20. Ella

Chapter 20

Ella

“This is stupid,” Jarion grumbled.

“No, it’s not,” Laya protested, smacking Jarion’s arm. “Don’t be rude to Ms. Rose.”

“What about the idea of giving yourself a compliment is stupid to you, Jare?” Ella asked patiently.

Laya had shown up for her session with Ella on Friday during lunch with Jarion in toe, begging Ella to let him join. Ella decided to take advantage of having both twins here and use the session to make them craft positive affirmations for themselves, which felt in keeping with each of their counseling goals, for Jarion to accept his dragon and for Laya to become empowered to take control of her life.

Not surprisingly, Laya found the concept of this activity delightful, whereas Jarion resisted.

“It feels pointless,” Jarion groaned, slipping the red beanie off his head to readjust it. “What’s the point in sitting here saying good things about myself if I don’t even mean it? How is this supposed to help me?”

“Because we’re trying to change your mindset about yourself,” Laya replied for Ella.

“Affirmations gain power through repetition,” Ella explained, sending Laya an approving smile. Laya’s cheeks flushed in reception of the esteem. “Yes, if you give yourself a compliment one time, it may not hold any meaning or change anything, but saying good things to yourself every day helps put positive thoughts in your mind and push out the bad ones. Part of what’s holding you back from accepting your dragon is that you see yourself, and your dragon, as the enemy.”

“My dragon blinded someone,” Jarion reminded her forcefully, a flash of a flame flickering in his eyes.

“Because your dragon felt rejected by you, not because your dragon, or you, are inherently bad. It may sound silly, but the best way forward for you is to essentially befriend yourself. Identifying things you like about yourself is a good start.” Ella glanced at Laya. “This is good for you too, Laya, not just Jarion.”

“In what way?” Ella adored how Laya genuinely seemed interested in what counseling could bring her.

“You spend so much time worrying about everyone around you. Your compassion is a beautiful thing, and at the same time, we need to work on you giving yourself that same care that you give everyone else.”

“True,” Jarion piped up. Laya stuck her tongue out at him.

“Who wants to go first?” Laya’s hand shot up towards the ceiling. Jarion chuckled at his sister’s eagerness.

“I’m a good person,” she declared, tucking the front strands of her long black hair behind her ears.

“How do you define being a good person?” Ella asked as she leaned back in her office chair.

“Um…” Laya began chewing on the end of her hair. Jarion’s hand lashed out to gather the tendrils stuck between her teeth, sliding them out of her mouth and holding the strands hostage in his fist so she couldn’t gnaw on them. “Thanks, Jare.” She fidgeted, her nails sketching lines down her jeans. “I guess I would say being a good person is someone who thinks about others. Who cares about others. Well…maybe not everyone. ” Ella found that distinction interesting.

“Why not everyone?” she probed.

“Not everyone deserves it.” Jarion nodded in agreement, bobbing his head with extra emphasis.

Ella could concede to that stance. She had an itemized list in her head of people who didn’t deserve her kindness, though she’d recently amended that list to no longer include Kellen’s name.

“How do you maintain being a good person even with people who may not deserve it?”

“I guess you stay open to the possibility that there’s more to them?” Laya supplied as an answer, shrugging her shoulders. “Or stay open to the possibility that they can change and become better people?”

“That’s a hard belief to hold for everyone,” Ella said.

“Like I said,” Laya continued, “I don’t think everyone deserves it. I think some people use up all their chances for your kindness. But I’d like to think that most people deserve several chances to prove who they are. Not unlimited chances, but enough to make it fair.”

“How do you determine what is a fair amount of chances to give someone?” Laya’s eyes lifted to the ceiling in contemplation.

“I don’t know,” she eventually answered. “I feel like you just know when you’ve had enough.”

“You know yourself better than anyone,” Ella confirmed. “You know how much you can tolerate. And you’re right. Kindness is a gift that isn’t always deserved. It’s also okay to give compassion to someone and then take it away because it’s too much for you. That’s what valuing yourself sometimes looks like, putting up boundaries when you need to in order to protect your peace.”

