Out of all the mythological creatures, that’s what you come at me with? I give an exaggerated eye roll. A creature known for its sexual appetites?
“Hey, I was just adding to your knowledge base.” The look he gives me is so innocent that I’m amazed he doesn’t have a halo sparkling…right around his feet. “You’re the one who asked.”
I don’t even bother to say anything this time. I just roll my eyes again…at least until I realize Flint is staring at me like he suddenly thinks something is really wrong with me. I’m proven right when he asks, “Umm, do you have something in your eye?”
“Yeah, I just got some dirt in there or something.” I rub my eye. “All better.”
“Really? Dirt in your eye?” Hudson makes a disgusted noise. “Nice to know where I stand.”
Somewhere below an eyelash and above pink eye.
He cracks up, and the sound of it nearly stops me in my tracks. For a guy who’s such a jerk, he’s got a surprisingly nice laugh.
Flint and I turn one more corner, and I’m so busy arguing with Hudson in my head that I don’t realize Jaxon is waiting by my classroom door until I almost run into him.
“You okay?” he asks at the same time Flint says, “Whoa.”
“I’m fine,” I tell them both a little heatedly, annoyed at the way they keep frowning at me in concern. They should try balancing multiple conversations at the same time—especially when one is in their head, where no one else can hear it or keep up.
“Let’s be real,” Hudson says. “It’s not like either of them would be able to keep up even if they could hear. The two of them are more brawn than brain, if you ask me.”
It’s so blatantly untrue that I don’t even bother to get offended. Instead, I poke him back because I can…and because riling him up is too much fun not to at least try. You’re just jealous because you don’t have any brawn at the moment.
“Yeah, that’s what I’m jealous of.”
There’s something fleeting in his tone that gives me pause, but it’s gone so fast that I don’t have a chance to figure out what it is.
Plus, Flint chooses just then to say, “I’ve got to get to class. But hit me up about those flying lessons soon. You’re going to need them for Ludares.”
I wave at Flint, then lean forward and slide my arms around Jaxon’s waist and smile up at him as he does the same. “Sorry I missed out on seeing you at breakfast this morning. I was so tired, I didn’t wake up until fifteen minutes before class started.”
He smiles back. “That’s actually why I stopped by. I thought you might want to meet me at the library after art. I have to make up a midterm from yesterday during lunch today, but I thought we could spend some time tonight researching how to kill the Unkillable Beast.”
“Awww, how cute. Little Jaxy-Waxy wants a study date.” Hudson sneers.
“Are you serious right now?” I demand. “Leave your brother alone.”
Jaxon looks over his shoulder at the empty hallway I’m currently yelling at and then raises an eyebrow at me.
I shrug and just say, “Hudson.”
Jaxon’s eyes narrow, but he nods. What else can he do?
Hudson leans against the stone wall, next to another huge tapestry depicting an army of dragons in massive metal armor soaring over a small village. It’s terrifying and exhilarating at the same time, and I make a mental note to look at it more closely after class.
“I’ve got a better idea,” Hudson says as he readjusts, crossing his arms and resting the bottom of his foot against the wall. “Why don’t you leave my brother alone for a little while? Watching the two of you make goo-goo eyes at each other is nauseating.”
“Give me a break. Pretty sure you need a body to be nauseated.”
Hudson shrugs. “I guess that just goes to show how disgusting the two of you really are.”
Refusing to be drawn in to yet another argument with Hudson, I refocus on Jaxon, only to find him staring at me with a frown on his face. “Sorry,” I tell him sheepishly. “Your brother has a big mouth.”
“That’s an understatement if I’ve ever heard one,” Jaxon agrees with a nod of his head.
A random thought occurs to me. “Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you… Why does Hudson have a British accent but you don’t?”
Jaxon shrugs. “Our parents are British.”
I wait for him to say more, but he doesn’t. Which says everything, I suppose. What must that feel like, to have had so little to do with your parents that you don’t even have the same accent? I can’t imagine, and it breaks my heart for him all over again.
“Of course. We should all feel bad for the boy not raised by the two most vain people on the planet,” Hudson snarks.
I ignore him, then change the subject with Jaxon. “I would love to meet you in the library after I’m done in the art room. Does six o’clock work?”
He nods. “Sounds perfect.” But when he leans down to kiss me, Hudson makes such an obnoxious gagging sound that there’s no way I can actually go through with it.
I duck my head and Jaxon sighs, but he doesn’t say anything. Instead, he presses a kiss to the top of my head and says, “I’ll see you then.”
“Okay.”
I watch him go, but the second he makes it around the corner, I turn on Hudson. “Seriously? Was the gagging really necessary?”
He resorts to the British stiff upper lip. “You have no idea how necessary.”
“You do realize that you are completely ridiculous, don’t you?”
Hudson looks like he doesn’t know what to say about that—or even how to feel about it. Half offended, half amused, all intrigued—it’s an interesting look on him, even before he says, “Well, that’s a new one. No one’s ever called me that before.”
“Maybe because they’ve never actually met you.”
I expect a snappy comeback, but instead there’s a contemplative silence for several seconds. Eventually, though, he murmurs, “Perhaps you’re right.”
I don’t know what to say after that, and I think maybe he doesn’t, either, because silence stretches between us—the longest silence there’s ever been, in fact, when one of us isn’t sleeping.
I do an about-face and head into class, leaving Hudson still leaning against the wall.
Something tells me the Physics of Flight isn’t exactly going to be the class I excel in, so I find a seat at the back of the classroom. I wait for Hudson to join me, but he actually does what I asked for once and leaves me alone.