by Kat Cotton
“What color?” Nova asked.
“Purple.”
He sighed. Wrong, again.
Even if my powers had been totally on point, probing around in Nova’s mind scared me. What would an incubus have going on in there? All kinds of scary sex stuff, no doubt. I wasn’t a prude but Nova could keep that stuff to himself.
“Stop thinking about Ren and concentrate.”
I jumped. How did Nova know that? This telepathy thing was way too invasive.
Ren sat with his back to me. He’d raised his eyebrows when I’d entered the room but hadn’t smiled. An eyebrow raise without a smile was way too complicated for me to interpret. If I couldn’t even sense what color Nova thought of, no way could I pick up on Ren’s thoughts.
As much as I wanted my proven goodness to shine through, it didn’t seem to be working. I guess not luring someone to their death was just base level goodness, even if the death-luring did come with a sweet deal. I wished my feelings for Ren could be simple. Hate or anger or even dislike. But in this quiet room, his presence seemed to bump against me. No longer did he smell of expensive aftershave but of hay and outdoors and sunshine but the underlying Ren-ness hadn’t changed. I didn’t want to think good things about him, like how he’d snuggled with me in that cold bed when we’d been kidnapped. The two of us clinging together so that we didn’t lose our minds.
I didn’t want to be nostalgic for such a horrific time but it’d seemed like back then, there’d only been the two of us in the world, with nothing coming between us.
As we were leaving the meeting, I whispered to Britney to go to the library in case she hadn’t received any of those mind messages I’d sent. She caught Lucas’ eye and gestured that we were leaving together. Lucas smiled but that smile didn’t include me. His smile had very definite “Britney only” vibes.
Mark walked beside me as we left. “You know it’s because of you that we aren’t doing proper training.”
“Me?” I had no idea what he was talking about.
“Mr. Norton is scared of your power. He’s scared you can’t control it.”
I picked up my pace, trying to get away from him. I didn’t want to have this conversation. First, Tarragon, now Mark. Did everyone in the group feel the same way? Mark had been one of the few on my side for a while but that hadn’t lasted long.
Mark wasn’t easily dissuaded. He scowled as though expecting me to have some great solution.
“What about Ren?” I folded my arms. Why did these things always have to be about me? Ren had the same powers. “He used to terrify the whole school with his bullying.”
Mark snorted. “Yeah, but he was in control the whole time. You’re a loose cannon.”
I tossed my head like I didn’t care one bit about his opinion.
“Yeah well, you’re just going to have to deal with that because it’s not like it’s my life’s mission to make sure you get your little testosterone fix.”
Mark moved in front of me, blocking my way. He peered down at me, bending slowly to emphasize his point.
“There’s a war coming, coming faster than you think. You might be happy in your little bubble here, with your boyfriend and your nail polish, but there’s stuff going on outside of this school that you need to educate yourself about. Soon, we’ll need to be involved.”
Chapter 12
I SLUMPED DOWN AT THE table in the library. “Mark’s a jerk. A misogynist jerk. I don’t even wear nail polish.”
“But he’s not wrong.” Britney grimaced. “There’s been a lot of trouble brewing. My family are happy that I’m here at Edgewater, safely away from any attacks. Not that they are in any danger. Other supernaturals stay away from the fae community. We aren’t so sweet, you know.”
That probably would’ve been more believable if Britney didn’t look so shiny and happy but then I’d seen her attack. Swift and hard, with no mercy, she’d literally put some guy’s balls in a vice.
“Even if it’s true, it’s hardly my fault that Mr. Norton doesn’t want us to fight.” I leaned back, studying Britney’s face. “It’s not, is it? Does everyone feel like that? Like I’m suddenly going to go dark side with no warning?”
“If you do, I’ll slap you.” Britney grinned. “Going dark is so out this season. Now, tell me about last night.”
“Just a minute.” I got up and did a circuit around the library shelves then doubled back around, past the photocopy room.
Just thinking about the way Angela and her friends had attacked us in the photocopy room earlier this semester, Mr. Quiller’s offer didn’t seem quite so evil. Angela sure had no qualms about being nasty. Nasty could be her middle name. Oscar too. Their whole “let’s be friends now” act creeped me. I needed to keep my guard up around the pair of them.
No sign of Angela or any of her friends anywhere around so I guessed it was safe to talk. I went back to our table.
“I got nothing.” I folded my arms. “He wanted to make a deal. An evil deal. He told me to lure Angela into the woods and... and well, I can’t do that.”
Britney stared for a moment and then as the implication hit, her jaw dropped.
“Of course you can’t.” Britney leaned forward, lowering her voice even more. “No matter how bad she is, you can’t let him kill her. You made the right decision. See, you aren’t going dark at all.”
I grinned. “Well, I did put one hundred points in the ‘Cherry isn’t going dark’ column because of that one.”
Britney slapped my arm. “One hundred? I’d say five hundred at least. There’s probably not a single student in this entire academy who hasn’t considered killing Angela at some point.”
“But now I have to go on a date with Oscar.” I sighed. “Maybe it won’t be so bad.”
