Page 29 of Our Covenant

The door opens and I look up to see Fox walking into the study.

“You look awful.” Fox grimaces. “Did you get any sleep?”

“Once I sobered up, I couldn’t stay in bed any longer.” I stumbled down here after they’d put Fox in Asher’s bed. That episode was sobering enough.

“Where have you been?”

I already know he’s been up to no good. He left with Thorne hours ago and Thorne had class this afternoon.

“I needed to clear my head,” he says. “We ran into Elsbeth at the gym.” He sits on the arm of the old leather couch, and when I only stare at him blankly, he continues. “She didn’t want anything to do with us.”

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe she only has eyes for you. Because she only had venom and pepper spray for us.”

Pepper spray? What does that have to do with anything?

The questions on my face spur him on. “I don’t know what happened on her and Thorne’s date, but she acted like he kicked her puppy and spit on her granny.”

That made no sense. Thorne flirted with her for months at the gym. Why would she agree to a date if she has no interest?

“Maybe you’re right and we aren’t her target?” I get to my feet and stretch. The newfound possibility releases the ball of bunched muscles in my shoulders.

“Then who?” Fox looks between me and the stacks of books I’m standing next to.

“Some future presidential candidate? What’s she majoring in?” My question can only be answered by Thorne, but he hasn’t come home yet.

“I’m not sure. I think political science. Isn’t that what Thorne gushed about? That she’s smart and worldly.”

If she were out to find a way to become a future first lady, she wouldn’t be entertaining dates with a Business major like Thorne or an English major like me.

“It all feels too practiced. Like she’s five steps ahead of us.” Fox’s brows knit together, like finally someone is following me down this rabbit hole.

Asher walks into the room with the answer. “I think I’m her target.” He holds up his phone with a photo of her sitting at a desk in one of the old wood-clad lecture halls. “She’s in every single one of my classes. I checked after I met her in the library.”

“She transferred into your classes?” Fox squints at Asher’s screen. “Stalker.”

“For the last two semesters. Transferred in last spring.”

“You didn’t feel her magic? Could she be using a cloaking spell?” I take his phone and zoom in to see that she’s focused on the textbooks in front of her.

“That’s one hell of a cloaking spell if she’s been avoiding you for months. But why not approach you like she did Thorne or Maddox?”

“This doesn’t make sense. Why hasn’t she made a move for your attention if you’re her target?” Fox looks like he’s fighting the urge to debate Elsbeth’s intentions just for the sake of his ego. He’s not used to rejection.

“Maybe she thought Thorne would introduce us eventually.” Asher shrugs.

“Then why act like she wants nothing to do with Thorne today?”

“You spoke to her today?” Asher whips his head around to Fox.

“Yeah, she wasn’t a fan of either of us. Threatened to pepper spray us.”

“You,” Thorne jumps in, finally gracing us with his presence. “She threatened you with pepper spray. I would have just watched.”

He crosses his arms over his chest as if he didn’t miss most of the conversation leading up to this moment.

“Did you tell her about your kinks? Loving to inflict pain could have sent her running for the hills,” Fox volleys.