“Given Eras’s argument, I thought it was fitting.”
“Hardly.” I sighed and shook my head at Fenris while thinking of what Eras had said. “I think it’d be better if you and I stayed away from each other for a while.”
“Are you breaking up with me?” Fenris placed a theatrical hand over his heart.
“We weren’t ever together, Fenris.”
Adira appeared beside us again.
“Is everything all right?”
I said, “Yes,” at the same time Fenris said, “No.”
“I see,” she said. “It’s not necessary for you to go to your next class. You can return to the room that I created for you.”
I looked at Fenris and gestured to Adira in a silent, “you see what you did?”
“If you would excuse us, Adira,” Fenris said smoothly. “We resolve our differences best without an audience. It leaves room for us to fully expose our more passionate emotions without reservation.”
“Of course.”
She disappeared, and I narrowed my eyes at Fenris.
“You’re as impossible as she is.”
“But I’m way more fun.”
Throughout the rest of the day, the taste in my mouth was like a slow toothache. Its awfulness crept up on me, turning me more sour by the moment until Fenris teased me out of my mood.
While his good humor helped keep me sane, it wasn’t really resolving the root cause of my irritability. I couldn’t live the rest of my life with Piepen in my mouth.
“You’re frowning again,” Fenris said. “You’re supposed to be coercing me.”
“This is pointless.”
I huffed a sigh and looked at the other paired-up students in Advanced Coercion. This was yet another change, thanks to Adira, as the typically lecture-style class never did hands-on study. Why would we? There were two main reasons to coerce. The need for food and the need to keep our presence unknown. That meant there was no point in trying to coerce each other. So, the instructors lectured about techniques, and the students were then given assignments to try those techniques on Uttira’s minuscule human population.
The bell rang and saved all of us from wasting more time. I moved to stand, but Fenris stopped me with a hand on my arm. He waited until the room cleared before speaking.
“Talk to me. You’re really not acting like yourself today. The changes haven’t been that bad, have they?”
“It’s not just the changes. It’s Piepen.” Fenris gave me a confused look. “His bitter aftertaste isn’t going away. It just crawls under my skin until I’m angry without understanding why.”
“Okay. We’ll figure this out.”
“No. We won’t. I’m going home. I just need some time alone.” I turned but paused to look back. “I know I wasn’t easy to be around today. I’m sorry.”
I left him in the coercion room and hurried for the exit before anything else could happen.
My phone buzzed before I reached my car, and I looked at the number. For a moment, I hesitated to pick up, then desperation won out.
“Mom?” I said instead of a greeting.
“Baby, what’s wrong?”
“So much,” I admitted. “I really wish you wouldn’t have told Adira about Fenris.”
“What did she do?” Mom asked sharply.
“She rearranged his schedule so he would be in every class with me.”
Mom was silent for a moment. I closed myself in the car and waited.
“That doesn’t sound awful. Unless the wolf boy is becoming annoying?”
“He’s not annoying. Adira is. It’s like she’s still trying to force-feed me.”
“I understand. I’ll talk to—”
“No, Mom. That’s part of the problem. Just stop talking to her. You’re both driving me crazy.” I realized I was yelling at her and forced myself to take another calming breath. It caught on a partial sob.
“What aren’t you telling me, Eliana?” Mom asked softly. “Does it have something to do with all the cake you ate this morning?”
I groaned.
“Now you’re talking to Mrs. Quill about me, too?”
“She cares about you and wanted me to know you were behaving strangely. You know I don’t care if you eat cake. It’s the reason you’re eating it that worries me. Fenris seemed very willing. Did something happen?”
Setting my head against the steering wheel, I stared at the intricate pattern of woven fibers that made up my jeans.
“I’d rather not talk about Fenris.”
“Okay. If this isn’t about him, then what?”
“I want to tell you, but I don’t want you to freak out and think I’m eating wrong again.”
“I won’t freak out,” she promised.
A wobbly breath escaped me.
“It’s Piepen. He was next to me on the pillow, touching himself again. I opened my mouth to yell at him, and he erupted. It got in my mouth, Mom. And my eye.”
“Baby, you forget I met that brownie. I know full well how annoying and persistent he is, and I was there when he marked you. I saw your reaction. I know you would never intentionally feed on him. Is that why you’re upset? Because you thought I wouldn’t believe you?”
I sniffled as the tears gave way.
“The taste won’t go away. It’s so bad.”
She made soothing noises and listened to me cry until I calmed to sniffles.
“I’m so sorry that happened to you. I can only imagine how awful that tasted. I promise it will go away, though, baby,” she said.
“How? When?”
“One good feeding will cleanse your palate.” She paused then added, “Why didn’t you feed at school?”
“Because it’s school, Mom. I’m not going to feed in public.”
I cringed as soon as the words were out of my mouth.
“I didn’t mean—”
“You did, and it’s okay. Understanding why will only help me help you.”
“Please, no more help.”
She chuckled.
“It won’t be forceful. You have my word. Would you like to come over for breakfast tomorrow morning? I have some exciting news, and your father said he’d make us chocolate waffles.”
It was a breakfast favorite of mine. One I’d often made for myself during my youth because Dad had been too despondent to leave his bed most mornings.
“Dad’s still with you?”
“Of course your father is still with me. I’ll send you the address,” Mom added as her phone cut out, indicating she had another call. “I have to go, baby. I love you and hope we’ll see you tomorrow.” She hung up before I could respond.
Dad was still with Mom, and she had exciting news. Neither boded well for me, Uttira, or Dad.
“Can’t one thing go right in my life?”
Tossing the phone aside, I wiped my face and looked up at the school building.
Fenris leaned against the wall beside the door. My stomach gave a weird flip at his sad expression, and I hurried to start my car. It wasn’t until I was backing out that I realized he wasn’t alone. Jenna and the rest of his her-herd stood with him. They were all watching me with pity.