53. WEN

Gideon and Tory land a hundred feet away from the Hall’s entrance, decked out in more accessories than usual. He once told me the extra stuff are the awards and honors they don on formal errands. That’s probably where they’ve been. Maybe the rest of the archangelspawn too, explaining their absence at breakfast. And further muddying Godric’s presence—and disappearance.

The other two Unitas disperse to go to their classes, with Matt shouting at everyone to gather at Fem’s doors at seven sharp.

I turn to my own when they don’t follow suit. “Thanks, guys, really, but I can’t have you be late for class on top of everything else. Please, go!”

Sarah shakes her head adamantly as cadets pour out of Ariel Hall. “We can’t leave you alone until we know how things will pan out.”

Everyone streams around us, and I meet a few gazes. It reminds me of the time before and after the Divining, when I was also the center of attention. There are so many more people now, and they’re no longer only curious. Yet, no one is openly staring at me anymore. It’s the best I can hope for right now.

I sigh, looking back at Sarah. “You’ll leave me during the classes we don’t have together anyway—which are all but one. And I don’t think anyone will mess with me after Astaroth oversold my so-called potential deadliness.” I turn her by the shoulders towards the two nephilim bound on intercepting us—or rather me. “It also seems I’ll have archangelspawn escorts.”

Aela tosses a gesture back at her approaching cousins as they flash away their wings. “Watch yourself around these two. Their interest in you can’t be good. Especially him.”

“I heard that, Raphaela.” Gideon’s lazy taunt is too loud with him being still so far. So he has a surround-system voice, too.

Aela looks over her shoulder in elegant disdain, forcing me to sigh. She makes every move a photoshoot-worthy moment. I aptly dubbed her a She-Godric.

Once they’re within regular earshot, she says, “Why do you think I said it, Giddy?”

Tory bursts out laughing.

As the others giggle, I can’t help but grin. It’s really something to hear the buttoned-up Aela pelting Gideon with my nickname for him. Apart from another insight into the strife among the archangelspawn, it’s more evidence that our dynamic might be improving at last. Though it’s better to keep my hopes to a minimum.

“I can’t believe ‘the stick up your semi-Celestial butt’ is loosening, Aela,” Tory snickers, winking at Jinny as she uses one of her insults. “We should hang out more.”

Aela’s full lips twist. “No, we shouldn’t, Tory. I wouldn’t want to be infected by a certain demon’s uncouthness, like you evidently have been.”

Jinny snorts. “You wish, princess. I bet you’re genetically incapable of unclenching your perfect butthole.”

“You have no idea what I’m capable of, demon.” Aela flicks a gesture of dismissal before looking at me, worry tingeing her gaze again. “My earlier warnings stand. Observe them.”

“Yeah, what she said,” Cara says. “Don’t spoil tonight.”

I scoff. “Good to know where your priorities lie, Cara.”

As she and Aela turn to leave, I shove Sarah after them. “You have a class in fifteen, Sar. Mine starts in thirty. Run!”

Sarah still hesitates as the last of the emerging cadets overtake us, until Jinny drags her away, calling over her shoulder, “Don’t get yourself killed before we celebrate, Wendigo!”

I make a face at her, but have nothing to hit back with. Have to admit, that’s very creative of her. And a fitting name for me. Ugh.

“What are you celebrating?” Gideon falls into step with me as I follow everyone towards Jophiel Hall.

I consider telling him. For about a second. But tonight is my and Sarah’s first-ever ladies’ night out. To me, it’s as precarious an endeavor as the Trials. I can’t risk him adding his disruptive element to the equation. Especially if by some miracle Godric is there.

I shrug and lie. “Someone’s birthday.”

“What female cadets will find exciting is beyond me.” I glower up at him, especially when his smile becomes cheerful. “So, your secret is out. How bad was it?”

“Was it like I predicted? Did it all—” Tory mimes an explosion accompanied by a very accurate sound effect.

I harrumph. “You’re so considerate, both of you. Your mothers must have nursed you on sensitivity-free milk.”

Gideon laughs. “It was that bad, eh?”

“And I missed it!” Tory actually looks upset. Seems she’s been looking forward to the fireworks once I was outed. “I’m bloody furious with my father. He had to send those envoys to the Infernal Court at the arse-crack of dawn, and to pick me among their escorts! He made me miss it all!”

I pat her arm in consolation. “Calm your feathers, Tory. You didn’t miss much. I walked into the Hall to find everyone looking at me like I’m a plague-carrying human-sized rodent. But my Unitas stepped up, Matt called everyone fuckers, and Astaroth told them to mess with me at the peril of their lives, and everything fizzled out.”

“So no—?” Tory imitates an explosion again. I shake my head. “No shit of any sort hit any fan?”

A laugh escapes me at her crestfallen expression. “Don’t lose hope, though. It might still happen. Lots of shit flying around this place, and lots of fans to be hit.”

Tory frowns at me, chewing her lower lip. “I don’t know how to feel right now. On one hand, my FOMO is alleviated. On the other, I was all primed to jump headlong into the fray.”

I blink at her. “What fray?”

