Chapter 92

Laila stills for a moment and then shakes her head, not looking at me. “I don’t know how Orion feels about me. I…I was the one who initiated things last night. And he…gave in. But was he just drunk? Or being a…a boy?”

My wolf growls inside of me, not liking the idea that Orion would take advantage of Laila’s affections just because he was drunk and feeling frisky. But I keep my emotions to myself, my eyes on my friend, who looks towards the door with a great deal of worry and need.

God, Laila. She’s…she’s got it bad, doesn’t she. She certainly hid it well.

I step closer to her. “How are your…astrological signs?”

She turns her head to me, baffled. “What?”

“Are you like…a match?” I stare at her, desperately curious, wondering how to make this work. Laila, who is so kind and generous, who never asks for anything for herself – never even seems to want anything for herself…

Her face bursts into a tiny smile. “Yeah,” she says, laughing and nodding, her hands still clasped to her chest. “We’re…we’re a really good match, at least according to the stars. Of course we are.” She straightens her shoulders, proud. “I wouldn’t let myself have a crush on someone who was a bad astrological match for me, June. What a waste of time.”

A little laugh tumbles from my mouth when suddenly the door opens again to reveal Orion standing there, frowning, looking between us. “I can’t handle this,” he says, shaking his head, stern and a little frantic. “Please come outside, I – I know you’re talking about me. Please stop. I think I hate girl time.”

“He’s freaking out!” Anton shouts from somewhere in the other room, clearly gleeful.

“All right, all right,” I say, laughing and waving Orion back into the other room even as I reach out and take Laila’s hand, giving it a squeeze. “Girl time’s over, we’re coming out.”

But Laila tugs me back as Anton turns back into the room. “We’re okay?” she whispers, looking anxiously at me.

“Hey, we’re best friends,” I say, smiling at her and pulling her along with me back into the main room of the suite. “Boys can’t come between us. We’re good – I promise.”

I smile at my friend as the two of us head into the living room. She rewards me with the most beautiful smile in return, happiness and gratitude radiating from her lovely face. Hand-in-hand, the two of us head into the living room where Anton drapes himself languidly over the couch and Orion moves behind the bar, moodily pouring out the fresh coffee.

“So, is this happening now?” Anton asks, pointing a finger between Laila and I, his eyes moving to our joined hands. “So many romantic developments in the past twenty-four hours.”

“Don’t get jealous,” I say, my voice breathy and playfully pouty as I tug Laila closer and slip an arm around her waist. Anton and Laila both laugh even as she blushes again, giving me a playful little shove away from her and conjuring some more clothes onto her body. The gown she calls up is still flowly and comfortable, but definitely a day dress instead of her cute little pajama set.

As I take my spot on the other end of the couch, Laila sitting cheerfully between Anton and I, Orion comes back over with two cup of coffee that he offers to Laila and I. We accept them as I conjure up a breakfast sandwich for myself, taking a big bite of bagel and egg and sausage and cheese.

“Sooo, Orionnnn,” I say, teasing, my eyes glittering as I swallow and look up at him. “How would you rate Laila as a cuddle partner? Five stars? Ten out of ten?”

But to my surprise he shoots me a tiny glare, ignoring my question and settling himself stoically in the arm chair placed closest to my spot on the couch. My face falls and I glance over at Tony, who gives me a conspiratorial little grimace. I swallow hard when I look next at Laila, whose shoulders go up around her ears.

“If we can be serious, now?” Orion says, his voice low and grave as he conjures the two dark envelopes onto the table in front of us.

I glance at him as I reach for the envelope closer to me, frowning a bit, because…I mean, it’s always sort of been our thing in this friend group – joking through the horrors of this whole competition as a way to not collapse under the stress of it. Orion is declining that tradition right now and honestly I’m not entirely sure that it’s because he wants us to concentrate on the situation at hand.

No, my wolf shifts anxiously in my soul, silently agreeing with my supposition that Orion does…not want to joke about Laila or anything that happened last night – no matter how minor it was to him, or how serious for her. I study the Prince of Death from the corner of my eye, quietly wondering why.

