?” Brennon yelled after him, but he didn’t stop to explain.
Rin pulled the small attachment from beneath his emblem-slate and stuck it in his ear, hitting the first number in his contacts list as he raced away from Training Building 5. He didn’t waste time on pleasantries when the person on the other end of the line picked up his call.
“SOS. Meet me at the Brick. Now.”
Chapter 12:
“You put us at risk.”
“I fucking know, asshole.” Rin hung his head and kicked at one of the wooden boxes that littered the floor. They were in the middle of the woods close to their apartment, in a small shack they’d found randomly last year. It’d been abandoned a while ago, empty aside from a rickety bench and a couple of old farm tools.
His brother was perched on another box in the corner, leaning back against the cold gray stone walls, arms crossed over his chest. He was dressed casually, in black jeans with a red leather jacket over one of Rin’s black t-shirts. Not up to the school dress code, which meant he hadn’t come from Vail.
Rin was tempted to ask where he’d been and what he’d been doing but didn’t. They already had one mess to clean up. Whatever his brother had gotten involved in, hopefully, he could handle it on his own.
“Do you feel better now?” His brother asked after a moment, indicating the now smashed box at Rin’s feet.