Tory throws her hands in the air, stormy-grey eyes literally flashing with frustration. “The fray that should have followed announcing you as a Null, of course. The lines drawn, the camps formed, those for, those against, and those being tugged both ways in the middle. The uproar, the disputes—the whole glorious drama. It should have been a right kick in the arse of the snoozefest this Academy is turning into!”

Gideon gives her a pitying glance, and me a conspiratorial eyebrow wiggle. “This is what happens when you’re the daughter of the Archangel of War. You’re always itching for battle, and become unhinged in the absence of conflict.”

I gape in dismay at the woman I’ve come to think of as sort of a friend. “How did that escape me before? You’re worse than Deathspawn here, Tory. You’re a Warspawn!”

It’s her turn to blink at me. “That’s one thing I haven’t been called before. I—actually like it.”

“I don’t. Living in demonland, there was a saying that always came true. ‘Think of the ifrit and you summon it.’ And since you’re always in some fight or another, you must manifest the conflict you hanker for, and I’ve got my fill of it, thank you very much.”

Tory grabs me, and joins our arms. “Don’t be daft. Conflict is coming for you, no matter what I do or don’t do. Wouldn’t you rather have it snap at your heels with a Deathspawn and a Warspawn on your side?”

I disentangle myself before turning to face them. “I don’t want there to be sides, or drama,and certainly no frays! Quit making this a bigger deal than it is. It’s what that bastard Azazel wants. I’m sure he outed me with your exact reaction in mind. But Astaroth said Null powers are no different from other rare ones. If you’re really on my side, that’s what you should want everyone to think.”

Gideon”s turquoise eyes flare with amusement. “How can we, when there’s nothing further from the truth?”

It’s me who throws my hands up this time. “No one really knows the truth about Nulls! I might not even be one, just have Null-like powers. I bet you I’m no more dangerous than either of you.” The two look back at me with placating forbearance. Itching to smack their perfect faces, I grind out, “You smug jerks have it too easy. You’re lethal monsters but everyone loves you for it!”

Tory waves away my annoyance. “No one loves us. There’s awe and lust and jealousy and fear, but our kind has been a fact of the Supernatural world for millennia. You’re new and unique, which elicits as uncharted reactions.” A crimson flare swirls in her irises, and I almost gasp as I realize what it is. Bloodlust. “So you’re probably right. The explosion will still happen. And I’ll make sure I’m there when it does!”

I stride ahead, putting distance between us. “I already said no thank you. Aela was right to warn me about you. I have enough to worry about without you attracting even more shit my way. So just stay the Hell away from me until this blows over.”

The dreamy smile Tory had while imagining a grand and gory conflict slips off her face. “You don’t mean that!”

“I sure as Hell do! Both of you.”

Mock-hurt coats Gideon’s breathtaking face, and a party of devils dance the conga in his eyes. “So she’s a conflict catalyst and a mayhem magnet. Why am I being shunned?”

I scoff an incredulous huff. “You’re you, that’s why. You’re too much of a spotlight.”

“I was always that.”

“Yeah, but my situation was never this volatile. Wanna bet your interest in me doesn’t make it worse somehow? And that’s before I factor in your games and agendas of deceit and destruction.”

“Should I expect the shunning to extend to my even more deceitful and destructive semi-sibling? His presence near you makes for a far larger spotlight and bullseye.”

“He’s—different.” My eyes dart around of their own accord, hoping for a glimpse of him. One I don’t get. I exhale. “He’s sort of my punishment as much as I’m his, after all.”

Gideon’s shrewd eyes narrow, filling with things he doesn’t say. That he’s holding back, when he never does, makes me worry that he has read the change in our standing. I don’t want anyone to know. Especially since I don’t know myself where we stand.

Before I can say anything to change the subject, Gideon’s expression shutters. My heart picks up in an alarmed rhythm as his gaze hardens.

It’s hammering by the time he relieves me of his disturbing stare and turns to his cousin. “Not only doesn’t she need us as you insisted, but she considers us a liability.”

Tory nods. “Yes, let’s leave her to her own devices, and go where our presence is appreciated.”

Gideon’s gaze, laced with a cold viciousness I never expected from him, turns back to me. “You want us to stay away from you? Done.”

Tory turns her gaze on me, and it startles me how harsh it is, too, when she’s always treated me with unwavering indulgence. “And don’t think you can restore the privilege of our presence when you inevitably feel the need for it again. When we walk away, we never look back.”

I wait, stunned, expecting them to laugh, and yell gotcha, or something. They don’t. They start turning away, and in my lurching heart I know. They mean it!

I lunge after them, grabbing their arms. “What the Hell are you talking about? That’s not what I said, or meant. I just want to lay low for now, and you guys are too conspicuous and?—”

Tory tears her arm from my grasp, while Gideon zaps my other hand off before they continue walking away.

Mortification mushrooms within me as I rush after them. “Are you kidding me? I’ve said far worse stuff to both of you. You whack me right back, and we always laugh about it. We’re always messing around.”

Tory tosses me a distant look over her shoulder. “You weren’t this time.”

Gideon impales me on a death stare over his endless back. “You made your choice, Null. Live with it.”

Before I can say anything else, a flash almost blinds me and they shoot up like missiles, almost knocking me off my feet.

I gape up after them as they recede, my head spinning.

What the Hell just happened?