“Sorry, just seeing to this,” I told him, gesturing to my phone. “Or it’s going to keep beeping.”
“I assume turning it off isn’t an option, meaning the sender is Zayn?”
He was good. “Yeah. Leaving him on Read doesn’t exactly go down well.”
“I can imagine.” He eyed me curiously. “Yet, you enjoy that intensity from him, yes?”
“He wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t.”
“He wouldn’t be, or you wouldn’t allow it?”
“It’s more than the second one now. He’s evolving. He’s trying really hard.”
“I know.”
I smiled, then told him, “Apparently word has already gotten around that the High Lord Heir of the Basilisk Kingdom is in the suite of the Dracoryn Realm’s Crown Heir, and it’s a whole thing.”
“Yes, you’re quite the celebrity around campus. Much like me.”
I frowned. “I heard some gossip and whisperings around me when I first got here, but that dissipated, and people barely look my way now.”
“Due to Zayn’s efforts.”
“What?”
“You must have informed him that you don’t care for the attention or special treatment.”
Ihadtold him that.
“He’s seen to it that you aren’t bothered.”
“He… what? He didn’t say anything.”
He smiled. “Then he is trying harder than either of us even realized, isn’t he?”
“I don’t understand how… how he couldn’t be like this with Winter if Zayn was always capable of this?”
“There was no balance before you and me. The two of them alone together bred much toxicity when left unchecked. Largely because of Zayn, yes, and his own self-loathing, but also because Winter wouldn’t challenge that in him due to his gentle natureandhis desperate need for him.”
I sighed heavily, as the pain of that reality for them cut into me.
Then I sent Zayn one last text for now.
Evira:Get to class, hellion.
Zayn:Seeing as though you asked so nicely, how can I resist?
I smiled, then put my phone down on the coffee table in front of Vaxan.
I swiftly walked to my left nightstand. “Sorry about all that,” I spoke over my shoulder to Vaxan, as I swept a glowing ice-blue palm over the drawer that I’d magically sealed.
“Not at all. I understand,” I heard him say, just as the lock clicked and the drawer pushed open a little.
I pulled out the shimmering pastel-blue river rock that I’d stored inside, and walked back to him. “You’re always that, you know?”
He arched an eyebrow.
“Understanding,” I said, as I sank down beside him on the couch.