But there’s not much time to consider it as Laila lifts her own envelope off the table and quietly opens it, sliding out the single sheet inside. I do the same, reading over the contents, which are – characteristically – quite short.

Contestants,

The next Trail will be held tomorrow at 11:00.

“Damn,” Anton murmurs, leaning over Laila’s shoulder and reading her note. “That is…concise.”

I had my note to Orion so he can see too and he nods once, his face tense.

“I guess…we’re expecting more of the same?” I say, my voice growing more serious now, as Orion’s did before.

“I don’t know if we can expect that…anything at all.” Orion says, lifting a hand to rub at his temple, his eyes drifting shut. “This trial is…much sooner than it should be. It’s been far less than a week and the original structure was one week one trial one…loss.”

He sighs and closes his eyes, resting his head against his fingertips as he clearly mulls it all over in his mind.

“What does that mean to you?” Anton asks after a moment.

“It means,” Orion says, soft and still tense, “that my understanding of this entire trial has radically shifted from what it was at the start. But also, if my father is speeding things up…”

“Then he too knows about the shift in time,” Laila whispers, still looking down at the page in her hand. I nod in agreement, watching her, quietly grateful that she – at least – is safe this week. That I have only myself to worry about.

“Yes,” Orion sighs. “I think he knows that our deadline is in two weeks, not eighteen. But he didn’t tell me, did he?”

I gulp a bit, looking over at Anton, wanting his steady calming presence. I find his eyes already on me, his mouth set in a stern and steady line. He gives me a single nod and I take a deep breath, my wolf shaking her fur out in response to his clear assurance that whatever comes, we’ll handle it, as we have everything else.

“I just have to…keep my temper,” I say quietly, looking back down at the sheet of paper in my hand.

“Yes, that would be best,” Orion murmurs, dry.

Silence reins in the room for a moment and I look down at my poor breakfast sandwich, which only has one bite taken out of it. But even if my stomach still swims a bit and my head aches from our adventures last night…I can’t bring myself to feel hungry.

Is this really the plan? To simply go into tomorrow and keep my head down and…survive?

God, but…I just absolutely hate feeling so…helpless in all of this. Don’t I have any resources at hand that I can use to stop this? I mean, my magic has clearly started to develop – is there anything that I’ve learned that I can do that can begin to help?

Can I snatch Death’s voice away at the start of everything? Make him fall to his knees? That seemed to work pretty well on Blythe but…

Well, it was Blythe. A meagre soul, a ghost. What, really, does my power hold against a full god, thousands of years old?

Doubt begins to swim within me.

“Laila, why don’t I take you back to your room,” Orion says, his voice soft and stern, his words a statement of intent far more than they are a question. I blink out of my reverie, looking up at him in surprise.

Laila? But not me?

“Oh, um,” Laila says, slowly getting to her feet. “Sure? If that’s…yeah. Okay.” She gives Anton and I both an awkward little wave goodbye as Orion crosses to her and gently takes her elbow in his hand before both of them vanish away.

“What…” I say to Anton, equally awkward, looking around Orion’s newly vacant, silent room. “Why do we get to stay?”

“I do not know,” Anton says on a tense sigh, giving a shrug. “Wanna go through his stuff?”

I snap my head back to Anton, an eyebrow raised because…yeah. I kind of do.

A grin starts to break out on my lips just as Orion reappears.

“Well, that was a rather hasty goodbye to your nighttime guest,” Anton says, casually crossing his ankle over his knee as he lounges back against the couch cushions.

“Do you have a problem with that?” Orion growls, clearly still a bit tense, turning slowly to give Anton a glare.

“Yeah, Orion. I do have a problem with that,” Anton says, low and soft, looking steadily back into Orion’s eyes, letting the larger Alpha that he’s not afraid of him. “Considering that she stayed here last night at your invitation – and that something happened –“

“Nothing happened,” Orion growls, his words lower and more threatening now.

“Oh, something happened.” Anton flicks an invisible piece of lint from his knee. “Whether or not you want to fess up to it, you’re not being very nice to that girl. And I, for one, am going to give you shit for it.”

Orion snarls at Anton – not liking that challenge - and to my shock, Anton bares his teeth and snarls right back.