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“Now, Princess Latimer, youknowyou’re not allowed to use your Blood Magic for any reason,” I admonished her gently.“Besides, I’ll be fine.I’ve bounced back from worse.I’ll go to the healer tomorrow and get it taken care of—I just didn’t have time tonight before supper.”

“I don’t care if you’ve had worse—you’re not going to have to take it anymore,” she said stubbornly, knitting her auburn eyebrows together.“And I don’t have to use Blood Magic—my little magic is coming along nicely, thank you very much.”

“Beloved, did it ever occur to you that Avery might notwantto be avenged?”Griffin, who was sitting beside her, murmured.

The two of them were permanently Blood-bonded, just like Ari and Kaitlyn and Emma and her two Fae consorts, Bran and Lachlan were—(both of whom were in the Fae Realm for the day, doing some kind of Royal business.) Sometimes I couldn’t help feeling lonely when I realized that all of my Coven mates had found their soul mates and I was the only one who was still alone—who would probably alwaysbealone because of who and what I was.

“How can Avery not want to be avenged?”Megan demanded.“He would avenge any ofusif the situation was reversed and those goons came after Emma or Kaitlyn or me!”

“Yes, but there is the small matter of masculine pride,” Griffin told her.“Avery may wish to deal with this in his own way.Besides…” He cleared his throat and looked pointedly at Saint.“I believe he already has a defender.”

“What?”

“What are you talking about?”

“What’s the whole story?”

Kaitlyn and Emma and Megan were speaking all at once, and all three were staring at me.

To my relief, it was Ari who answered.

“I believe that Saint came to Avery’s rescue,” he murmured in a low voice.“Or at least, his Drake did.Which nearly resulted in the two of them being kicked out of school.”

“What?”Megan, Kaitlyn, and Emma all spoke the same word at the same time with the exact same inflection, which is the sign of an unusually tight-knit Coven.It was also, however, something I didn’t want to answer at the moment.I wished they weren’t so focused on me.Why couldn’t they be distracted, like little Jalli who was sitting a few seats down from me and was engrossed in feeding tidbits of food to her trio ofchimelings?

“Girls, can we please talk about it later?”I pleaded.“The fact is that Saint and Ididn’tget kicked out of Nocturne, but Coach Vasquezdid.And that’s all that matters for now.”

As I had hoped, this little tidbit was enough to switch the topic of conversation from the incident in the gym to how much everyone at the table heartily disliked the ex-coach.They tactfully dropped the subject for the rest of Supper, though I knew from the looks all three of them were giving me that they would want to resume it later—probably after everyone had gone to bed and the four of us had the Common Room of the Norm Dorm to ourselves.

But until then, at least, I could try to eat my meal and make certain that my eyes didn’t wander too often to the other end of the table, where my dark and silent roommate sat picking at his food and studiously avoiding eye contact with me.

9

AVERY

“All right, Avery—we’re alone now so spill it,” Megan demanded.

The four of us—Megan, Emma, Kaitlyn, and myself—the original Coven, as I thought of our group—were sitting on two of the ratty blue couches that faced the fireplace in the Common Room.

The Norm Dorm is located in the dungeon of Castle Nocturne, which you might think was cold and damp and spooky.Nothing could be farther from the truth, however.It’s actually quite lovely and cool, even when the rest of the castle is too hot, due to the merciless Florida sun.And at night, since it’s underground, it usually gets cold enough for a roaring fire in the huge stone fireplace which lights up the Common Area with flickering golden light and makes it feel positively cozy.

The girls were huddled on one couch, all dressed in their “jammy-britch”—which is our affectionate name for the pajamas and robes the Academy provides for us—and I was sitting catty-corner to them on another.It felt like a weird job interview, but I knew they were only concerned about me.

“All right,” I said, taking a deep breath and trying to collect my thoughts.I was glad that Ari and Griffin were gone to their respective dorm rooms and Jalli, Ari’s little sister, had already turned in for the evening.Bran and Lachlan were in the Fae Realm for the night, still on consort business, and Saint had gone silently to bed in our shared bedroom.I knew the stone walls of the castle were too thick for even his sensitive Drake’s ears to hear through, which made me feel considerably more comfortable in laying out the entire tale to my Coven mates.

“So Coach Vasquez just left you there with Juan and the rest of the bullies to get beat up and maybe even killed?”Emma exclaimed, her eyes wide.

“I’m not surprised,” Kaitlyn said quietly.“That woman had a lot of hate in her heart for anyone who was different.”

Since we all knew the awful story of how Coach Vasquez had forced Kaitlyn to expose her scars, back before they had turned into sleek, rose-gold scales when she became a Drake herself, I knew what she was talking about.Heads nodded as we all agreed—Coach Vasquez had been a horrible teacher—and a horrible excuse for a human being.

“I’m glad she’s gone,” Megan said darkly.“But I’d still like to do something to Juan and his crew of bullies!”

“What will you do, though?”I asked reasonably.“Turn all their toenails growing inward?Shame-mark them all the way you did Pedro Sanchez?Whatever you do, it will only make them hate me more.”

“No—none of that.Something more subtle.”Megan had a look on her face I wasn’t sure I liked.“And let’s be honest, Avery—I don’t think theycouldhate you more,” she added, frowning.“Sorry, but it’s true.”

I sighed deeply.