Page 77 of Taste of Thorns

I turn around to see what she’s looking at and find the Princes striding across the field in our direction. Everyone watches them come in silent shock.

The three men weave their way through the crowd, stopping right beside me, Beaufort resting his hand on my shoulder and squeezing it.

Naomi looks at them in bewilderment for several long moments, then blurts out,

“What are you doing here?”

Dray looks around the crowd as if not convinced she’s addressing him, then glances back towards Naomi. “We’re here for the memorial,” he says.

“To pay our respects,” Beaufort adds and I can’t help smiling, my heart warming because these men surprise me all the time and maybe they really are trying to be less assholey.

Naomi still looks pretty shocked, but she shakes herself out of it and begins.

“Thank you all for coming here tonight to remember Esme,” she tells us. Then, she talks about her girlfriend, the friend beside her reads a poem, and the other friend plays a song on their guitar. Darkness falls and soon all we can see are the candles flickering in the snow.

When Naomi asks us all to take a moment in silence to remember Esme, I can’t help thinking of my sister and her funeral, how vastly different it had been. Just me and my dad. No pretty words, no pretty flowers.

But maybe there were people at the academy who mourned her. Maybe her friends held a memorial just like this one. Maybe someone lit a candle for her and another spoke of how wonderful she was.

If they did, I wish I’d been there. I wish I’d had the chance to say goodbye properly. I wish I’d had the opportunity to tell her just how much I loved her.

For a moment, I’m hit by an overwhelming grief that threatens to swallow me whole.

Then Beaufort squeezes my shoulder again and I look up into his solemn face, remembering that I’m not alone anymore.

Once the memorial ends, the Princes go off to talk to Naomi and her friends, leaving me, Clare, and Fly to walk back across the field towards the campus.

When we reach our tower, I turn to the others and say, “I’ll see you both at breakfast tomorrow.”

Fly plants his hands firmly on his hips. “Uh uh. I’ve done the whole being a good friend thing and supported you both in your desperate quests to get laid–”

“Quest?” Clare says confused.

“I was not desperate,” I protest.

“Whatever. But hanging out together yesterday reminded me just how often you two bitches have been ditching me in favor of cock, and while I can appreciate the merits of a good cock, I’m also pretty bored of lying in my cold room and staring at the ceiling.” He sniffs. “And after that memorial, I don’t feel like being alone.”

“I’m not ditching you in favor of cock,” I say, “I’ve been having lessons with Fox.”

“Lessons?” Fly snorts.

“Yes, lessons. He’s helping me with my,” I lower my voice, swinging my gaze around the other students pushing past us on their way into the tower, “magic.”

“Sure he is!”

“Cross my heart.”

“How about you, Clare Bear?” Fly says. “I suppose you’re going to claim you and Damian are working on a cure for cancer.”

“Nope,” she says flatly, “I’ve been enjoying the merits of his cock.”

Fly pouts. “So you’re both going to dump me again?”

“We can hang out,” Clare tells him, taking his hand in hers and squeezing it. “I’m not really in the mood for having sex tonight anyway,” Clare says bluntly and Fly rolls his eyes and mutters something I don’t hear. “Plus, it’s probably a good thing to have a little space from Damian. Distance makes the heart grow fonder.”

“And the cock harder,” Fly adds.

The two of them turn to me expectantly.