“But isn’t that selfish?” Laya pouted.

“Remember what I said. Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish. Sometimes your peace is more important than assuring the comfort of others. There will always be time for you to take care of those around you, but making space for you to take care of yourself is a deliberate choice you need to make every single day.” Ella demonstrated with her hands cradling a vessel. “Think of kindness like a battery. It needs to be charged to remain strong. How do you think you charge that battery?”

Laya dropped her chin into her palm. “I don’t know. How?”

“You take time to focus on yourself. You can’t be expected to have enough kindness to give to others if you don’t take time to nourish that kindness for yourself, if you don’t take time to understand yourself and your own needs.”

Laya’s fingers dove for her pencil, scribbling down Ella’s words into her pink notebook for safekeeping. Ella peeked over at Jarion, who appeared to be distracted by twisting Laya’s hair between his fingers.

“What do you think being a good person to people who may not deserve it looks like, Jare?”

“Why are you asking me?” Jarion spat when his attention was reluctantly pulled back into reality. “It was Laya’s comment.”

Laya jabbed her elbow into Jarion’s ribs.

“I’m curious to hear what you think,” Ella explained. Jarion blew a ring of smoke out of his mouth.

“Um…I guess you can give them the benefit of the doubt and try not to hold them to one bad thing they did.”

Ella sat up in her chair. “Can you give a little more detail on what you mean by that?”

“No one should be defined by one single moment, or even a collection of singular moments,” Jarion said. Laya’s smile stretched up to her ears as she scrawled his words on her paper, under where she’d written in bold letters Jarion quotes . “We’re made up of our complete history, not one particular moment in time. When we focus on one bad thing someone did, we lose the rest of who they are.”

Ella leaned closer, her tone of voice gentle. “The same applies for you too, Jarion.”

“That’s not…” He sighed heavily, the exhale bleeding into a laugh. “How do you do that?”

Ella smirked. “Do what?”

“Get me to say shit I wouldn’t normally say.”

“These things exist somewhere inside you. I’m just using techniques to draw them out.” Laya beamed at her brother, grabbing his arm and shaking it with a gleeful squeal. Jarion sunk his teeth into his bottom lip to keep his mouth from submitting to a smile, but in the end lost the battle, the corners quirking up. “It’s your turn, Jarion. Come up with one positive affirmation for yourself.”

“Can you give me an example of a positive affirmation?” Ella narrowed her eyes at the wayward twinkle she found woven into his smile.

“If I do that, you can’t use what I come up with. You need to come up with your own positive affirmation.”

“Fine. Whatever.” Ella and Laya simpered at him and then each other.

“I choose myself,” Ella declared. Laya quickly jotted the phrase down in her notebook. “Your turn, Jare.”

Jarion’s knee bounced, slapping against Laya’s thigh. “I really don’t want to do this,” he groused.

“I know it’s uncomfortable, but the more you do it, the less uncomfortable it will feel. The more you do it, the less those statements will feel like a lie.” Jarion exhaled a surrendering breath, tinged with smoke.

“I am doing the best I can,” he finally answered, throwing his hands up as if to say that’s all I’ve got.

“I love that, Jare,” Ella prided. A crimson blush kissed Jarion’s cheeks. “Can you give each other a positive affirmation?” Jarion was far more willing to proffer a kind word to his sister than he was willing to gift it to himself.

“It’s okay to put yourself first,” Jarion told her. Laya’s eyes became iridescent with love.

“You are worthy of being alive,” she whispered in response. Jarion reached for her hand to squeeze.

“I have one for both of you.” The twins swung their eyes to Ella. “We can do hard things.”

“We can do hard things,” Laya repeated, staining her notebook with the idiom. Jarion swallowed.

