Page 111 of Whispers of Wisteria

“It’s different now.” The stifling air was becoming almost unbearable.

“Yes,” Bryce said solemnly. “You’re jealous.”

Jealous?

“It’s not that.” I clenched my fists as a surge of indignation rose in me.

Iwasjealous, but I’d always been. That was something I’d grown used to feeling.

But jealousy was not what motivated me. It was an emotion I had to learn to control—even though I wasn’t doing the greatest job at it lately.

“Sheneedsme.” For the first time in all our lives, she neededme. Mu was the source of my strength and my inspiration.

Bianca was still those things, but now she was something rarer, more fragile, just… more. She made me want to be better, not because she asked me to, but because I couldn’t stand the thought of letting her down.

And for the first time, protecting her felt more important than winning.

Miles POV

“Are you sure he’s not mad at me?” Bianca asked. She held an ice pack to her cheek, muffling her voice, but I could hear her well enough.

“Eh,” I replied, swinging her bag over my shoulder. “I told you not to worry about it. It wouldn’t matter even if he were. He gets mad about a lot of things.”

The late afternoon light cast shadows between the tall campus buildings, and even though I couldn’t see her mouth behind the towel she held to her face, it was obvious that she was frowning at me.

“That’s not comforting,” she said.

I shrugged. Feeding into her anxiety wouldn’t help. “Wasn’t supposed to be.”

I should lecture her—but the last time I’d done that was when we’d been washed downstream, and I really didn’t want to fight.

Besides, she obviously felt guilty enough.

Movement caught the corner of my vision, a flash of olive disappearing on the rooftop.

This wasn’t the first time we’d been followed, but I’d been waiting for a confirmation. It wasn’t Jin. He’d been around off and on since I’d asked him to watch Bianca, but he was terribleat camouflaging himself. At this very moment, he was across the courtyard behind a sign with his feet popping out the bottom.

No. This new person was good.

“Bianca,” I interrupted her spiraling.

She blinked, and I frowned.

Fae might be resistant to physical damage and slightly faster at healing than a regular human, but a bruise was still starting to deepen beneath her eye.

Julian would blame Damen for hitting her—he’d been waiting for another reason to hate him—but I was just as guilty. If I hadn’t been so distracted, I would have blocked him before he could have touched her.

I set the bags on the ground and held her shoulders.

“W-what?” She breathed.

“Go get a coffee,” I commanded.

She looked at me a moment, then narrowed her eyes. “Are you telling me what to do?”

“I’ll pay for it,” I reasoned. I pushed money into her hands. Not that I expected her to accept it, but hopefully the mention of her favorite beverage would—

“Of course you will,” she replied, putting it gingerly into her pocket. “You told me I had to get it.”