Chapter 150: She’s Not Pregnant!

The human dining hall still smelled like boiled cabbage.

Blair took her tray to the emptiest table in the farthest corner and sat down with her back to the room. It didn’t help. She could feel the stares on the back of her neck like a dozen tiny needles. The whispers followed her the whole way, and they hadn’t gotten any quieter since the afternoon.

She picked at her potatoes and tried not to listen.

Then the door at the top of the stairs banged open, and the entire dining hall went dead silent.

Blair looked up.

Daemus was standing at the top of the stairs, holding a tray.

He had to duck his head to fit under the low doorframe. He was so tall and so broad and so obviously not human that he seemed to take up half of the cramped, dim room just by existing in it. Every single human student froze with their forks in the air.

Daemus scanned the room, spotted her in the corner, and his face lit up.

"There you are!" he called. "I’ve been looking everywhere."

He clomped down the stairs, crossed the entire silent room, and dropped into the seat across from her. His tray was piled high with three steaks, a mountain of mashed potatoes, and a whole pie.

Blair stared at him. "What are you doing here?"

"You said see you at dinner." He picked up a steak with his bare hand and took a huge bite. "It’s dinner."

"I meant... I thought you’d be at the pavilion."

Daemus looked around the dim room, at the peeling paint and the flickering light and the dozens of wide, horrified eyes staring back at him.

"This place is way better," he declared. "Cozy."

The whispers started up again. Louder this time.

"Oh my god, it’s him."

"I told you. I told you."

"He came all the way down here for her. That basically proves it."

Daemus’s ears twitched. He paused mid-chew.

Blair watched his face change as he listened. First confusion. Then his eyebrows slowly climbing up his forehead. Then his eyes going wide.

"Blair," he said slowly. "Why does everyone think you’re pregnant?"

Blair wanted to crawl under the table and live there forever.

"I don’t know," she whispered. "They’ve been saying it all day. I guess it’s because I was gone so long, and... and because of you."

"Because of me?"

She nodded miserably.

Daemus set down his steak. He looked out over her head at the rest of the dining hall, and then he stood up. Blair saw what was about to happen a second too late.

"Daemus, don’t..."

"Hey!" His voice boomed off the ceiling. Every head in the room, if they hadn’t already, snapped toward him. "She is not pregnant!"

Silence.

"I would know!" Daemus added helpfully.

The silence became something much, much worse.

Blair put her face in her hands.

Daemus sat back down, looking extremely satisfied with himself, and picked his steak back up. "There. That should fix it."

It didn’t.

He walked her back to Dormitory G afterward.

It was dark out, and the paths were quiet. The cold wind had picked up, rattling the bare branches overhead. Daemus walked beside her with his hands shoved in his pockets, humming something tuneless, completely unbothered.

Blair walked with her arms wrapped around herself and her face still burning.

"You made it so much worse," she whispered.

"I made it better," Daemus said. "Now they know it’s not true."

"Now they think we... that you..." She couldn’t even finish.

Daemus thought about this for a moment. Then he grinned. "Oh. Yeah. Oops."

Blair made a small, strangled noise and walked faster. Daemus laughed and easily caught up, his long legs covering two of her steps with one of his.

They reached the front steps of Dormitory G. The lobby lights glowed yellow through the glass doors. Blair stopped on the bottom step and turned around, and for a moment, neither of them said anything.

It was the first time they had been alone since the kitchen. Since I love you, and the silence that had followed it.

Daemus looked down at the step between them, and when he spoke again, his voice was quiet.

"Why’d you sign it?"

Blair’s stomach tightened.

"My dad’s papers," he said. "I shook my head at you. You saw me." He kicked at a pebble on the path. "I walked away from all of that, Blair. The pack. The title. Him. And now you’ve got his name on you."

She could lie. She could say she hadn’t seen him. She could say she’d been too scared to think.

She didn’t want to lie to him. Not anymore.

"Jack told me to," she whispered.

Daemus’s head came up.

"He didn’t say it. He just... nodded. When I looked at him." She twisted her fingers together. "And I’m a human, Daemus. Your father is the Wolf King. I don’t think I could have said no, even if I’d wanted to."

Daemus was quiet for a long moment.

"My dad doesn’t do anything for free," he said finally. "Neither does Jack."

"I know."

"So you’re stuck between both of them now."

"I know," she whispered again.

He let out a long breath through his nose and dragged a hand down his face.

"So Jack nods, and you sign," he said. "I shake my head, and you sign anyway." He looked at her, and there was no anger in it, only something tired and hurt. "Why would you listen to him and not me?"

Blair opened her mouth.

She didn’t have a good answer. Not one she could give him standing on the steps of Dormitory G, with God knows how many eyes and ears on them.

"Can you come see me later?" she whispered. "Tonight. After curfew check."

Daemus’s brows drew together.

"There’s a lot I need to tell you." She made herself hold his gaze. "Things I should have told you a long time ago."

"Okay," he responded. "Later."

He shoved his hands back into his pockets and walked away down the dark path toward the faction houses, and Blair watched him go until the shadows swallowed him up.

Then she turned and went inside.

* * *

The door to Room 204 was locked, just the way she had left it.

Blair unlocked it, stepped inside, and flicked on the light.

Then she stopped.

Something was lying on her pillow.

It was a single pearl. Perfectly round and gleaming softly under the dim light, resting on top of a small folded card.

Blair’s heart began to pound.

She crossed the room on legs that didn’t feel like hers and picked up the card with trembling fingers. The handwriting inside was elegant and looping, the ink a deep ocean blue.

Welcome home, sweetheart.

We have so much to catch up on.

J.

Blair dropped the card.

She spun around to look at the door. It had been locked. She was sure of it. She had just unlocked it herself. She looked at the window. It was shut tight, exactly as she had left it.

The pearl gleamed on her pillow.

Blair didn’t touch it. She sat down on the floor in the corner of the room with her back against the wall, her knees pulled up to her chest, and watched the door. 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

The hours crawled by. The dormitory went quiet around her. Somewhere down the hall, the curfew bell rang, and footsteps passed her door, and faded.

Then, just after midnight, someone knocked.

Blair’s head snapped up.

Three soft knocks.

She stared at the door, her heart hammering against her ribs, and realized she had no idea who was standing on the other side.