Dylan didn’t want to see Aiden any differently, but he did. It was a big thing to learn about someone. He didn’t want to hurt Aiden’s feelings, but Dylan had so many questions eating at him.
“So you’re gay.” Dylan wanted to smack himself for that awesome opening line.
“No. I still like girls,” Aiden mumbled.
Dylan pondered that for a moment. “So you like girls and guys?”
“Yeah.” Aiden stared out the window.
“Okay.”
They rode in silence for a while. He could practically feel the wall around Aiden, as if he’d cast a barrier spell. Finding Aiden making out with Tiago had been a shock, but like he’d told Aiden, he wasn’t going to freak out about it. It wasn’t a big deal.
Except it was a big deal. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
That got Aiden’s attention. He looked over at Dylan. “I was afraid of how you’d react. What you’d think of me. I didn’t want it to ruin our friendship.”
Dylan gripped the steering wheel and took the next turn a little too hard, anger rising. “You think I’m the kind of asshole that would… would dump you because of that?”
“I didn’t know. Even if there was a tiny chance, I didn’t want to risk it.”
“Well, I’m not, okay? And I’m pissed you wouldn’t trust me with this.”
Aiden sank lower in his seat. “Sorry.”
He looked so pathetic Dylan felt like a jerk for yelling at him. “Guess we can’t go back in time and change things, and I know now, so that’s that.” They pulled up to a stoplight. “I meant what I said. I’m cool with the… you liking guys thing.”
“Thanks.” Aiden looked like he was trying to sink into his coat.
Dylan smacked him. “Hey, knock that off. I’m happy for you, dude.” And he was. A little jealous too. Being dumped by Hanna still stung.
The comment got a little smile out of Aiden.
“So how long have you and Tiago been…” Making out? Dating? “Together?” That was the other part of the shock. Not just his best friend, but his other closest friend too. Dating each other practically under Dylan’s nose.
And Tiago was such a tough guy. No, no. Dylan scolded himself for that line of thinking.
“Since right after you killed the dark fae.” Aiden sat up a little, and his smile brightened. “He actually asked me out in the hospital.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Kind of a life is short thing, you know?”
“So he just asked you out and you said yes?”
“Of course I said yes.” Aiden glanced over. His smile was shy again, but it was a kind of happy shy. “I had a crush on him from the first day I saw him.”
Dylan made another turn, and they were almost at school. “This whole time, and you never said anything to me?”
“I told you—”
Dylan sighed. “Yeah, yeah. Sorry.” He’d rather have happy Aiden than mopey Aiden. “Did you have a crush on me?” The question popped out before he could stop himself.
The choked sound Aiden made and the way his cheeks turned bright red were answer enough.
Dylan’s mouth dropped open. But instead of being uncomfortable, he was actually… flattered. “Holy shit, you think I’m hot.”
“I-I did. I mean, you are. But it’s not—” Aiden held up his hands as if to fend him off.
Dylan threw back his head and laughed.
The parking lot was mostly full, so Dylan had to search for a space at the far end. When he pulled between a pickup truck and a beat-up Honda, Aiden turned to him.
“Please don’t tell anyone.” The fear was back in his eyes.
“Of course not.” Dylan tried not to get mad that Aiden would even ask that. “You know I can keep a secret.” A reminder to both of them of what they shared.
Aiden nodded and got out. They walked together for a bit through the cold parking lot. “Thank you for being okay with this.”
Dylan told himself it wasn’t worth holding on to his anger. It hurt that Aiden felt like he’d needed to hide this, but being mad at him only made things worse. He wanted Aiden to be comfortable around him. To trust him the next time something like this came up. “No problem.” He patted Aiden on the shoulder.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Hanna’s parents called her down for dinner, and she took a deep breath. She’d been putting this off, making excuses to herself, but she was just being a coward.
Her father and mother’s anger had cooled over time, but she was still grounded. Sneaking out to Maggie’s birthday party hadn’t helped either. That was yet another excuse to put off this conversation, to let things die down after that. Her parents had been furious when she got home.
Hanna thought it was worth it to be able to spend time with her friends outside school. To see her packmates having a good time, even if Carter barely left her side all night.
Every step down the stairs made her heat pound harder. Don’t be a coward. You can do this.
The rich smells of beef and onion filled the dining room, but Hanna’s appetite had retreated. “Father, Mother…” They looked up and she almost lost her nerve. “I’d like my phone back, please.” They’d taken it away before summer vacation and had kept it ever since.
Their eyes narrowed. “Have you stopped hanging out with those mutts?” Mother asked.
Fear warred with protectiveness. And anger too. She held on to that anger, balling her fists. “They’re not mutts. They’re my pack.” Don’t look away. It took all her bravery, but she met their gazes and announced, “I’m their alpha.”
The shocked look on their faces made her stomach flip with nervousness, but God, it felt good too. They stood and exchanged a glance.
“You can’t be an alpha to a ghoul and a vampire,” her father said.
“Yes I can.” A rush filled her and she lifted her chin. “You wanted me to be dominant. To be strong. Well, now I am.”