“We can do hard things,” he repeated in a low voice, testing to see how the phrase tasted on his tongue. When he determined he didn’t mind the flavor, he repeated it again, more loudly. “We can do hard things.”

Ella’s office door suddenly budged open.

Kellen waltzed across the threshold, then froze when he discovered his siblings sitting on her couch.

“Oh,” he gasped, staggering back. “I didn’t know you guys would be in here.” He glanced between Laya and Jarion, carefully studying their faces for any signs of injury. “Are you okay?”

“We’re fine,” Jarion hissed, reaching for his backpack.

“What’re you doing here?” Ella stammered, a slight tremor limning the edges of her words.

She’d spent the last two days consumed by thoughts of their encounter in her office. She’d obsessed over the feeling of Kellen’s body pressed against hers, overanalyzed the way his voice embraced her name like it was an honor to have any part of her grace his tongue. She’d fixated on how badly her lips ached to trace the scales on his neck, her fingers weeping to feel every flawless sinew of his vibrate with need for her, confirmation that she’d pilfered as much of his attention as he’d stolen from her. All her energy had been depleted from forcing herself to keep away from Kellen, to not slam her fist into his door like she did in her dream and concede her victory in their battle of wills.

Even if she acknowledged she felt something for Kellen—she wasn’t entirely sure what that was, though it was definitely more than lust because whatever she felt was so potent that when she gave herself permission to focus on it, it knocked her breathless—she couldn’t act on it. Regardless of whether or not her feelings were reciprocated—she didn’t let herself consider if they were because she would spiral with those thoughts and never climb out of the abyss of wonder—what was the point in starting something that would have to finish when the school year came to a close and she returned to the Earthly Plane? She wasn’t staying in Cavale, so why would she place herself in a position where she’d inevitably be left mourning something if she didn’t have to?

So, Ella had made the decision to keep her distance from Kellen.

She’d lasted a full day without purposefully seeking him out, avoiding the Varmin sector in case she bumped into him. She’d been dreading their meeting with Markus’s parents, for more than one reason, but mostly because she knew she’d have to see him again. She’d mentally coped ahead to see Kellen at one o’clock in Headmistress Dyer’s office—not at twelve-fifty in her office, with his siblings sitting right there. He was ten minutes ahead of schedule, and she wasn’t prepared to deal with him yet.

“We have a meeting with Markus’s parents in ten minutes,” Kellen reminded her, pointing at the clock.

“I know. That’s still ten minutes away. You didn’t have to come get me.” Kellen shifted on the balls of his feet.

What he neglected to say in front of the twins, what hung palpably in the air between them, was that he wanted to. He wanted to come get her. To bring her to the meeting. To walk in with her at his side.

He wanted to.

And what Ella refused to say, which was equally felt in her soft tone of voice, was that she’d been hoping he would. She’d been eyeing the door, her subconscious praying that he’d appear.

Laya watched the two of them stare at each other intently, a smile fiddling with the corners of her lips, sensing something between them that neither of them were ready to give voice to yet.

“Let’s go,” Jarion barked at Laya, dodging the hand Kellen extended out to him, swatting it away.

“Jare—” Kellen tried.

“Later, Ms. Rose,” Jarion tossed over his shoulder, brushing right past Kellen.

“Remember to go to room two for your in-school suspension!” Ella called out to him, but he’d already vanished.

Kellen focused on Laya. She stepped around the coffee table and embraced her big brother’s waist.

“Hi, Kellings,” she murmured.

“Hi, Laylie,” he whispered affectionately into her hair. Ella’s heart yelled at the doting nicknames. “Is Jare okay?” Laya’s shoulders tensed before she raised her head out of Kellen’s chest.

“I know you mean well, but I can’t keep telling you how Jarion is doing,” Laya rushed out like she couldn’t keep the words inside her anymore. “I can’t take on the responsibility of being your messenger. I love you, and I love Jarion. I want to be there for you guys, but it’s too much pressure for me to take on what everyone else is feeling and keep feeding everything he tells me to you. You guys need to talk to each other, and I need to put my own emotions first. Do you understand?”

