Page 48 of Rebellious Royals

Yet when I made it to the gym again, I felt like everyone was staring. Bracken ran through our self-defense class fast enough that I had to ignore the looks, but when offensive combat rolled around, we paired up. Like usual, I planned on working with Keir. Sadly, my zez had other ideas.

"Rain, go work with Pascal. Hawke, you're with Bran. Keir, I'd like you and Axel to work together."

"Sentinels, unite!" Axel joked. "But what about Daivon?"

Daivon was one of the other sentinels. I'd met him in my first semester here, when Keir had introduced me to his friends. Daivon hadn't said much, but he'd been at the table. Then again, Fin had done his best to be the center of attention. That arrogance had ended up getting him killed.

"Daivon has his own partner," Bracken assured us.

"Sucks," Pascal said, but it sounded like he wasn't all that concerned about it.

Bran rolled his eyes, but Pascal grabbed his things and moved across the room to where I'd been working out. My father continued to mix up the other groups, so pretty much everyone was moving around. Hawke took it as an excuse to make his way over, putting all of us side by side.

"I want each pair to spend ten minutes warming up. Then, you'll spar with the pair beside you," Bracken said as he paced in front of the class. "Ten minutes of that, then switch to the pair on your other side. I want to see each of you blocking for your partner as well as using their blocks to attack. Begin."

Swinging my arms to stretch them out, I turned to Pascal. "Just don't make me look too bad?" I asked, hoping it would come out like a joke.

In truth, I was a little serious. Pascal was one of the main sentinels. Bran and Axel were too. Along with Keir, they'd beendefending the school since they were in eleventh grade. I was pretty sure all of them were college juniors now, so right around Keir's age. Give or take a year, of course, because in this class, we were mixed up based on our ability, not our school year.

"You're fine, Rain," Pascal said as he stretched out his own arms. "I mean, you're the one who's been taking the extra classes."

"Detention, mostly," I admitted, finding my position.

So he lifted his practice sticks, dipping his head to show I should start. "Still counts," he said as I took my first swing.

Naturally, his stick moved to block mine. The wooden clack was loud, but it wasn't alone in the room. Beside me, I could feel more than see that Keir was also sparring. From the sound, I knew Hawke started right after.

The room began to turn into a cacophony of crashing sticks, students grunting, and a few gasps of pain when someone missed a block. The sticks wouldn't kill us, but they could leave a bruise. Typically, we were expected to pull the shot, but that only worked if we realized we were going to hit. Luck happened on both sides of combat, it seemed.

Then Pascal began to move, making me work my feet in a circle as well as the normal forward and back. "Saw the court's been coming to the gym after class," he said. "Does this mean our princess is learning how to use a real weapon?"

I flinched back to avoid his hit, but my mind was spinning. He meant Aspen, but she wasn't a princess. Ok, the court had said they were done hiding, but I didn't think they'd made an announcement about their titles or anything.

So did that mean I should tell him? The intensity of our combat kept me from answering, working as a convenient excuse to keep my mouth shut while I worked this out. Then, just to avoid having him wonder about my silence, I pushed in to get him on the defensive.

Was telling him Aspen was the Winter Queen the same as outing someone for being gay? Since I'd recently had to figure out my own sexuality, I knew I wouldn't have liked it if someone had done that for me. At the same time, I wanted everyone to know, but onmyterms, not theirs.

Then Keir answered for me. "No princess here, Pas."

"I meant Aspen," he clarified. "I mean, since that's what everyone's calling her."

"They're wrong," I said, adding another flurry of hits to keep him moving where I wanted. "But if you want to know about it, you should try asking her instead of hinting about it to me."

"Ok," Pascal said, dodging hard to avoid a swing that nearly connected with his cheek. "Fuck, you're getting nasty, Rain."

"Yeah, she is," Hawke agreed. "I'll add that I'm a duke."

Pascal's head snapped over. My stick was moving, so I jerked it up to keep from knocking him out cold. "Pascal!"

He lifted a hand. "Sorry, but what?"

"Duke," Hawke said as he gestured for Bran to relax a moment. "Summer, if you're wondering."

"No shit?" Axel breathed as he waved Keir off. "Like real royalty?"

"So the court isn't a bullshit name?" Bran asked.

"Oh, it's complete bullshit," Hawke assured him. "The jesters dropped it on us thinking it was a joke. Not my fault they weren't completely wrong."