The Half-Class by Kayvion Lewis

Chapter Eleven

Luke was behind me before the barn door even closed.

“That was him?” Luke said, glaring into the night before it closed entirely.

“Keep your voice down.” I grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the door. “He just left. He could have heard you.”

“What happened? Where did you two go? I looked everywhere, but I couldn’t find you.”

I pulled him behind the bar and into the quieted hallway, closing the door. “We were in my apartment,” I said.

“Your apartment?” His jaw clenched. He was still for a second before he slammed his hand into the wall, sending a shudder through the boards.

“Luke!”

“I’m sorry.” He raised his hands in defense, then took a deep breath. “Are you...alright?”

The chair he’d sent crashing into the wall at the manor shattered in my mind again.

I cleared my throat. “Yes, I’m fine. Nothing happened. We just talked. That’s it.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes.”

His shoulders relaxed as if a thousand weights had just been lifted off them.

“Why are you here?” I asked as calmly as I could, although every bone in my body wanted to scream at him. “You shouldn’t have come.”

He tapped his foot. “I wanted to see you.”

“You wanted to see me with the prince.”

“And if I did? What’s wrong with me keeping an eye on you?”

“You understand why that’s an awful idea, right?” His eyebrows jumped. Damn it, Luke. “What good is that going to do for anyone, huh?” I spewed. “The more you see of Cass and me together, the more likely you are to stop it. And the more I see of you while I’m with him, the more awful I’m going to feel.” The fire in his eyes told me he didn’t care at all about anything I just said. New tactic.

I took a step forward. “You don’t want me to feel awful, do you?”

He sighed. Tense muscles in his neck released. Good. If he wasn’t going to listen to logic, then maybe I could sway him with pleading eyes and a soft voice.

“When is he coming back?” he asked.

“He’s not next time. We’re going to the races tomorrow.”

“What?” he shouted. “You can’t take him to the races. You know how many half-classes are there.”

“Look how many are here—”

“And the races are dangerous, Evie. You know how some of those men are. You can’t go by yourself.”

“I won’t be by myself. I’ll be with the prince.”

He scoffed. “That’s not better.”

“Too bad. I already made the plans.”

We matched stares for a few seconds. “Fine,” Luke finally said, but saying something else entirely at the same time.

I clenched my nails into my palm. “You cannot follow us there.”

“I didn’t say I was.”

I crossed my arm. “Then promise me you won’t be there.”

I would have waited hours for my answer, but another party decided to butt into our conversation.

Kat flew in from the door behind the bar. She stumbled to a stop a step away from me. Luke and I took a step apart as Kat’s eyes darted between us. Whatever judgmental thought she had, she dismissed with the wave of her hand.

Her glare settled on me. “I told you I was looking for Prince Cassian, and you decided not to tell me that you’d already ‘made friends’ with him?! Not fair.”

“Kat, it’s not what you think—"

“Then after you hog him for an hour, you shuffle him out without giving him the chance to talk to anyone else? What the hell!” She huffed and blinked, holding back angry tears.

“I—”

“If it didn’t make me look like a desperate wench, I’d have flown out after him. But now I’ll have to wait until he comes back.”

“Kat.”

She stopped, her fair face frozen in a frown.

“I’m doing this for Gilow.”

Her shoulders dropped. “Oh.”

If there was a time to lay everything on the table for her, it was now. “Can we talk later, Luke?” I asked. “Please.”

He hesitated for a moment, then took his leave through the bar door, slamming it on his way out.

Why was he so angry? He already knew what was going on, and he’d had an entire day to come to grips with it. Nonetheless, I’d have to coddle him at some point. After all, we were engaged now. Making an effort to tend to his emotions was on my responsibilities list.

I was engaged—another thing to fill Kat in on.

“Come on,” I said. “There’s a lot I have to tell you.”

“So, you’re going to be his mistress?” Kat’s mouth sat agape.

I sat crisscross on our bedroom sofa. I would have sat on the bed, but I wasn’t going to do that until someone changed those sheets.

“He never technically told me that.” I twiddled with the hem of my dress. “He just told me to get as close to him as I could.”

“Well, there’s nothing else that could mean.” Kat folded her arms and paced. Her cream booties clacked over the planks of wood. “I won’t lie, I’m disappointed. Very much so. But for your sake Evie, I won’t intervene. Not until you’re done with his highness.”

