He opened his arms, about to wrap them around me, but I quickly stood up, and he fell into his bed instead. I tried hard not to be affected by his behind on display. “But we’re going as friends. No trying to kiss me like you did last night. We’ll wait to see what happens after we get rid of the gift. Maybe our feelings will change, maybe they won’t. But we’ll deal with that later.”

Adrian had recovered and leaned back against the head of his bed with a smile on his face. I expected him to argue with me, but all he said was, “Okay.”

Sometimes I forgot that with Adrian there was no need to complicate things. I smiled and copied him. “Okay.”

I avoided leaving my room as much as possible after solidifying my plans with Adrian. Hawke and Lincoln checked on me every now and then, but I still needed time to process everything, so I kept our interactions short.

It was around five o’clock in the afternoon when I received a text from Kris telling me that Vlad would come get me for dinner. I quickly hit the call button. She seemed to be expecting that because she answered on the first tone. “What’s up?”

“Do you seriously want to torture me or something?”

“What?” She sounded innocent, perhaps a little too innocent.

“Why are you asking your brother to take me to dinner? Please, for the love of your ancestor Poseidon, stop trying to set me up with your brother. It won’t happen. Trust me.”

“Ave, it’s not like that. Maybe I should’ve been clearer—I mean he’ll meet you at the Hyped and walk with you to the Royal Quarters so you can have dinner with my family. It’s still not safe for you to be alone, Ave.”

She had no idea how unsafe it really was.

“Of course, if you want to invite your mom and dad, they are more than welcome. And I’ll tell Vlad he doesn’t need to escort you after all.”

I suddenly felt dumb. What was I thinking? How could I jump ahead and think Kris was still trying to set me up with her brother over a simple dinner invitation? Was it possible that I was secretly hoping—Stop it, Avery! I pushed away the thought and inhaled deeply. “Right. Of course. Sounds great. See you later, then.”

Just as I hung up the phone, there was a firm knock on my bedroom door before it swung open and Lincoln stepped inside. “Hey, I’m sorry to bother you.” She smiled nervously. “But do you need anything?”

If this was a month ago, back when I had no clue I was a Stavros, I would’ve done a backflip if my mom had knocked on the door instead of just letting herself in uninvited. Now, here she was knocking and apologizing for knocking.