August flinched away from the reporter’s exclamation before resuming his attempt to close the door, but he was startled again when Galen yelled back from the guest bedroom, “Coming! Come in!” After that, August could only step aside and close the door behind Deana as she entered.

“Oh Princess! It’s been an age,” Deana cooed and held out her hands to Galen as he came back into the living room.

After fixing his hair, Galen took her hands and squeezed them. He looked back at August. “This is Deana,” he said, “We’re good friends; I’ve known her for ages.”

“I’m August. Um. Can I… get you something to drink?” August asked, standing awkwardly by the door.

“Oh don’t worry about me,” Deana insisted as Galen led her to an armchair. August did not trust that answer at all, so he made some tea and brought it over with the last surviving remnants of Galen’s baking. He sat beside him on the couch at a carefully considered distance.

Galen and Deana were going back and forth with casual small talk as Deana picked the last few leaves off of herself. Neither of them acted as though there was anything unusual about the current circumstances. August was getting more and more nervous about it until Galen finally brought it up.

“I’m so glad we’re catching up,” he said, “But how did you find me? It’s a little bit shocking.”

Deana’s expression turned serious, and she rubbed her forehead with the flats of her fingertips. “It’s not good news that I found you, I know. I was doing research for a piece about the Empress’ real estate holdings when I saw that this house was set up shortly after the verdict.”

“That’s all?” Galen seemed surprised.

“Well, it was a gamble. I was worried that if I didn’t take it, someone else would first. It’s been months now, Galen, and everyone is still worried about you. The nobles, the press, the online sleuths… people are still looking for information.”

Hearing this, August felt queasy. Milly and Xanier didn’t bring it up around him anymore, so he had convinced himself that the speculation had died down. If it hadn’t, though, when would it ever?

Galen gave him a look and saw he wasn’t doing well. He put his hand over August’s and tried to reassure him, “Deana’s really a good friend. She’s not going to say anything, right?”

“Oh, I climbed over several walls to get here,” Deana swore, “if I did that for a story, it would ruin all my credibility. But I’ve known Galen for a long time, and if there’s anything I can do to help—” she looked down at their hands on the couch, “—either of you, I’ll do it.”

August relaxed only slightly, and looked to Galen for what to do next. Galen looked back. “Can I tell her?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

Galen turned back to Deana and said, “August and I are part of a medical experiment. He’s the patient; I’m the treatment. We were paired because we have a 100% pheromone match.”

Deana looked at August in surprise. He couldn’t tell what part of the story most surprised her: that he was a patient, that he was an Alpha, or that he matched so highly with Galen. When she finally composed herself she said, “If the treatment has something to do with pheromones, then...”

August reflexively tried to pull his hand back, but Galen grabbed it more tightly. In the end, they were now overtly holding hands. Deana noted this action and completed her train of thought. “The optics on that are going to be very bad.”

Galen winced. He hadn’t considered it until his conversation with his parents, but now he couldn’t deny that some people were going to find his situation suspicious. “And you?” he probed.

She sighed and massaged the bridge of her nose. “The Empress was involved in this, and I don’t believe she’d do you wrong. I assume this is a real experiment?”

“With the Royal Hospital,” August said.

Deana took a long and discerning look at August before turning back to Galen and giving him another look. Finally, she lowered her head and took a pastry from the coffee table. “What caused the baking?” she asked.

“I invited my parents over, and they tampered with August’s medication and sent him to the hospital.”

She swallowed slowly, seeming to consider everything. Then, she shrugged. “All told, you both seem fine. In fact, Galen looks better than I’ve seen him in years. But this is going to be very, very hard to explain if it gets out. I’ll do what I can to keep an eye on the situation, though.”

After that, Galen steered the conversation towards safer topics, and August listened politely as they chatted. Once her teacup was empty, Deana decided it was time for her to go. They saw her off, both smiling cordially, but once she was on the other side of the gate, neither of them kept up the mood.

“Deana’s very resourceful; most people aren’t as keen as she is,” Galen tried to say something reassuring.

August made a noise in reply. Galen seemed fairly relaxed about the whole thing, so he’d just have to have faith in his assessment. “I should get back to my schoolwork,” he said. He went back upstairs and sat down in front of his comm.

There was a swirling black pit of dread in August’s stomach, even bigger now than it had been when the court document had leaked. Since then, or maybe even before, he had an ever-growing sense that this treatment was too good to be true. Nevertheless, he couldn’t stop himself from wanting it, and from wanting everything that it came with. The enormity of his selfishness frightened him, and he knew that it would frighten everyone else, too, if they found out.

August couldn’t afford to let any of his emotions get out of control, though, or he’d never get through the exam period. He pushed it all down and threw himself headlong into his to-do list. He reviewed the group project one more time, gave his okay to Xanier to submit it, finished the bibliography for one of his papers, and started studying for his first exam.

Over the exam period, August did his best to ignore everything but his school work. He finished all his papers and polished them well past the point of utility before submitting them. He re-read as many of the texts as he could, took mock exams two or three times, and reviewed his notes over and over until he basically had them memorized. He’d never studied so much in his life. Even when he was cooking, or working out, or in the bathroom, he was constantly thinking about his schoolwork, and nothing else.

By the time his last exam rolled around, he was feeling pretty good about it. He wasn’t at all worried about his grades, at least. He got to campus early, did some last minute studying in the library, and then went to the exam hall. The hour and a half seemed to go by quickly, and at the end, he handed in his exam and left with the first batch of students who had finished.

