Page 13 of The Tree of Spirits (Paragons #2)

SANDWICHES AND SMOOTHIES

B ronte and Dutch picked up their argument again. They spent the short walk back to the conference center debating whether or not the Apprentices should fight beside the Knights in the Park. And they were still debating it when we started our lunch.

Kylie scooted her chair closer to me. “Hey, are you ok?”

I clutched my cold smoothie cup. “Fine.”

“You seem distracted.”

Yeah. All this talk of the battle raging in the Park had me worried about Conner and Kato. I kept telling myself the boys could take care of themselves, but of course that didn’t help at all.

“You’re thinking about him, aren’t you?”

I dragged myself out of my worry pit to look at Kylie. “Him?”

“The White Knight. You saw him again yesterday.”

“How did you…”

“I know things.” She grinned at me. “So, tell me all about your date!”

“It wasn’t a date.”

“The look in your eyes tells me it was.” Kylie’s grin spread wider. “The White Knight rescued you from the General. Again. And walked you home. Again.”

I had to know who her source was. But I doubted she would ever tell me.

“He was just being chivalrous,” I said.

“Oh, yes. Because loads of Knights have asked to walk me home this week.” Kylie lifted her voice and called out, “Hey, Eris! How about you walk me home tonight ‘just to be chivalrous’?”

Eris snorted. “Walk yourself home, Kylie. Hardship builds character.”

Kylie’s gaze snapped back to me. “See? The White Knight is not just being chivalrous. He likes you. Right, Eris?”

Eris laughed. “Oh, no. I am not getting involved in Kato’s love life.”

“See, Savannah?” Kylie was buzzing with energy. “Eris agrees that he likes you.”

“That’s not what she said,” I pointed out.

Kylie pushed my words away, like they were totally irrelevant to this discussion. “So what happened?”

I poked an escapee cucumber back into my sandwich. “What happened when?”

“When the White Knight, when Kato —” She said his name like it made her tongue tingle. “—walked you home?”

I shrugged. “We just talked.”

“About what?” She was leaning so far forward, I was surprised her chair hadn’t tipped over.

“Uh, I’m not sure I’m allowed to talk to you about this.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know.” I searched for a reason that would satisfy her. “Because it could be classified?”

But I’d used the wrong word. Kylie latched on to it like a baby koala to its momma.

“Classified! Oh, that sounds good. What did he say? Did he recite love poetry? I’ve heard Knights sometimes recite love poetry to the object of their affection.” She watched my reactions closely. “He did recite love poetry, didn’t he?”

“No.” I tucked my feet uncomfortably behind the back legs of my chair. “There was definitely no love poetry. And stop calling me the object of his affection. I don’t think he’d appreciate that.”

“Why? Does he prefer ‘apple of my eye’? Or maybe ‘sweetheart’?”

I had the sudden urge to duck under the table. Instead, I said, as calmly as I could, “Kato has never called me any of those things.”

“Well, here’s to hoping.”

I did not clink my smoothie cup with hers. But Asher did. And Dutch and Bronte had stopped arguing and were now hanging on our every word. Yes, my team was definitely relishing in my total mortification.

Kylie set down her cup, then peered at me over braided fingers. “Ok, so no love poetry. But then what ever did you two talk about on the long walk home?”

“Absolutely nothing!” I chirped.

“Absolutely nothing?” She shook her head. “How could you talk about absolutely nothing?”

“It’s easy. You should try it some time,” I hinted.

But she only snorted. “I see. You talked about nothing.”

I bobbed my head up and down. “Yep.”

“Because you were too busy smooching to talk at all! Am I right?” She wiggled her eyebrows.

My cheeks burned so hot, I felt like they’d caught on fire.

Kylie’s eyes bulged. “Oh my, oh my, oh my,” she kept saying, fanning her face. “He really kissed you!”

“Only on the hand!” I squeaked.

Kylie’s smile went supernova, and so did my cheeks. “I can’t believe he kissed you!”

“On. The. Hand,” I repeated, biting out each word through clenched teeth. “Knights do that to say goodbye.”

“Yeah, to their girlfriends,” she purred. “I can’t believe Kato kissed you!”

She said it so loudly that all the mentors and all the Apprentices at the neighboring tables turned to stare.

I covered her mouth, hissing, “Shush! Everyone is looking at us!”

She shrugged. “They’re just jealous. And so am I! I wish a Knight would fall head over heels for me.”

“You should try tripping one,” Asher suggested, then took a bite of his sandwich.

Kylie rolled her eyes at him. But that only gave me a moment’s reprieve. Her attention snapped right back to me. “You know we have to talk about this.”

“Actually, I kind of think we’ve talked about it far too much already,” I said quietly.