Ella was so proud of Laya that she nearly burst into tears. Kellen’s lashes fluttered, his mouth opening, then closing.

“I’m sorry, Laya,” he mumbled, pain wrought in his eyes. “I never meant to put pressure on you. I’m floundering with what to do to help Jare, but that’s not a burden I want you to carry. Please know, I never meant to add any stress to your life. I never meant to take advantage of your compassion. It’s my favorite thing about you, but I don’t want it to become something that’s at your expense. Put yourself first, my love. I’ll be okay. Jarion will be okay. It’s important that you’re okay, too.”

Laya choked on a sob. “I love you, Kell.”

Kellen cupped her face, then gushed, “I love you so much, my beautiful girl,” and kissed the tip of her nose. The corners of Ella’s eyes stung. She had to look away from them before she dissolved into embarrassing tears. “Now go to class.” Laya took a step back, peeking over at Ella.

“So proud of you,” Ella mouthed to her with a subtle thumb raised.

“Thank you,” Laya mouthed back, then blew her brother a kiss and scurried out of the room.

“So you’re speaking to my sister too,” Kellen stated once they were alone.

“I’m not at liberty to confirm or deny that,” Ella responded with her hand pointedly placed on her hip.

Kellen’s gaze warmed. “Good,” was all he said, then started for the exit, holding her door open for her.

I don’t know what to do with Jare, he whispered into her mind on their way to Headmistress Dyer’s office. Jarion is really fucking mad at me. I don’t know what to do to make it right.

He’s not actually mad at YOU, she disputed, possibly saying too much, too comfortable in his company to filter herself. He’s mad at the world, and you just happen to be the person closest to him that he’s chosen to project the world onto.

Kellen stopped walking. He stared at her like he’d never seen her before, like he’d never truly taken the time to memorize her features. Sometimes you say things that take my breath away, Noella Rose.

Ella’s breath stuttered. Heat flooded her cheeks. She paused, her brain clashing with her heart, before she ended up confessing, not strong enough to fight the truth, Sometimes you do too, Kellen Kilic.

“Rosie!” a male voice shattered through the intense eye contact Kellen and Noella were sharing.

Noella’s eyes tore off his. Kellen wanted to slam his fist into the face of the person responsible for ripping Noella’s focus away from him, fracturing the sweet, adoring way she’d been looking at him, a look he was certain he would never get back. He raised his eyes to find Akio Takeshi running towards them, the Cerebri’s soft features illuminating like a cloudless dawn over Noella.

“Hey, Kio,” Noella greeted him with a dazzling smile that made Kellen’s chest ache with longing—for what, he wasn’t entirely sure, but for a moment, he pondered what it would be like, feel like, to be warmed by that smile, for every breath from those lips to be directed at him, every word, every sound, every smile, every laugh.

Wait a second. Did he just call her Rosie? Kellen wanted to gag.

What a stupid fucking nickname. There was no meaning behind it, no intimacy, just a silly variant of her last name that sounded like something a child would say. A name as magnificent as hers—a name he couldn’t understand why she chose to truncate, those first two letters she cut off from the rest of her name adding so much splendor and individuality—deserved to be embossed into the ether, deserved to be stitched into the earth and used to illuminate the universe.

What the fuck is wrong with my thoughts today?

It must have been seeing Noella with his siblings, seeing how whatever she’d said to Laya had empowered his sister to choose herself for the first time in her life. He’d been so fucking proud of Laya for saying that to him, so indebted to Noella for the influence she had on Laya that it was clearly clouding his judgment, making him confuse gratefulness for desire. That had to be it.

When Akio draped his arm around her shoulders in a welcoming hug, Coz’s hoarse voice invaded Kellen’s ears.

Who is this bastard putting his arm around our Noella?