There were a smattering of people waiting outside, and some of them went up to the students who had just come out, but no one came to August. There was nothing surprising about this; he had very few close friends, and not that many acquaintances beyond them. What was a little strange was that several students seemed to turn their eyes towards him as they talked.
Without the exams to focus on, he could feel that old sense of dread creeping back up, and it was probably making him paranoid. But he could swear it happened a few more times as he walked through campus.

August didn’t bother to turn his comm back on as he made his way back to the house. With his semester finally behind him, he felt light and airy. Or maybe he felt light-headed due to staying up late to study. Either way, nothing seemed any different than usual, except that for a moment, he thought he heard someone say his name. No one was looking for him when he turned around, though. August hoped that he’d feel better once he was inside. Galen had told him he would make up another treat platter, and he focused on thinking about how the other might have arranged it.

As he rounded the corner to his street, he finally felt himself relax. Then he looked up, and everything he’d been soothing himself with stopped working. There was a gaggle of reporters milling around on the sidewalk in front of his gate, all with cameras hovering around them like a swarm. They hadn’t seen him yet. Instinctually, he wanted to run.

Instead, August stepped back behind the corner and took his comm out. As soon as he turned it on, it started buzzing with messages that he definitely didn’t want to look at. He did his best to avoid reading them and instead opened up the news page. Every single headline he could see was about Galen. The earliest stories had started to break minutes before he had gone into his exam, but he hadn’t seen them then. It was exactly like his worst fears come to life, and it was also worse.

The thought of turning around, heading back the way he came, and going to his parents’ house crossed August’s mind, but he didn’t think he could do it. The trip home had been hard enough when he’d thought he was only imagining things. He peeked around the corner again. The reporters still hadn’t noticed him. It would take him less than a minute to get inside the gate.

His comm buzzed again so he just turned it off once more, stuffing it in his bag. He squared his shoulders, took a few deep breaths, and turned the corner a second time. This time he didn’t look at the reporters, or at least he tried not to. He focused on the biometric scanner beside the gate. Once he was passed it, he could go inside the gate and shut the reporters out.

As the seconds passed and he got closer, however, the reporters noticed him. They corralled around him and started to ask questions.

“Excuse me, is Former Crown Princess Galen living at this address?”

“Do you know August Neptune?”

“Excuse me, are you August?”

“Do you have any comments on the photograph?”

“Pardon, do you know where Former Crown Princess Galen is right now?”

August clenched his jaw and refused to say anything as cameras swarmed around his face. He didn’t want to think about what they were seeing while the reporters hurled questions at him. He was steps away from safety. He slid past the reporters who were in his way with the strong intention of bodily moving anyone who tried seriously to slow him down. Luckily, no one seemed prepared for full confrontation. The gate started opening for him, he squeezed inside, and he hit a button to close it again as soon as he could.

After a moment, August looked back. The reporters and their cameras were no longer in sight. He let out a shaky breath and clenched his hands into fists a few times to stop them from trembling. After taking a moment to reorient himself, he started walking again, slowly this time, to the front door.

As August walked the bend of the driveway, he almost ran into Galen. “Oh good, you’re back,” he said, steering August into the house. Once he’d shut the door, he turned and asked, “Did you see the news?”

“There’s more than a dozen people standing outside,” August replied.

“Did you say anything?”

“No.”

“Good, I’ll call the imperial guard and have them back off,” Galen said, as if he’d expected this to happen. He generally seemed a lot calmer than August felt, although there were some telltale signs of stress-baking in the kitchen.

“What happened?” August finally asked.

Galen put one hand over his eyes and frowned. “Remember the croquembouche? Someone must have taken that photo off of your comm somehow.”

So in the end it was August’s own fault. He supposed it was a relief that there was no one else to blame. “Sorry,” he said.

“Me too. Just give me some time to think and I’ll figure this out, okay?” Galen still had his hand over his eyes. It didn’t inspire much confidence.

August said something perfunctory, walked past the table with the platter of fresh cookies that Galen had made, and went to his room. The next several hours felt like a kind of limbo. Galen kept baking, and August stayed holed up with his comm turned off.

Galen’s cookie platter kept growing. He wasn’t entirely sure what his next move should be, but he was worried about August. He felt a little guilty, too. He’d promised nothing like this would happen, but in the end it did. And he needed to consider what he did next very carefully, but somehow he couldn’t sort it all out in his mind.

Just when Galen was debating whether or not he should make a second cookie platter or do a cupcake tower instead, his comm alerted that there was someone at the gate. The guard had cleared the reporters, but it was possible a new batch had arrived. When he looked, however, there was just a man, woman, and teenager holding several grocery bags.

“August!” Galen shouted.

“Yeah?” came the muffled reply.

Galen went up the stairs and called again, “You’re family’s at the door. You answer it, I’m going to get changed.”

“Yeah,” August replied. At home, his family had often marked the ends of semesters with nice homecooked meals, but it hadn’t occurred to him that they would do the same even when he’d moved out. They had probably messaged him earlier, but he was still avoiding all of that. And he didn’t want to go into his messages just to tell his family to go away. He reluctantly peeled himself off his bed and went to open the gate.

August let them in and then went outside to greet them. He got a friendly round of hugs from everyone, but he could already tell that his sister, at least, was vibrating with questions. Once they were inside, his mom finally asked how he was doing.

“I’m fine. Busy day, I guess,” August told her. He got a look that informed him he hadn’t been convincing enough.

His sister took the opportunity to ask a harder question. “What about Former Crown Princess Galen?”

And with impeccable timing, Galen started coming down the stairs.