“We will find a solution, Sir,” Bran promised smoothly. “And in the meantime, Lachlan and I will keep Emma safe from any kind of unwanted attention.”
As he spoke, he seemed to grow larger and his storm-blue eyes blazed at the popular boys. On my other side, Lachlan was also glaring at them. I felt perfectly protected and safe between the two of them and I squeezed their hands, sending a silent thank-you.
Mr. Barron frowned at Bran.
“Well, all right but…come to think of it, Mr. O’Connor, you look different yourself. Were you also under a spell?”
“Yes,” Bran said simply. “But how I look doesn’t matter. What matters is that I have sworn my service to Emma and I will protect her from harm.” He glared at the three popular boys pointedly again, and they stared back in sullen silence.
“I, too, have pledged myself to Emma’s service,” Lachlan said. “I swear to you now, Mr. Barron, no harm will come to her and no more problems will arise because of her beauty.”
“Well…” For once Mr. Barron seemed to be at a loss for words. “Carry on, then,” he said at last, waving to us with one hand. “Everyone take a seat and turn to chapter twenty-seven in your text books.”
With some angry muttering, Cedric, Francisco, and Elian took their seats around the still-furious Morganna. And Bran and Lachlan sat on either side of me, making me feel happy for the first time since I’d walked into the room. They were both just so big and strong and I felt so perfectly right sitting between them—not to mention safe.
I know it sounds girly and not very feminist to want a guy’s protection—or in this case, two guys. But when you have three other jerks fighting over you and you don’t know what to do, having a couple of friendly males on either side of you can really calm your nerves.
Or maybe more than friendly, whispered a little voice in my head, but I pushed it away. After all, we were all just friends and even if we wanted to be more, how could I choose between them?
What if you didn’t have to choose? suggested that same little voice—it was persistent, I would give it that much. I pushed it away again. It wasn’t like I could have both Bran and Lachlan—that’s not how things work, right?
I was so busy thinking of my newly complicated love life that I was caught by surprise when I turned my head and happened to catch a look at Morganna.
The Fae girl was staring at me with so much hatred in her eyes I felt taken aback. I mean, she had disliked me for a long time—I knew that well enough. But I had never seen such pure malice in her big blue eyes before. She actually looked like she wished she could pull out a gun and shoot me—or whatever the Fae equivalent of that is.
I kept my face blank and turned back to my textbook, trying to ignore the malevolence beaming at me from across the room.
I had the uneasy feeling that I would need much more than Bran and Lachlan on either side of me to keep me safe from what the nasty Fae girl was doubtless dreaming up.
46
The rest of the day went on pretty much the same way. In every class, I seemed to fascinate some weak-minded male by accident and then they came up to me and started acting like idiots, trying to ask me out. Luckily, either Bran or Lachlan was always in class with me—(I found out later that they had worked it out that way on purpose and Lachlan had signed up for every class I had that Bran didn’t—) so they were able to stop the trouble before it started.
But honestly, by lunchtime, I was so tired of the whole mess, I was about ready to become a teenage dropout.
The three of us met up after fourth period and made our way to the Dining Hall, my guys on either side of me to keep me safe from would-be admirers. Even so, a few thick-headed boys came up and tried to talk to me, despite the fact that I was flanked by two very large and protective Fae. It made me lose respect for so many of my classmates, I was losing count.
“Ugh, what is wrong with them?” I demanded, as we finally entered the cafeteria line and grabbed green plastic trays to wait our turn. “I’m so sick of this I could scream!”
“Don’t scream, little one,” Lachlan said dryly. “That would only bring people running—and chances are, most of them would be males attracted to your beauty like bees to a flower.”
“Well, this ‘flower’ is getting sick of swatting at ‘bees’,” I said grumpily. “I haven’t even been Fae three days and I already wish I was just a Norm again!”