Since when is she OUR Noella? Kellen contended. She’s not even MY Noella, let alone OURS.

She could be, if you got over your ego for five fucking minutes. Kellen huffed out a growl.

Akio finally acknowledged Kellen standing there, his arm still dangling off her shoulder. “Hey, Kellen.”

Kellen replied outwardly with a curt nod of his head.

Into Akio’s mind, he snarled, If I see your hand on her again, I will cut it off. Akio’s lashes beat against his eyebrows in surprise before his arm slid off Noella, falling limp at his side.

I am not a threat to you, Kellen, Akio assured, then said more forcefully, but Ella is my friend, so if you’ve gotten your head out of your ass and finally realized that you want her, then you have to earn her. No more fucking with her head or heart.

Fuck off, Kellen rumbled, then quietly considered Akio’s threat.

Or was it his misguided way of giving advice, of being supportive? Was Kellen actually angry at Akio, or was he just pissed at how Akio was allowed to touch her so casually when he couldn’t?

“How did the lesson go?” Noella questioned Akio, completely unaware of the silent standoff they’d been engaging in.

“It went great,” Akio sung in a jovial tone. “The kids loved it. You did good, El.”

“What lesson?” Kellen barked, not enjoying being the only person in the hallway not clued into their conversation.

“Remember the other day, I had that idea to pick a word for the month and tailor lessons for the elementary school students around teaching skills related to that concept?” While she was talking, Kellen admired the periwinkle hue of her blouse, how it complimented the amber undertones in her hair, emphasizing the golden highlights. Something about Noella in any shade of purple or blue fucked with his head. “Today was the first day we implemented the social emotional learning lessons into their morning circle time. Kio, show him.” Akio rummaged through his briefcase, pulling out his laptop, and rallied the screen, tipping it towards Kellen so he could see the presentation Noella had made for the teachers to use for the month of October. Each day, she’d created a new, ten minute activity that centered around the word she’d picked for the month, this month’s being resilience.

The activity they’d done today was making a mistake art, to embrace making mistakes as a part of building resilience. The activity provided the students a safe space to practice making mistakes and turning that into something beautiful, rather than abandoning it because it wasn’t perfect.

Fuck, this is really good, Rose, he spoke into her brain, so she could feel how sincere he was in privacy.

Thanks, Kilic. Kellen considered for a second what the blush on her cheek would taste like to his lips.

“Did any of the other teachers use this today?” she asked with hope. Akio grimaced.

“Not that I know of. No one else in the Cerebri department did. I’m sorry, Ella.” Noella’s shoulders sunk.

“I figured,” she murmured tightly, the verve in her eyes vanishing.

Noella was famous for wearing a brave face so well that it was impossible to believe it wasn’t real, but Kellen knew it had to get to her, the way the teachers dismissed her, the way none of them used any of her ideas in their classrooms, the way none of the students trusted her enough to let her help them. From the careful consideration and colorful design of the entire presentation, Kellen knew that must have taken her hours to complete, all that hard work tossed aside just because she was a human. It never occurred to him before, though it absolutely should have, how unfair and cruel that was. She’d done nothing to warrant this disgusting treatment besides existing, and her existence was not the blemish on their world he’d originally thought it was.

Kellen glanced at Akio, who’d noticed the dip in Noella’s mood alongside him, then said mind-to-mind, Send that presentation to me. Akio nodded in answer, closing the laptop and stuffing it back in his briefcase.

“Should we go in?” Akio pointed at Headmistress Dyer’s door.

“Shouldn’t we wait for Mr. Madix?” Noella wondered. Both Akio and Kellen groaned at the mention of Daniel.

“Fuck, I forgot he was going to be here,” Kellen grumbled.

“Should Akio and I plan to run interference if you two start throwing fists?” Noella mockingly waved her tiny fists under Kellen’s nose. Kellen’s hands lashed out at their own accord, grabbing Noella’s balled up fingers, and pulled her fists behind her back, cuffing her wrists just above her backside. The imprisonment of her hands behind her back compelled her spine to arch, her chest brushing against him as she unintentionally fell into his body, her nose skimming his chin due to their height difference.

