Reaching Answers (Artemis University #8) - Erin R Flynn Page 0,99

were never behind us, no matter your education, but lightyears ahead of us, and that’s why they’re all so fucking jealous of you.”

I was fairly sure he had more to say but I didn’t give him a chance, leaning in and kissing him with all I had. A lot of people had said basically the same thing, but no one had ever gotten me to truly hear them like Darby just had.

He broke the kiss and rubbed his nose against mine in the way that always made me melt. “So stop wearing it as a strike against you that brings you shame. It should be your shield of pride. You were doing more as a kid than even fairies do. I heard the Light Guardians talking about it, and it’s unheard of to go out in the world solo to right wrongs before a fairy has their wings. You’re amazing, agra.”

“Thanks, Darby,” I whispered, leaning in and snuggling with him, laying my head on his shoulder for a few minutes. I knew that was all we had but I wanted to enjoy it.

We continued with the tour. He was shocked at that after I discovered the purpose, but I had demanded to see everything and get to know more about his past. I wanted to know more about him, and I think that meant a lot to him.

Silly man. Of course I wanted to know everything about my prickly pear. I simply didn’t know how to say that always, and I wasn’t great at pushing.

He had opened a lot of old wounds by bringing me there and trying to help me. That was obvious by the time we reached the end. He was lost in his head—bad memories probably—as we walked down the aisle of the school theater.

“Were you into theater?”

“Not really, but the theater teacher was nice.” He shrugged and wouldn’t look at me. “I liked helping with the sets. It was a safe extracurricular as the guys who were in theater were popular and appreciated the grunts. I was into a few of the girls who were into theater too.”

And they’d hurt him. Or at least one did, and that was what he didn’t want to say.

“Was she pretty? Or them?”

“She was. They both were, but yeah, she was. Is.” He cleared his throat. “I mentioned her once. She wanted help getting into college. She doesn’t go to Artemis. Even her money couldn’t buy her in there with such shitty test scores. Not when there are elites who do test well and have money like Lucca and Hudson. They work too. I’m not disparaging them or—”

“I know. I get it. I’m sorry she hurt you.”

“Me too.” He glanced around again and shook his head. “I was stupid. All the signs were there it wasn’t real.”

I snorted. “Been there, done that, and went back for more like an idiot.”

“Yeah, same,” he whispered. He showed me around backstage and then the storage area, even a few of the sets he’d worked on that were still there. There was the prep and theater classroom. “This is the chorus classroom. There wasn’t a chorus class or group anymore, so it was more the cool kids’ hangout area all the teachers pretended not to know about.”

“Ahhh, we had that. It was the condemned old school that was never torn down because that was smart to have around, but funding ran out or whatever,” I muttered as I looked around. “Or they were supposed to get funding to turn it into an extended area, but it never happened. Public schools are funny like that and never know what’s going on. Or lie. I found there was a lot of lying.”

“I think that’s any school.”

“True.” It was a much nicer hangout area than ours was, which was expected with a fancy school. “So this was the high school version of bringing someone to the stacks? You bring anyone here?”

He snorted. “There are places like that all over Artemis. Let’s be honest that it’s not just the library. That’s every college campus.”

“Fair enough.”

“And no, I never brought anyone here.” He rubbed the back of his neck as he looked out the window. “That’s where she brought her real boyfriend. I wasn’t cool enough to hang out here. We should get going.”

“Nah, I think you need some better memories of this place,” I purred as I dropped my jacket on the ground.

And pulled off my sweater.

“I’m over this place and this crap,” he lied. He sighed when