Page 21 of Change

Chapter Five

Bianca

Offer

It was some hours later when Damen texted me asking to meet up. I packed up the books Brayden had given me. The medicine had begun to wear off, and my stomach was torn between agonizing pain and eating itself until I found more of that particular kind of chocolate the onmyoji had given to me earlier.

Or just any chocolate in general.

But that one especially.

However, as I meandered past the front desk, the sound of my name—or what wasoncemy name—made me pause.

“Miss Brosnan?” The Head Librarian, Ms. McKinnen, had called out, raising her hand to try to get my attention. “Or,” She smiled lightly—and a bit mischievously—as her apologetic gaze moved over me, “I suppose it’s Mrs. Dubois now. I didn’t get a chance to congratulate you earlier. Are you waiting for your husband?”

My skin prickled as a chill of disgust passed over me.

It was one thing to refer to Bryce as my ‘husband’ in the confines of our small-ish group, but it was something else entirely to hear someone else say it. We—at least—knew the truth.

But the disgusting reality was that the world believed we were madly in love.

“Yes, he should be off soon.” I tried to sound pleasant, but I was certain my voice wavered.

Although, this might not be so bad if I could keep things as close to the truth as possible… Without spilling the beans, of course.

Still. I forced myself to smile despite how weird this entire brother-husband thing was beginning to make me feel.

If people were talking about usnow, what would the rumors be when our real relationship came out?

Gross.

“Let me just say,” the middle-aged woman began, abandoning the screen she’d been entranced by only moments ago, and moved her rolling seat across the counter from me. She pushed a small stack of book returns to the side and leaned forward. Her mouth lifted as the gossip began, “I think it’s just fabulous that he’s finally settling down. I’ve always thought that he was such a shy boy—sweet though, and definitely charming.”

Ew. Bryce was none of those things. He was calculating and sneaky, but in a good way.

Was there a good way to be those things?

I fought the urge to touch my head as the thought passed through my mind unbidden. What was this? Was I growing more and more fond of Bryce? It was hard not to like him. I couldn’t fault him for his evilness either, those could be excellent traits that showed intellect and passion.

Was this thing she said… was that really how the world saw him?

I could, on a good day, give him ‘charming’—at least the others in the old Biology class had certainly thought so.

“Then again, though, any sense of competition would be enough to force a male fae’s hand. I know your people can take offense at any sort of challenge.”

Nowthatdefinitely wasn’t true. My old sense of kinship with the woman began to fade, and I frowned at her.

But she didn’t respond to my displeasure.

“So, what we don’t know is”—she crossed her arms over the table, eyes eager—“howdidthe two of you end up together? I was shocked to hear that Bryce would dally with a student, especially if you were already in a relationship with Finn Abernathy. Student/teacher relationships are highly frowned upon, even if he isn’t full-time staff.”

“What?” I almost choked and held my purse closer to my chest.

A relationship… withFinn? Never.

Long gone were the innocent days of my youth when I believed that might be a good idea. I was older now and more mature.

And even more importantly, how could no one have thought to fill in these details when spreading rumors—or whatever it was that happened to make everyone believe this story?