“Not sure you’d be able to do enough damage with those fists to stop me, Rose, but I’d love to see you try,” Kellen breathed against her cheek. Noella’s pupils obscured the grey of her eyes when they expanded.

“Tempting,” she shot back, aiming to be sarcastic, but the words emerged in a stutter, showing Kellen she wasn’t unaffected by him. She leaned in a touch closer, and for a precious second, time screeched to a stop as Kellen thought she was about to kiss him, the world shifting its focus onto Kellen and Noella’s embrace. Then, her lips sprawled out in a puckish grin, full of gorgeous trouble, and she drawled, “Try your luck with Akio,” before sliding her wrists out of his hands and making her way inside Headmistress Dyer’s office, her long hair swaying behind her.

“Um, I’m not touching him like that,” Akio interjected. Kellen stifled a laugh as he and Akio followed her inside.

“I was wondering why you three were lingering out there,” Headmistress Dyer quipped when they entered. The vibrant red dress she wore, clinging to her gaunt figure, possessed an asymmetrical draped neckline, three-quarter length sleeves, and a banded waist with a leather belt surrounding her thin torso.

“I’ve never seen you this dressed up,” Kellen said in greeting, claiming a spot on Dyer’s red couch, propping his feet on her table.

“I have an important meeting to get to,” she answered elusively, grabbing a black purse off her desk before fixing her glasses back on the bridge of her nose and shaking her untamed ringlets out of her face.

“Wait. You have an important meeting?” Noella spluttered. “You’re not joining us for this one?”

“I planned to,” Dyer replied, “but I’ve been called to Avatia to speak with Aros Cavalian.”

That certainly piqued Kellen’s attention.

“To speak about what?” he probed, already prepared for his fact finding mission to be unsuccessful.

“Nice try,” Headmistress Dyer laughed, though Kellen noticed her fleetingly glance over at Noella. “I trust the four of you will be able to carry on without me. If you need anything, call for the envoy. I won’t be able to answer my phone while I’m in Avatia.” She threw over her shoulder, “Good luck!” and rushed out the door, leaving Akio, Noella, and Kellen alone in her office.

“Where the fuck is Daniel?” Akio griped, glimpsing his watch for the time. “The parents will be here any minute.”

“We can start the meeting without him,” Noella said, drifting across the room to seize Headmistress Dyer’s office chair, settling right into place with an adorable sigh. Kellen couldn’t help himself from admiring the look of her in a throne, how right it felt, a queen missing a crown. “Is Markus joining this meeting?”

“No,” Akio answered with a shake of his head. “He’s at Power Practice now. I didn’t want to pull him.”

“Daniel knows he’s supposed to be here, right?” Kellen asked Akio just as Daniel emerged in the doorway.

The fingers of his that were raking through his blonde, greasy hair crunched into a fist when he saw Noella in Headmistress Dyer’s chair.

“What the fuck is she doing here?!” he hollered, advancing towards her with horrifically fast strides. Kellen was off the couch and had leapt in front of Noella before he realized his legs had made the choice to move.

“She’s the school counselor,” he explained, “so she has to be at this meeting.”

“There is no reason to have the filthy human here,” Daniel argued, every inch of his face flushed with ire. “She doesn’t even know the kid. She will just incite anger in the parents and get them to blame the school for Markus failing.”

“That’s not true,” Noella interjected, rising from the throne with imperial grace and stepping around Kellen to face Daniel herself. “I have met this kid, and I do have every reason to be here. This is a meeting to make a plan for this child to finish the school year, and I’m part of that plan, whether you like it or not.”

“No one wants you here,” Daniel hissed at her, hatred drugging his eyes. Kellen was about to step between them when Noella dared to bring herself even closer, getting right in Daniel’s face without shame.