Clenching her jaw, her mother came around the table. They were the same height, and her mother looked Hanna straight in the eyes, trying to make her back down. “Wolves do not lead ghouls. They’re disgusting, lowly, human-flesh-eating things.”
“Carter and Jamila are people, and they’re nice, and they’re my friends.” Hanna didn’t know what had come over her, but she liked it. She tried to ignore the little voice that said she was digging her own grave.
“The damn treaty,” her father grumbled. “Throwing us all together like this.” He glanced over at her mother. “She spends every day at school with them. Of course she thinks they’re normal.” To Hanna he said, “At the end of the year, we’ll get you out of here and set you straight.”
She hadn’t given that a lot of thought. Once she was certified, she’d be stuck with just her parents and their old pack from before they moved to Shadow Valley. No friends, no one else to talk to. No school to escape to.
Her father put a hand on her shoulder. “Things will get better. There are boys other than Conner and his friends.”
He meant werewolf boys, the ones who were a few years older and had graduated already. Hanna felt the walls closing in. “What about college?” That would at least give her four years of escape.
“Of course you can go if you’d like,” her mother said. “You’re a smart girl. I’ve always thought you’d go.”
Her father nodded. “It will do you some good, help you learn how to fit into the mundane human world. It’s going to be very different out there, hiding what you are.”
Her mother sighed. “I’ve almost forgotten what it was like. It’s going to be quite an adjustment.”
Trapped between her parents and the mundane world. It sounded awful.
Unless she tried to make it on her own. Hanna took a step back from them. “I’m not going to stop being their alpha. Not until I’m certified at least.” Her parents’ faces turned hard again. “Nothing you say or do is going to stop me.” She tried to keep the tremble out of her voice and failed. “I’ve done everyth
ing else you wanted. Obeyed you, got good grades in school—”
“This all began when you started hanging out with that fae kid,” her father growled.
“No,” she growled back. “It started when I stopped letting Connor hit me!”
They blinked at her.
“Hanna…” Her mother reached out.
Hanna took a step back, shaking her head. Fear and anger tied her stomach in knots. “You were supposed to protect me. Did you really not notice, or did you let—” She couldn’t even finish, and she couldn’t stop the tears stinging her eyes.
“No.” Was that regret in her father’s eyes, or did she only wish it? “We didn’t know. I made the boy sorry for it, didn’t I?” He’d beaten Conner in front of the pack when Hanna told him Conner hit her sometimes.
“Aiden was nice to me. Dylan was nice to me.” And yet those were the boys her parents disapproved of.
“You’ll find nice boys among your own kind,” her mother said.
Hanna wanted to argue that, but she would rather finish her point. “My pack is nice to me. They need me, and I’m not going to abandon them because you don’t like them.” She didn’t want to talk to her parents anymore, didn’t even want to look at them right now. She suddenly felt so tired. “You can keep my phone. I don’t care.” Hanna left the dining room and headed for the stairs.
Once back in the relative safety of her room, she flopped on the bed and told herself not to cry.
Ten minutes later her father knocked on the door. Expecting more lecturing or yelling, she opened the door warily. Without a word, her father gave Hanna her phone.
* * *
“How was school today?” Mom asked.
“Fine.” There’d been no drama today, although Aiden was worried about the upcoming test in Advanced Spellcraft. He and Maggie should probably set up study time together. “How was work?”
“Busy,” she said with a little sigh. “But at least it made the day—night—go fast.”
His parents had mostly adjusted to the night schedule of Shadow Valley, going to work in the late afternoon and getting home in the middle of the night.
Whenever he thought about it, a pang of guilt went through him. And it was much more than changing schedules. They’d given up everything to take him to Shadow Valley—their home, their jobs, their friends.
Aiden poked at his chicken breast. “Do you hate it here?”
“Aiden…,” Dad started in a gentle tone. “Don’t start blaming yourself again.”
“You could’ve died when the dark fae came after me.” Over half a year had passed, but Aiden still thought about it almost every day.
“That’s not your fault,” Dad said.
“You could have died,” Mom said. “We were all in danger.”
Because Dylan let Morgan out of Faery, and Morgan let the other dark fae out. Aiden wasn’t sure why he could feel guilty about this and yet not blame Dylan.
Dad reached over to grip his hand. “You saved us.”
“You were so brave.” Mom took his other hand. “You and Dylan and Tiago.”
Another flutter of guilt went through Aiden for a very different reason. His parents dealt with so much, had to accept so many things about him, he didn’t want to give them yet another thing to deal with. “How can you handle all this magic and danger and stuff? I can barely handle it myself.” Aiden went to the school counselor once a week to talk through his problems.
Mom and Dad exchanged a look. Mom said, “We do the best we can. This is our life now, all of us.” She squeezed his hand.
“We’re here for you, Aiden,” Dad said. “Never forget that. We might not understand everything that’s going on in your life, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want you to talk about it.”
Do you want me to talk about how I like boys as much as girls? That I’m dating Tiago? The guilt was sharper now. He knew they meant it, knew they would love him no matter what. They’d proved that when they gave up their lives for his sake.
