Page 85 of The Robin on the Oak Throne

“Look at you,” she said. “I almost didn’t recognize you. You’re huge!”

He laughed and ran a hand across his head. “Yeah. Turns out training day and night does that.” His gaze drifted to Lorcan with worry. “He told you about acolytes, right? I’m not breaking any sacred vows?”

“He told me,” she said. “But why didn’t you?”

“I wanted to. I just…” He shrugged, his eyes pleading. Same Ethan. “I didn’t want to hurt anyone.”

“Well, I don’t think it’s me you hurt the most by disappearing.”

Ethan chewed on his lip. “Have you…spoken to Corey?”

“I saw him before I came here,” she admitted.

“You did? How’s he doing?” he gasped.

“Not great,” she said, pushing his shoulder. “Gen and I had to hear from Nate that you broke up.”

“A break,” Ethan said quickly. “Not a breakup.”

“And then you disappeared for five months. What’s the difference?”

“My isolation ends in a month. I can be out in public again after that. I don’t…” he said hesitantly. “Do you think he’ll see me?”

Kierse had a feeling that Corey would see him immediately if he could, but she didn’t know how that reunion would go. “Probably. I guess you’ll know in a month.”

“Yeah. I don’t know,” he said, looking over her shoulder in the direction of Manhattan with distant eyes, as if he could will himself to the Lower East Side to see his maybe-ex-boyfriend. He refocused on her. “Why are you back? Is Gen with you?”

“She’s in the city, but I didn’t want to risk her in enemy territory.”

“The Druids aren’t your enemy,” he said automatically.

“Like a good little soldier,” she teased.

He didn’t laugh, though. His eyes went flat. “I’m serious. They’re the good guys, Kierse. We were wrong about them.”

For the first time, looking around at the Druids, theOrder, and their very dangerous leader, she wondered how much she should eventellEthan. Was he compromised? She hated to even consider it. She never would have second-guessed him before.

“Let’s put a pin in that conversation for another time. You think the best of everyone.”

“And you think the worst.”

“Which of us was correct last winter?” she argued.

He frowned. “That’s not…” he sputtered. “Graves…”

“Let’s not bring him into this.”

“Are you working with him again?”

“Yes,” she said flatly.

“Kierse,” he said warningly. “I’ve learned some shit about him since I got here.”

“Oh, I bet you have.”

He grasped her arm and pulled her further from the circle of acolytes. “Don’t make a joke about this or try to deflect like you always do. Graves is a monster. He cannot be trusted.”

Kierse looked down at where he gripped her arm and then back up at her friend. She had worried about him going to Lorcan. She hadn’t expectedthis.

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