"Hi!" Landon said brightly. "Hey! What's up?"
I winced. Calder's mouth tightened, and Lucian was about to pop claws, I could feel and scent it in the suddenly thick air.
Landon trotted over to Lucian and stretched up to kiss his cheek.
"So Jared's actually Jared," he said, still way too cheerfully. "Good news, right? Lirien double-checked. He's missing his spleen, though."
"I wouldn't say I'm missing it, exactly," I said, desperately hoping to lighten the mood. Landon laughed. The others didn't.
Fuck my life. What the hell did Lucian think we'd been doing in the woods alone, anyway? For that matter, what did Calder think? Lucian couldn't possibly believe Landon and I had been fooling around, and Calder…yeah, he might not trust any warlock at this point, but I'd come out of the woods smiling and laughing. It wasn't like Landon had been torturing me.
