I grimaced. Jade was sharper than a cut diamond. Of course he’d heard. He must’ve heard Saffron calling my name, too. That explained why he knew it was me and not my twin.
“Nothing gets past you, does it?” I said under my breath.
He smiled without blinking. “No.”
I glanced back at my bedroom door. To my credit, I didn’t slam it or anything, so it was still ajar. But I didn’t want Saffron to hear us talk. I waved Jade along and strutted down the hall.
“Hiding secrets?” Jade offered, keeping up the pace with his long legs.
I bristled. “No, I just want some damned privacy. Is that so wrong?”
“Not at all. But it is unusual.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Jade twisted two fingers together. “You and Saffron are like this. It’s not characteristic of you to argue and keep secrets.”
I bristled harder. The hairs rose on the back of my neck. “Gee, sorry I’m a three-dimensional person with feelings that can change.”
Jade didn’t react to my outburst. “You absolutely are. By the way, where are we going?”
I faltered and stopped walking. “Uh...”
“Away from Saffron?” Jade suggested.
“Pretty much.”
“Would you care to talk about it?”
“Nope.”
I took another step, stopped, then spun around to face Jade.
“Actually, yeah, I do. He’s been off the rails lately. Like, just today, he hid my hair dye and now he’s pretending he didn’t,” I went off.
When I didn’t dye it, the color matched Saffron’s hair exactly. We both had golden yellow hair like sunshine. Keeping mine dyed to a slightly darker shade was the only way anybody could tell us apart. I’d been doing it for so long, I couldn’t remember when it started.
Jade glanced at my hair. “He hid your dye?”
“That’s what I just said.”
“Did you look—”
“Yes, I looked everywhere!”
That wasn’t actually true. I did a brief check over the bathroom, but I was too annoyed to conduct a thorough search. Whatever. If it wasn’t in its usual spot, and I didn’t see it within five seconds, it was officially missing.
Jade shrugged it off. “If he did move your dye, I doubt it was out of malice. Perhaps he was organizing.”
I seethed. The dye wasn’t the point. It was the cherry on top of Saffron’s shitty attitude lately.
“He’s been like this since the Dragonfate Games started,” I blurted angrily.
“Been like what?”
“He’s just... different.”
Jade’s tone turned grave. “So, you’re saying Saffron is a three-dimensional person whose feelings can change?”
