“Miss Watson,” Fox says sternly, “take a compliment when it’s offered. You’ve done a good job.”
Clare blushes tomato red and mutters something about needing to find Damien, then scurries off.
“Well, I’d better be getting to bed too,” Professor Cornelius says. “It’s well past my bedtime. Good night to you both.”
“Thank you,” I call after him.
“No need to thank me, Miss Storm,” he says as he hobbles away. “No need at all.”
I look back up at the ceiling. “It’s really beautiful in here now, don’t you think?” When Fox doesn’t answer me immediately, I let my gaze drop back to his face and find he’s closed the distance between us.
“I preferred it the way it was before,” he grumbles.
“That’s because you’re miserable,” I say.
“It isn’t,” he says, pulling me closer and grazing his fangs down my neck.
I giggle. “The dark corners and the shadows in this hall did prove useful.”
“That is true,” he concedes.
I sigh. “Guess we’ll have to find other places to do unspeakable things.”
“We will,” he growls.
I push him away. “But not right now. Thorne’s making us dinner. It’ll be getting cold.”
“Then let it get cold,” he says, trying to pull me back towards him.
“No, Professor. You promised we’d all be together tonight.”
“Did I?”
“You did,” I remind him.
He groans, but concedes, and we walk back hand in hand toward the Princes’ Tower, no longer caring who sees us together.
Chapter Eighteen
Briony
We arrive back at the Princes’ Tower, just in time to find Thorne serving up an elaborate dinner of Beef Bourguignon, Beaufort and Dray already seated at the table. I hurry down into one of the chairs, suddenly aware how hungry I am, and then it’s me and the four men I love sitting together, eating together. After all that’s happened, it seems surreal.
We may literally have declared war on the Empress only hours ago, killed a second headmaster, and forced soldiers from the academy, but right now I’m feeling pretty good. More than good. My heart is full and brimming over.
Despite my hunger, I barely touch my food, spending most of dinner looking at each of the men in turn as they talk to each other about plans to fortify the academy, to prepare for a battle, to rally their allies.
Each of them is handsome in their own right and their own way. Each is varied in their ways and personalities. I wonder how it’s possible to love four such different people, to find each so damn attractive. I bet there are people out there who wouldn’tbelieve me – who’d claim there must be traits or habits I hate about them, things I dislike. They’d swear I must secretly have my favorite. But I don’t. And I could no more easily pick my favorite than I could let any of them go. It’s just the way it is. And I don’t care if that makes me different. I’m pretty used to that now.
Eventually, Thorne notices I’m not eating.
“Are you okay, Nini?” he asks.
I lean back in my chair and beam at him, whispering as the others continue their conversation.
“It’s probably crazy, but I feel like the luckiest girl in the whole wide world.”
He stares at me, clearly dumbfounded by this crazy exclamation, After all, the Empress of this realm wants me dead.