“Thank you, Kat.” That was one less thing to worry about.

“Was that why Luke looked so furious?” She tapped her elbow. “Does he know about this?”

I dropped my chin into my palm. “Yes, and he had more than a few objections.”

“Objections are one thing, he looked absolutely livid.” She shook her head. “Such a shame too, to see such ugly emotions on that handsome face.”

I had to tell her the next part now. “I hear that men tend to get that way…when they know that another man is spending nights with their fiancé.”

Kat stopped. Her eyes widened. “Evie, no.”

“I had to. He asked, so I said yes. And he asked after Gilow assigned me all of this. He knew what we were getting into.” She opened her mouth, but I spoke first, “Don’t give me any of that manipulative ‘don’t play with people’s hearts’ stuff. It’s not going to change anything.”

Her honey eyes flickered between mine, and despite what I’d just said, they managed to dredge a pang of guilt from me. “If Luke’s willing to take you after all of this, then it means he really cares about you, Evie.”

“I know that.”

“Do you? Because you dismissed him rather quickly back there.”

“Because he was being ridiculous! He showed up here when he knew I was going to be with the prince.”

“But he’s only acting like this because he loves you.”

“Ugh—what does that have to do with anything? Love or not, he should have enough restraint to keep himself from jeopardizing this assignment right out of the gate. Yet he still wanted to come to the races tomorrow night.”

She cocked her head. “The races?”

“Where Cass and I are going to meet again.”

“Oh.” She tapped her fingers against her arm. “That might be bad.”

“Exactly.” I fell back onto the sofa. “He’s just going to do what he wants anyway, and it’s not like I can tie him up to a tree until after.”

She flopped down to the floor beside me. “I don’t know about future instances. But how about tomorrow night? I’ll go with you.” I furrowed my brow at her. “Not to try my hand at the prince, I promise. I meant so I can distract Luke for you, should he show up.”

I sat up. “Really? You think you could keep him busy?” Kat only knew Luke by proxy of me, and I doubted they’d have much to talk about.

“Trust me, Evie, I entertain men for a living. I think I can distract him for a couple hours.” Her type of distraction wasn’t the type of was asking for, but I’d just have to trust that she could be just as entertaining with her clothes on. “Besides,” she continued. “I deserve a night off anyway.”

I grinned. “Thank you, Kitty Kat. What would I do without you?”

“What would the world do without me?” She twirled a lock of hair at her hairline like she would one of the golden-haired dolls we used to play with as little girls.

A wave of peace washed over me. This would be so much easier with Kat at my side, or at least, keeping Luke from mine.

“Do you think he’s attractive?” she asked suddenly.

“Luke? Definitely.” If only I were the type of girl who could fall in love with that alone.

“No, the prince.”

I bit my lip. “His father banned me from almost every store in Bexbury last week, so no, I don’t think I do.”

“Sins of the father,” Kat said. “And that has nothing to do with my question. I’m asking on a purely aesthetic level.”

I tucked a curl behind my ear. “Really, Kat?”

“Because I think he’s quite attractive. I really wouldn’t have minded being his mistress.” She shrugged, resigned to her loss. “Just a question.”

I rolled my eyes. There was nothing Kat loved to talk about more than money and men. She was doing a favor for me, so I might as well indulge her.

“He’s definitely distinct,” I said. “How many people in the light-class do you see with hair that shadowy black?” I was going to stop there, but for some reason, I went on. “And he has a really pleasing build, but he carries himself in a way that’s unimposing. His skin’s a bit snowier than I prefer, even in light-class men, but I think his eyes make up for that. They remind me of lily pads at the pond. It’s almost unnatural how green they are.”

Kat folded her arms over the edge of the sofa cushion. “So, you do think he’s attractive.” She smiled mischievously.

“I suppose, objectively, yes?”

She giggled. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say that about a light-class man before. Then again, you so rarely admit it about anyone.”

“Alright, enough lollygagging.” I smothered my smile and jumped up off the sofa. “I think it’s time for us to talk about something more serious.”

She blinked at me. “What could be more serious than everything we just talked about?”

I pointed to our bed across the room, ruffled sheets and all. “We need to talk about the new rules for our bed.”