“Did you ever stop to think that maybe Mr. Takeshi wants me at this meeting? Or Mr. Kilic?” Noella gestured to both men, then yelled, “No, of course not, because that would suggest that you thought at all.”

“Um, guys? I think I hear them coming down the hall,” Akio squeaked, but no one heard him.

“If you can’t handle me being here, then feel free to leave.” Noella motioned to the door. Daniel’s jaw dropped.

“ I’m essential here,” Daniel asserted. “ I’m the Cerebri department head.”

“We have the teacher whose class he’s failing, his advisor, and the school counselor,” Noella counted off, swinging her index finger between Kellen, Akio, and herself. She steered the finger back at Daniel. “Your presence here is superfluous.” Gods, she’s fucking stunning, Kellen marveled to himself.

Daniel’s face turned red before he started to roar, “You little bi—”

“This arguing is getting us nowhere,” Kellen intervened, receiving a ruthless glare from Daniel and an even more dangerous one from Noella.

“Was I speaking to you?” Noella snarled, turning to Kellen like a seething hellcat. “No? Then maybe you should shut the fuck up. For once in your life, Gods forbid.” Kellen shouldn’t have found her snapping at him attractive, but fuck, when she got going, she was a glorious sight to behold.

“Guys, I hear people in the hallway,” Akio proclaimed more vigorously this time, retrieving everyone’s attention.

“Have fun dealing with this mess yourselves,” Daniel declared, heading to the door. “I’m out of here.”

“Wait, you’re actually leaving?” Akio exclaimed.

“Daniel, come on,” Kellen groaned. “You don’t have to leave. You’re needed here. Just stay.”

“Don’t come on me, Kell,” Daniel roared. “Just because you liked what you found between her legs and suddenly you’re on her side doesn’t mean I have to fall for her little innocent act. They couldn’t pay me all the gold pieces in Cavale to sit in a room with that disgusting cunt of a whore.” The beautiful color Kellen relished to see departed Noella’s face as Daniel stormed out the door. From inside the hallway, they heard Daniel hiss, “There’s a human in there if you want to bail now.”

Kellen couldn’t stop looking at Noella.

He wasn’t sure what had upset her so much—possibly what Daniel said about Kellen and her, possibly the words cunt and whore amalgamated together and lobbed at her in such a callous assault—but she was slower to fix her face then she usually was, her eyes glistening with embryonic tears.

Ignore him, Kellen said in an attempt to console her. Noella fired daggers at him through her eyes instead of accepting the solace, but at least she no longer looked like she was about to cry.

You should’ve stayed out of that, she growled at him. I don’t need you to fight my battles for me, Kilic.

Trust me, sweetheart, I know. Just as he’d hoped, rosy color returned to bless her cheeks when he called her sweetheart, one of his favored names to wield against her, second only to Noella.

“Please try not to fight in front of the parents,” Akio pleaded them on his journey to the door to welcome the parents in. “We’re about to tell them their son isn’t graduating. A gentle touch would be nice here.”

“Of course,” Noella assured her friend, then arched a brow at Kellen. “I can control myself. Can you? ”

“Of course I can,” Kellen snipped back. “I have self-restraint.”

“Oh, do you? I haven’t seen you use it once since I’ve known you.” Kellen dipped his head so he brought his lips to her ear.

Noella turned to stone at the close proximity, swallowing a large gulp of oxygen and trapping it in her chest.

“It’s been forty-eight days that I haven’t killed you, Ms. Rose.” His lips tickled her cheek, her breath hitching at the evanescent contact. Kellen could smell her arousal, so pungent that he nearly groaned and fell to the ground, nearly begged her to let him worship her. “Trust me,” he spoke in a gruff voice, his mouth tingling from how badly he wanted her. “I have self-restraint.”

“I’m opening the door now,” Akio warned them.

Noella stumbled back from Kellen just as Markus’s parents—or, rather, parent—entered the room.