“See you then,” I told him and then Eden and I walked into school together while I held the red rose bouquet.
“Oh. My.Fae.That was so swoon-worthy.” Eden bopped on her heels.
I chuckled, unable to come down from the high of asking a super-hot guy to the dance. Itwaspretty swoon-worthy. I’d seen him with the flowers and just went for it. After our awkward conversation at his party where he’d confessed his feelings but in the same breath said he didn’t want to do anything about it, I wasn’t sure where this put us, but I didn’t care. We were totally going to the dance together!
The first three classes of the day went pretty smoothly. I had to change outfits for weapons training since I couldn’t do that in my dress, but by lunch I was all back to looking and feeling like a cute birthday girl. I didn’t have any classes with Ariyon because he was a different specialty than me and on a Master Healer track, but I would admit I was hoping to see him at lunch. After I got my lunch, I ate at my normal spot on the grass and looked around for him.
I kept eyeing Blair’s table. She was there but Ariyon wasn’t.
Hmm, maybe he had to stay late or something.
“I’m going to run to the library before History, I want to see if I can find a book on royal family bloodlines,” I told Eden. I hadn’t spoken to her about the Bane royalty thing yet, I wanted to find out more about it myself.
She nodded, feeding Yanric his daily lunch leftovers and cooing at what a good boy he was.
‘Want me to come?’Yanric asked as he nibbled.
‘Nah. Perch on a tree. I’ll call you if I need you.’
I stood, flowers and backpack in hand, and walked briskly to the library. As I passed a gate that was overgrown with ivy, I heard a whistle. Stopping, I looked around.
“Psst,” the person said, and I looked closer to see the gate was ajar; through the crack I spied Ariyon. He was sitting on the ground with what looked like a bottle of liquor in his hand.
My stomach dropped and I slipped inside the open gate, walking over to him.
He clutched his heart as I approached. “Light bless me, you are the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”
His words were slightly slurred, and apprehension wormed its way into my gut. “Ariyon, are you drunk?”
He looked down at the bottle in his hands and shrugged, “A little. It wears off so fast, especially if I heal it.”
I wasn’t sure what was going on here, so I set my backpack and flowers on the ground and then sat next to him, crossing my ankles. He seemed like he might need a friend.
“Isn’t it crazy that if I want to heal my own drunkenness, I actually take days off my life?” He burst out laughing and my frown grew deeper.
This wasn’t good. He was in a dark place.
“Healing your father probably took years from me,” he mused, and I instantly wanted to cry. He was talking about his own mortality so casually, but it clearly haunted him. As it should.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know. Had I known I never would have asked,” I whimpered.
He turned to me, reaching up and placing a finger to my lips, and my breath hitched. Oh, how casually he touched me—did he have any idea that each time was the most exciting of my life?
“I still would have done it,” he whispered, and I swallowed hard as he pulled his finger from my lips and set his hands back in his lap. He glanced at the roses laying on the concrete. “Are those from my brother?”
I nodded and he chuckled, taking a deep swig from the amber bottle. “You know he won’t let me heal him at all? That’s why it’s taking so long for him to come back, because he knows what it costs.”
“Sounds like Ayden,” I said, and Ariyon nodded in agreement at that.
“Sometimes I can’t believe we are related. Like maybe he gobbled up all of the kindness from me while we were in the womb.”
I chuckled. “You’re kind.”
Ariyon gave me a pointed look.
“In your own way,” I added, and we both laughed. Oh Light, that deep laugh made my stomach flip over. Aside from his hair and his entire personality, Ariyon’s laugh was the one different thing from his twin. Ayden’s laugh was lighter, more superficial in a way. He used it often. Ariyon’s was like busting through cobwebs, raspy and deep and barely seen. It gave it a unique quality. Ariyon’s smile, his laugh, his steel-eyed gaze—it was as if there was magic in them and when he used them, they had power over me.
“Ariyon, can I ask you something?” I looked over at him and he looked back at me, his long, blond hair falling to his chin. I wanted to reach out and run my hands through it, but I refrained.
