Humans really weren’t the brightest.
My ears were still sensitive, but the ringing sensation was mostly gone.
I cracked my neck back and forth as I stretched and took stock of my injuries.
On a pain scale of one to ten, I was at a nine, which was an improvement because when my back was cracking, I’d been at a one thousand.
We loved personal growth.
It took my tired brain a second to process that John was looming over the bed like a dark, angry god. His dimples were gone, and a menacing energy surrounded him.
Long moments of silence stretched as he glared down at me.
It hit me.
Mr. Hyde is back.
I’d been wondering when John would make his personality switch, and it looked like it had finally happened.
“Aran?” he asked with narrowed eyes.
They were the same dark eyes that had stared down at me as I’d sat on his lap with him throbbing inside me.
I squeezed my legs together. I still ached from where he’d taken me.
A wave of self-consciousness, confusion, and regret hit me like a brick, and I pulled the pillow over my head. “Yes, John?”
Silence.
I peeked behind the pillow, and John’s face was contorted into harsh angles by a deep scowl.
The air shimmered darkly around him.
“Are you okay?” I whispered, although I knew the answer.
He wasn’t. The crushing weight on my chest quadrupled until it felt like a spear pinned me to the mattress.
What we’d done had triggered some type of psychological breakdown inside him.
John said nothing.
He stood unnaturally still and kept glaring.
I wanted to cry because I knew we were both thinking about it.
From his expression, he was having a lot of regrets.
Mr. Hyde was always quiet and brooding, I reminded myself. Maybe it just seemed worse because he hadn’t switched personalities in a while? He’d seemed fine last night.
“Everyone, wake up. We leave for breakfast in thirty minutes,” Malum barked out from across the room.
He hung shirtless from the bathroom doorframe by his fingertips. “We’ll deal with Lothaire’s announcement when the problem arises.” Bronze arms glistened as he banged out pull-ups. “Everyone needs to focus on being strong.”
Malum stared at me, and his harsh expression softened. “Are you feeling better?”
Great, he was having an episode.
I looked away, pulled the covers over my head, and pretended to sleep. I literally couldn’t handle Malum acting like he was nice.
I also tried to ignore that John hadn’t moved away from the bed and was looming over me.
Sure, Mr. Hyde was normally silent and brooding, but this was a lot.
Even for him.
I was surrounded by certifiable men.
When I gathered the courage to leave my blanket fort and go to the bathroom, John narrowed his eyes at me with distrust.
His energy was off as we walked to breakfast with a couple feet between us.
The space felt painfully awkward.
In the great hall, students fell silent as I passed.
When I got to the dais where the legions sat, feathers clattered together as all the angels turned to glare at me. The ice weapons strapped across their backs chilled the air.
Their captain turned to me and wrinkled his nose. “Sinful blood,” he spat as his mismatched eyes flashed.
I pretended he was also obsessed with me.
It was hard being popular.
A few tables down, Sadie gave me a friendly wave while Jax smiled, and their small acts of kindness meant everything.
I felt a little better.
Behind Sadie, Jinx mouthed, “Snap out of it,” and Cobra made a shockingly vulgar hand gesture. Jax slapped him.
Never mind.
I felt like shit.
As I sat down in my usual chair, I winced as my knees gave out.
Next to me John looked around the hall with wide eyes, and his gaze hovered on the bloody leviathan competitor crucified to the sacred tree.
Did he wish that was me?
I picked mindlessly at my lip.
The fae palace had felt like a prison, but I’d always known that one day I’d escape Mother.
Now I was trapped by so much more than one woman: the slave brand, queendom, enchanted wounds, the legion I’d been forced to join, and what I’d done to my friend.
Breathing shallowly through my nose, I tried to count but forgot how.
I broke out in a cold sweat.
Edges pressed in around me.
My vision blurred, and the world went quiet.
Someone pulled my fingers away from my lip and held my hands in a vise grip.
“Concentrate on me,” a man ordered from far away. “Feel my skin and focus on the pressure. Don’t think about your breath. Squeeze my hands as hard as you can.”
I obeyed.
“Just keep squeezing,” he commanded.
The touch was an anchor back to reality, and sounds slowly intensified.
I blinked, and my vision returned to normal.
Scorpius was leaning forward across the table with his hands holding mine.
His neck was flushed magenta like he was agitated.
Without a sneer contorting his face, he was extremely good-looking. His dark hair contrasted with his pale skin and the colorful eye tattoo on his neck. He wasn’t pretty like Orion. He was dangerously handsome. A collection of harsh lines and shadows.
“Just keep focusing on my touch,” Scorpius said as he squeezed my fingers. “I’ve used this technique with Orion countless times.”
My lips parted in surprise.
I forced myself not to look over at the quiet king.
“Thanks,” I said awkwardly to Scorpius as I started to pull my hands away from his. I felt weak and clammy but marginally better.
I didn’t need his help.
Scorpius’s callused grip tightened.
He didn’t let go.
I tugged against him. “I’m all good now. You can release me.”
Scorpius narrowed his eyes. “You’re obviously not good, because you just had a panic attack over breakfast.” He didn’t let go. “You need to take care of yourself.”
John looked back and forth between us with his eyebrows raised.
“Why do you care?” I struggled against his grip aimlessly. Why were his fingers so damn strong?
Scorpius’s lips pursed into a thin line. He paused, then murmured, “Because I’m the reason you finished last. I’m the reason you and John were punished.”
I frowned.
“Yep.” I nodded as I thought about it. “It really was your fault.”
Silence.
Eye tattoo twitching, Scorpius snarled, “You’re supposed to disagree. It was your own inability to move quickly that made you lose.” He yanked my hands across the table closer to him. “I can’t believe you’d blame your unconscious teammate for your failures.”
I scoffed.
“Please,” I said. “You just admitted that you were the problem. Who takes a nap during a challenge that could cause death?”
I yanked back and knocked over a glass of ale.
Scorpius’s jaw dropped, but he didn’t release me. “Sorry that I’m blind and have extremely sensitive hearing.” He squeezed hard. “My ears still fucking hurt.”
“Does your face hurt?” I asked with concern.
He furrowed his brow. “No. Why?”
“Because it’s killing me,” I said snottily, grateful that Jinx used that comeback every time Sadie complained about something.