Ichor : Blood & Secrets

Chapter 59

“I hate it,” she said angrily. A surge of darkness shot up into her and through the bond. It made me cringe. My best friend was lighthearted and kind. She didn’t have feelings like that. “I hate all the gossip. It’s so stupid. How can they all be so shallow?”

“Ignore them,” I repeated soothingly. “You were smart not to hang out with them anymore.” Ignoring them grew harder and harder, though. The whispers and looks increased. In animal behavior, it became so bad, I couldn’t even concentrate on my now-favorite subject. Ms. Meissner had started talking about evolution and survival of the fittest and how animals sought mates with good genes. It fascinated me, but even she had a hard time staying on task, since she had to keep yelling at people to quiet down and pay attention.

“Something’s going on,” I told Lissa between classes. “I don’t know what, but they’re all over something new.” “Something else? Other than the queen hating me? What more could there be?” “Wish I knew.” Things finally came to a head in our last class of the day, Slavic art. It started when a guy I barely knew made a very explicit and nearly obscene suggestion to me while we all worked on individual projects. I replied in kind, letting him know exactly what he could do with his request. He only laughed. “Come on, Rose. I bleed for you.” Loud giggles ensued, and Mia cut us a taunting look.

“Wait, it’s Rose who does the bleeding, right?” More laughter. Understanding slapped me in the face. I jerked Lissa away. “They know.” “Know what?” “About us. About how you . . . you know, how I fed you while we were gone.” She gaped. “How?” “How do you think? Your ‘friend’ Christian.” “No,” she said adamantly.

“He wouldn’t have.” “Who else knew?” Faith in Christian flashed in her eyes and in our bond. But she didn’t know what I knew. She didn’t know how I’d bitched him out last night, how I’d made him think she hated him. The guy was unstable. Spreading our biggest secret— well, one of them—would be an adequate revenge. Maybe he’d killed the rabbit, too. After all, it had died only a couple hours after I’d told him off. Not waiting around to hear her protests,

I stalked off to the other side of the room where Christian was working by himself, as usual. Lissa followed in my wake. Not caring if people saw us, I leaned across the table toward him, putting my face inches from his