The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy novel Chapter 715

I open my mouth to say more, to explain everything, but Jackson wraps a gentle hand around my arm.

“They already know about what Blythe said about Juniper,” Jackson whispers to me. I turn my face up to him in surprise. “I told them when you were in the shower.”

“We have a call out to mom,” Rafe says quietly, looking at me curiously. “But you don’t have…like any idea about how he knew her? Just that she said something to him about…you?”

I shrug, shaking my head. “I don’t know anything else,” I say. “I was trying to get out of there as fast as I could. God, I should have –“

“Don’t, Ari,” Jesse says, looking at me sadly with his kind brown eyes. “There’s no way you could have known.”

I let my eyes drop to the floor. “Two,” I whisper, exhausted. “Two boys dead in one day.”

“It’s horrible,” Rafe agrees, nodding. “But if it helps…you saved a great deal more.”

I look up at him, not understanding.

He leans forward towards me. “You’re right, Ari – we were shit with those guns. We had one, maybe two full days of training on them. If you hadn’t used your magic and taken down those helicopters, they’d have continued firing. They’d have taken many, many more of us out and gotten behind our lines. You saved a lot of lives yesterday.”

I swallow hard around the thickness in my throat, considering that. And even though it does nothing to dull how much I miss Tony, how sorry I am about Blythe…it does help.

I nod to him, grateful for the perspective.

But Rafe just sighs and stands. “We have to go.”

Jacks stands up and puts me on my feet, clearly hating to do it but knowing he has a responsibility.

“Come on, trouble,” Jesse says, holding out a hand to me. “Let’s go bother Daphne. Drink a bunch of her wine.”

A little smile turns the corners of my mouth as I slip my hand into my cousin’s and give it a squeeze.