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My Drake’s misery was like a ball of hot lead in my stomach at the thought but there was nothing I could do about it.So I just stayed silent and walked beside Avery, wondering when he would ask me to leave his room and never come near him again.

7

AVERY

Supper that night was an awkward affair.I went through the line as usual but I didn’t even have the heart to bother Nasty Nancy Rattcliff.

Nancy was a witch who had tried to kill my Coven mates and was on perpetual dining room duty as a result.Usually I made her taste some of the horrible Norm food the cafeteria offered up to its non-magical students because I don’t forgive any kind of threat against my friends.

The Norm food was always a mish-mash of the leftovers baked in the oven with a thick layer of greasy orange cheese on top.And I mean any andallleftovers.The kitchen staff wasn’t above throwing tuna fish and canned fruit cocktail in the same casserole together and covering it with cheese.

The cheese itself looked and tasted like melted crayons and it had been the bane of my Coven mates’ existences for as long as we’d all been at Nocturne Academy together.But now that Megan was a Sister, Kaitlyn was a Drake, and Emma was an honest-to-Goddess Fairy Princess, none of them had to eat it anymore.

In fact, I didn’t know ofanyonewho had to eat it except Nancy, when I made her, because Headmistress Nightworthy had ruled that anyone at all could demand that Nancy and her nasty little friends must taste any of the dishes when they were asked.That was due to them tampering with the food and making Emma extremely ill—Nancy had a lot of tricks up her witchy sleeve.So I usually took every opportunity to make her taste whatever nasty stuff the cafeteria ladies had cooked up for Norm students.

This evening, however, I was still deep in thought and feeling a mixture of angry, worried, and blue after the interview we’d just gone through in Headmistress Nightworthy’s office.

“I am no lover of men!”Saint’s scornful words were still ringing in my ears as I pushed my tray along, mechanically accepting the fresh fish and salad that was on the Sister’s menu that evening.How could he say something like that right in front of me?All this time I’d been thinking that he didn’t hate me for being gay, the way the rest of the Drakes did, (Ari and Kaitlyn excepted, of course.) But the way he’d said it—like he was denying that he had a particularly virulent form of the plague—had made my stomach knot.

Admit it, Avery—you thought he liked you, maybe even had a crush on you because of the way his Drake acted today,a nasty little voice in my head whispered.Now you know the truth—he probably barely tolerates you and he’s disgusted by what you are.He’s just as homophobic as the rest of them!

The idea that my roommate—who I had begun to consider a friend—felt that way about me really hurt.I mean, I was used to the attitude—my ownfatherfelt that way about me.But the fact that someone I cared about—someone I had maybe even let myself fall just a teensy bit in love with (Goddess, I’m so stupid!)—hated me for being gay, hit me like a lead weight to the gut, and made me feel sick and sad all at the same time.

You might be wondering why I wasn’t more upset about the fact that Avery’s Drake was a killer who had murdered people before and now it was apparently fixated onmefor some reason.Any reasonable person would have been considerably more worried about that, than the fact that the guy I’d been crushing on (just a little bit, mind you) apparently found me disgusting.

But the heart isn’t a reasonable organ, as anyone who’s ever been in love can tell you.So it wasn’t the fact that Saint’s Drake wanted me but the fact that Saint himselfdidn’tthat I was concentrating on.

“What’s the matter, Connor?No appetite tonight?”Nancy Rattcliff’s grating voice dragged me out of my melancholy thoughts.

I looked up to see her grinning at me with those enormous horse teeth of hers.Honestly, they’re like big white tombstones in her mouth and her lips are too big too—she looks like she gets injections in them or something.Not that I have anything against big teeth or big lips, but Nancy’s mouth is all out of proportion to the rest of her face, which might be pretty if it wasn’t for the constant, nasty sneer she always wears.

“What’s it to you?”I said coolly.“Are we suddenly best friends?I don’t think so.”

“Just thought it might have something to do with the beating Juan Gonzalez gave you in gym class,” she sneered at me.“Looks like he beat you pretty good, too.”She pointed to the swollen right side of my face.

Ah—so Juan was bragging about beating me up but apparently not saying much of anything about how Saint’s Drake had nearly come out and made worm’s meat—to use a Shakespearean phrase (I do love the Classics)—out of everyone in the gymnasium, himself included.

“He took a swing at me,” I acknowledged.“But I’m still standing.And furthermore, I’m standing onthisside of the counter,notthat side while wearing a hairnet and shoveling slop onto other people’s plates.Maybe you ought to think about that before you gloat.”

Her face flushed with anger but before she could come up with a retort, I had moved on, pushing my tray down to the end of the cafeteria line and heading towards my table, where I was sure I was going to have to answer even more questions about my battle scars.

8

AVERY

“Oh, Avery—what happened to your face?”Emma exclaimed, the minute I sat down at one end of the Norm table—which was badly named since none of us were Norms anymore.But at least our spot was across the large, echoing Dining Hall from the other long tables that housed the Nocturnes, Faes, Sisters, and most of all the Drakes.

“Who hurt you?”Kaitlyn demanded, protectively.She used to be such a shy little mouse but now that she had an enormous, gorgeous Drake inside her, our little Katydid had become quite the warrior princess.

“Whoever it is, we’ll make them pay!”Megan promised.She and Griffin were sitting across from me and she had an angry look on her pretty face.

“Thank you, girls, but I’m just fine,” I told them, taking a big bite of my salad and crunching noisily to prove it.“It was Juan Gonzales and a few of his cohorts.We had a little altercation in gym class, but it was nothing that couldn’t be handled.”

“I believe I know who handled it,” Ari said quietly.He shot a look at Saint, who was sitting all the way at theotherend of our table, as though he couldn’t get far enough from me.“Avery, I am so sorry that my kinsmen attacked you,” he continued, looking back at me.“I am ashamed to bear the name of Drake today.”

“Well, well—worddoesspread fast, doesn’t it?”I said as lightly as I could.“Don’t worry yourself, Ari.And girls, you can all simmer down,” I added, looking at my Coven mates.“The attack was no fun but itdidget me out of gym class for the rest of the semester.So all-in-all, I’d say it was worth it.”

“Nothing is worth getting punched in the face!”Megan said indignantly.“That Juan Gonzalez and his friends are going to be in a world of hurt when I’m done with them!They can’t go hurting my Coven mate and not expect some vengeance!”