“We don’t want anyone to question why both of us won’t be at the bonfire tonight or at breakfast tomorrow. I’m sure you can endure just one more day of this,” Rafe says, his tone packed with annoyance despite the soft smile he has on his face for everyone else’s benefit. “And you promised to help me make a good impression on the hoverjoust lodge.”

Sigh. I did.

But the problem with the fact that we haven’t touched in a while before now is that I’m not primed for how very potent it is.

Rafe and I have acknowledged that our particular blend of Sire pheromones has resulted in a certain… chemistry. (This is apparently, and disturbingly, a thing—that Sires exude My Body Likes to Create Things and I Would Like to Create Something with You vibes, and sometimes those vibes are particularly magnetic with other Sires’ vibes.) But we’ve chosen to ignore it and have settled on something that vaguely resembles friendship.

But Rafe is not content with looking like mere friends today.

“Oh no, you don’t,” Rafe says, pulling me closer against him as I try to hang back to feel less perceived. To those around us, the action probably looks possessive, but he’s just trying to keep me from bolting.

I grit my teeth and continue to smile and nod at all the people we pass who enthusiastically greet Rafe.

I’ll be playing my first ever official match today, and these additional nerves are really not helping.

Suddenly, the sun comes out. And by that I mean Rafe turns on his absolute most charming smile, which I have to look away from so I’m not blinded into forgetting just who is grasping me by the waist. I look over to see who it is he’s beaming at. It’s the table of stern-faced heads of the hoverjoust lodge.

I smile at them too. See, lodge people, those complaints about Rafe being mean to recruits couldn’t possibly be true. Ugh.

The truth is, it doesn’t bother me as much as it should. I don’t want to be complicit in helping Rafe get away with being a jerk, but I’ve come to know him better over the past few weeks—not that it’s been easy when he keeps his emotions locked down like a Vatican vault. But something I’ve realized is that hoverjousting is one of Rafe’s only sources of joy on this island. He left his life, his guild, and his whole family to come to Genesis with Hypatia, and now she’s gone too. When his position on the league was threatened, it wasn’t just a game that was on the line for him. If me helping him makes a difference to his standing in the league, I’m not mad about it.