“Agreed,” said Nala, who was sitting with her Apprentices at the neighboring table.

“Oh, come on, Nala! There’s never any good gossip on Kato. The juiciest scandal he ever had was the time he wore off-white armor because he’d wrecked his shiny white set battling two fire tigers,” Jareth said, grinning.

He was also here with all of his Apprentices. Which included Dante. Because this conversation wasn’t embarrassing enough already without my brother here to witness it. Why, oh, why did today have to be the one day that all the teams ate lunch together?

“And this story was just starting to get gooood.” Jareth’s gaze slid to me. “So, tell us, snowflake, how did you manage to melt Kato’s icy heart? And did he at least have the decency to take off his helmet before he kissed you?”

A few of the other mentors snorted. Even Nala smiled.

There were also a few rounds of, Knights wear helmets! Apparently, the Knights had turned Kato’s favorite catchphrase into a song.

“You guys are being pretty mean to Kato,” I snapped at them.

“It’s all in good fun, snowflake. We all love Kato like a brother, but the dude seriously needs to lighten up,” Jareth laughed.

All of the other Knights nodded in agreement. Even super-serious Nala.

“But good on you for sticking up for your boyfriend.” Jareth gave me a big thumbs up.

As everyone laughed again, I prayed for divine intervention. If this was the kind of torture I was in for with my new Castle family, maybe I should have stayed in Bayshore.

“Hey, what’s that?” Jareth’s gaze dipped to my neck.

I glanced down at the orchid necklace that Conner had made me. It must have slipped out of my t-shirt when I’d leaned forward to bury my head in my hands.

“Nothing!” I said, trying to tuck the necklace back into my shirt.

Jareth caught my hand, studying the necklace closely. “It doesn’t look like nothing.”

Ainsley joined him. “That was made with very powerful magic.”

She waved her hand over my necklace, then retracted it just as quickly, like it had zapped her with a heavy dose of electricity.

“ Very powerful magic,” she said again.

“Not the sort of thing you can pick up at a gift shop,” Orion agreed.

Oh, goody. He’d come to stare at my necklace too.

“It’s a gift from your boyfriend, isn’t it?” Jareth asked, squinting at the necklace.

Ainsley shook her head. “No, that doesn’t look like Kato’s magic.”

“It’s very pretty,” commented Eris.

“Very romantic , you mean.” Kylie smirked at me. “Hey, are those little hearts nestled inside the orchids?”

Jareth cracked a grin. “Whoa, snowflake! Here I was, totally astonished that you’d made Kato fall for you. And now you’re telling me that you have enchanted two Knights?”

“I didn’t tell you that!” I protested. “I don’t even have a boyfriend.”

“Right, you have two .” Jareth winked at me. “So, who is this other Knight? I bet we know him.”

I didn’t doubt it. There weren’t a whole lot of Knights in the world. They all knew each other.

But Conner wasn’t my boyfriend any more than Kato was. Everyone was being so ridiculous.

“What do you think, man?” Jareth asked Altair. “You’re our crafting expert. Whose handiwork is that necklace?”

Thank goodness Altair didn’t even glance at my necklace. “I am not getting involved in this nonsense.”

Jareth grinned at him. “You do realize that makes you a suspect, right?”

Altair ignored him.

Kylie was watching me very closely. “No, it’s not him. Savannah’s blush didn’t get worse when you said that.”

I rose from my chair.

“Where are you going?” Bronte asked me.

“I just…spotted a friend. I’m going to talk to her.” I looked through the window at Rane, who was waving emphatically at me. “Don’t worry. I’ll be back before our break is over.”

But not a second before that. I didn’t want to give them a chance to torture me some more.

Bronte’s gaze cut past me, through the window, to Rane. She frowned. “We aren’t supposed to make friends with non-Gaians. You know the rules, Savannah.”

“Come on, Bronte. Live a little.” I winked at her.

“Our ‘world’ has gotten so much bigger. Our world—our reality—it’s not just Gaia anymore.

It’s the whole of the Many Realms. Those realms are out there, just waiting to be explored.

And that starts here in the Emporium, with getting to know our supernatural visitors.

I mean, that’s the whole reason the spirits gave us magic, right? ”

“The spirits gave us magic to protect our world from threats.” Bronte gazed out the window and onto the street of supernaturals. “And those threats are closer than you think.”

I frowned. “You sound just like those anti-magic fanatics.”

Bronte recoiled, like I’d just slapped her in the face. “I am not like those people. I don’t think magic is fundamentally evil. But that doesn’t mean everyone who uses it is good.”

“No, they’re not. But my friend is good,” I told her. “And I’m not going to let anyone tell me that she isn’t.”

With that said, I rushed out of the room.