After filling water cups, I followed them to the back of the lunchroom, praying they were not going outside to sit with Blair, Hayes, and Ariyon. When Ayden’s hand hovered over the large glass door leading outside, I cleared my throat.
“I think I’ll eat in here,” I told him and Eden. Ariyon clearly didn’t like me or want to be around me, so I was trying not to go against his wishes.
They both spun on me. “No way, come on.” Eden jerked her head towards outside.
Ayden nodded. “Forget my brother. It’s the first day, you have to set some boundaries or you’ll be eating inside all year. He needs to get over it.”
I swallowed hard at his assessment. He was right. It wasn’t my fault I was born to an evil woman, descended from this House of Ash and Shadow with Nightling magic. I was a good person, dammit, and I was going to prove it.
“Okay.” I nodded, and with a grin Ayden opened the door and we all stepped outside.
I took a seat on the left side of the long bench and table next to Eden and Ayden, and across from us sat Ariyon, Hayes, and Blair.
“Eww, later.” Blair got up the second I sat down and walked back inside to sit at a table full of girls who looked like identical copies of her.
I ignored the rude walk-off and watched as Ayden placed a pizza in front of his brother.
“When are you working next, Eden? I need some candy for my mom’s birthday,” Hayes asked her, tearing into his pizza like it was the only thing he’d eaten all week.
“Tomorrow. Come by after school and I’ll hook you up,” she told him.
I picked up a triangle of the pizza, tearing it away from the rest, and inspected it.
“Fallon, will you be getting a job anywhere?” Eden asked me. “Us Westies gotta work for our coin.” She stuck out her tongue at the two princes and for the first time Ariyon’s lips twitched into what looked like wanted to be a smile.
I nodded. “I’m going to work part time at Avis Apothecary.”
To pay off a debt,was what I didn’t say.
“I’ll gladly trade places with you, E,” Ariyon said. “Take the weight of ruling the kingdom and dying by thirty.” He held out his hands as if to transfer it over to her.
I bristled at his casual mention of dying young. So he’d totally accepted it? They all had?
I looked around at the others to see them shift uncomfortably in their seats. Ayden was frowning at his brother, Hayes suddenly looked very interested in his pizza, and Eden just rolled her eyes at Ariyon as if he said these things all the time.
“How’s the pizza, Fallon?” Ayden asked me, changing the topic.
Trying to wipe Ariyon’s comment from my mind, I took a bite of the pizza. “Oh my Light!” I moaned as I chewed.
Ayden’s face broke into a handsome grin. “It’s so good, isn’t it?”
My eyes were wide as I took another bite. “Sooo good,” I mumbled through a mouthful and everyone laughed—everyone except Ariyon. The grumpy prince sat there and watched me behind a scowl. An inquisitive scowl, but a scowl nonetheless.
“So, Fallon, The Gilded City must be different than Isariah. What’s the most surprising thing you’ve found here?” Hayes asked, and I appreciated his effort to get to know me.
I wanted to tell him it was the fact that I was descended from darkness but I knew that wasn’t what he was asking.
“Toilets,” I said and Eden and Hayes burst into laughter. “I had to stand over one and explain it to my father.”
Ayden grinned. “He’d never seen a toilet? What did you tell him it was?”
Ariyon was still sulking, and I made it my mission then to see him crack one smile on my behalf.
“A flushing chamber pot,” I told them all, and everyone laughed again. Everyone except Ariyon. But was that a tilt of his lips? He looked over at me and, by the Light, there was mirth dancing just behind his steel-eyed gaze.
Game on.
The rest of the lunch conversation was casual, we talked about classes, favorite teachers. Ariyon spoke, I spoke, but we didn’t speak to each other. It was weird but I was hoping it would get better. Ayden, Eden, and even Hayes were making a concerted effort to be nice and include me and I wanted to be their friend. I liked that on my first day of school I already had a group of people to sit with at lunch.