But secretly, maybe deep down where they didn’t even want to admit it to themselves, Aiden feared his parents were disappointed with him. That they desperately wished for their real son, their human son, and not Aiden the freak. Aiden the changeling. Aiden the trouble magnet.
Aiden the bisexual.
“I know,” he said. “I just wish… that you had a better life.” A normal life with a normal son. Maybe he could find a way to give them that after he graduated. Aiden’s birth parents were somewhere in Faery with the human boy they’d switched Aiden for. My brother. What if he could bring him home?
That might make up for everything Aiden had put his parents through.
And Aiden could ask his birth parents what was wrong with him, why they’d wanted to get rid of him.
For about the thousandth time, it was on the tip of his tongue to ask Mom and Dad what they thought, if they lay awake at night wondering where their real son was, if he was safe and happy.
Did a human boy feel as out of place in Faery as Aiden did here?
Mom got up and hugged Aiden. He shifted in the chair, hugging her back. “We have a good life. We love you, Aiden.”
“And we’re so proud of you,” Dad said.
“I love you too.” Aiden knew he was really lucky to have parents like this. His fae parents could have dropped him off with anyone, people who hurt him or neglected him. Like poor Tiago. Aiden’s heart hurt whenever he thought of the abuse his boyfriend had suffered.
Or Aiden could have ended up with parents who freaked out when they discovered he wasn’t human, and he would’ve had to go to Shadow Valley all alone.
“You’re the best parents, you know that?”
Mom squeezed him and Dad reached over to take his hand again. “And you’re the best son,” he said.
After a moment, Mom said, “We should finish before everything gets cold.”
Aiden looked at his dinner. If his parents really were okay with his magic… “Want me to make the broccoli taste like chocolate?”
Dad pushed his plate over, laughing. “Please.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“Mr. Galloway.” The counselor grinned wide enough to show his fangs. “Please, close the door and have a seat.”
This had better be worth it. Dylan took the offered chair. “Ms. Yang thinks you can fix me.”
“Fix is a loaded word. It implies that you’re broken.”
“Well, there’s something wrong with me.” There had to be, or he wouldn’t be doing so badly in gym.
“We’ll get to a discussion of your issues. How about we start with introductions first? Hi, I’m Mr. Emery.” He offered his hand across the desk. “What would you like me to call you?”
“Dylan is fine.” People called him “Mr. Galloway” when he was in trouble. He waited a second before shaking the man’s hand.
“Nice to finally meet you, Dylan.” He actually did look happy. “Now, before we get started, I want you to know that anything we talk about in here is confidential. I won’t share our conversations with anyone else. The only exception is if I think you might harm yourself or others.”
Dylan snorted. “Everyone always thinks I might hurt them.”
“Well, I don’t think you’re going to hurt me.” He smiled, flashing his fangs again. “I need to believe there’s a real, immediate threat for me to break confidentiality. I take that very seriously.”
Dylan crossed his arms and frowned. “So you won’t report everything I say to the wardens?” He could just picture Warden Bully studying Mr. Emery’s notes.
Mr. Emery shook his head. “Nope. Not one word. I can report on your general condition and progress, but those reports are only at the request of your parents and the principal. I want to emphasize general. The details of what we discuss are only between us.” He pointed a finger at Dylan and then at himself.
God, Dylan didn’t want to do this. The idea of discussing his problems with a stranger made him want to walk out right now.
/> “Okay?” Mr. Emery asked.
Dylan swallowed and made himself nod.
“Good. Now, what’s on your mind?” The counselor folded his hands and tilted back in his chair.
The past few losses in class replayed through his head. Aiden had been too afraid of matches two years ago, and now he was getting better than Dylan. And he said this had helped. “I suck at gym.”
“I noticed that Ms. Yang signed the recommendation slip. What do you mean by ‘suck’?”
“I keep losing matches or barely managing a draw.”
“And you used to win?”
He nodded.
“You’re in the advanced class, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you think that maybe the class is just more challenging?”
Fear whispered that he might have reached the limits of his abilities. Dylan shook his head. “There’s something wrong with me.” It was easier to believe that he was broken, because that meant he could be fixed.
Mr. Emery nodded, all concerned. Dylan wondered if he practiced that face. “What do you think is wrong with you?”
He thought about what Aiden had said. “I was kidnapped. Everybody knows that.”
Another nod. “I know what I read in the news. But I don’t know what the experience was like for you.”
Terrifying. It was the first time he’d felt real fear, believed he might die. “They knocked me out, and I woke up in a cage.” Dylan looked away from Mr. Emery, at the bright posters about self-esteem that decorated the beige wall. “They hunted me like an animal.” The story started spilling out of him. The fear, the helplessness, the rage. The way he’d killed the human hunter. Being shot and Aiden coming to his rescue. The desperate flight with Aiden clutched in his arms and the fight against the warden. “I wasn’t strong enough,” he confessed. “My magic wasn’t strong enough.”
“And do you think a little voice in the back of your mind is whispering that when you’re in Major Magical Control?”
Zen and the Art of Major Magical Control Page 10