“Yeah. It’ll be bad.” Britney laughed. “Will you let him kiss you?”
I punched her arm. As if. The thought of kissing Oscar made me vomit in my mouth a little.
“You could come with me. You and Lucas. A double date. That’d make it more bearable.”
Britney looked away, suddenly interested in the books around us. I wasn’t totally clueless. I got the hint. Lucas didn’t want to spend time with me.
“I even have to wear a pretty dress. We went to a fancy place last night and I had nothing to wear. I borrowed a dress from Angela.” I folded my arms on the table and slumped down, burying my head. Then I looked up and smiled. “On the plus side, that steak was so delicious. I never knew steak could taste that good. Hey, that’d be dangerous, a vampire eating steak. Get it...”
Britney laughed but in that way people laugh to be nice. I thought I’d been pretty funny. Maybe she didn’t like the mention of delicious steak, since she didn’t eat meat.
“I didn’t know you were on dress-borrowing terms with Angela.”
“Well, I figured since she wants to be my best buddy, I could use that a little. And anyway, I didn’t kill her so she kind of owed me a favor.”
Britney laughed.
“You don’t think I can fool Mr. Quiller?” I glanced up hoping that she’d think my idea was brilliant and not the stupidest thing ever. “We could put some kind of protection on Angela so that she’s safe from him or we could be waiting to save her. Then I’d fulfill my side of the bargain but Angela wouldn’t —” I cupped my hand around my mouth and whispered. “Die.”
“You can’t do that.” Britney laughed properly this time. “You think a powerful man like Mr. Quiller would be that stupid? He might end up wanting vengeance on you instead of Angela.”
I slumped back down. I hadn’t thought of that. I definitely didn’t want him trying to get vengeance on me.
“Is there any way you can help me find Ren’s mother?”
She put her head on the side, thinking. “Maybe a locating spell or something like that. But I’d need something of hers to make it work.”
“I want to go home with Ren for semester break. If I go to his house, I can get more information. But Ren and I aren’t
so friendly right now. Maybe you could do something —” I wiggled my fingers to emphasize the magicness — “to persuade him that’s a good idea?”
“No way. You can’t use magic to make people do things against their will. That’s wrong.”
“What about if you gave him fae food and he became obliged to pay you a debt? That’s what your people do, right? That’d be, well, less wrong.”
“Still wrong.”
“I guess it is.” I sighed. Britney was clear in her own mind about these lines between good and evil. Maybe because she’d been raised in a paranormal community, not a human one and definitely not a wrong side of the tracks one like me. “But it is for his greater good.”
Britney’s glare told me loud and clear that she didn’t believe in doing things for the greater good.
I guess she wasn’t wrong. But it’d be darn convenient to have the power to make people do exactly what you wanted. Not just for the greater good but for my own amusement. Good thing I didn’t have access to that kind of magic since I’d probably end up using it to make Oscar dance crazy jigs or Blake cluck like a chicken. Personal amusement was far better than pure evil, though.
Then I leaned forward, resting my head in my hands. “So, my only option is persuading Ren by using only my dazzling personality and my charm. I’m screwed.”
“Or you could put your energy into other things, like figuring out why attacks at the school have increased. I did some research and there have never been attacks on this level. There’s something bad going on, I know it. We need to find out who’s behind this and stop it.”
I nodded. “We didn’t sweep the woods properly the first time and missed some of the demons. That’s got to be it. Hopefully, we won’t have another attack for months because I’m way behind on my study schedule.”
I wasn’t sure I believed that. That second demon had stomped around so noisily that we’d have been deaf to miss him. And Mark had said attacks were increasing everywhere. Something rotten was going on.
Chapter 13
ON SATURDAY MORNING, I tried to pretend the world didn’t exist. I pulled my covers over my head and cradled my pillow. I could just hide in my room. Surely Oscar wasn’t serious about trying to date me.
The insistent banging on my door said otherwise.
“Cherry, are you ready?”
My heart sank so fast, it rocked the foundations of the school. I’d never be ready for this. Never.
“Give me ten minutes. I’ll meet you downstairs.”
“Girls, sheesh, never on time.” Oscar laughed. “Sure, I’ll wait for you.”
I wanted to shout and tell him this wasn’t a cute girl getting prettied up to go on a date thing, this was a not wanting to spend a single minute of my time alone with him thing. But, yeah, I’d agreed. I’d put my head on the block. I had to go through with this.
I jumped up and put on that dress Angela had given me. I looked cute and pretty. Then I took it off. People tried to look cute and pretty for dates. This wasn’t a date. It was hanging out. If I was still hanging out with Lucas, how would I dress? In a t-shirt and jeans. So Oscar should be no different.
I put on my favorite t-shirt and my best pair of jeans. Then I pulled on my boots. With all this money I’d been getting, I’d planned to buy a new pair of runners but I hadn’t had the chance yet.
Eventually, I had to leave my room. I couldn’t hide any longer. I told myself the sooner this date got started, the sooner it’d be over and, hopefully, I could get through the day without anyone else finding out about it.
Not so much.
It seemed like half the school crowded around the foyer waiting for me to meet Oscar.
Oscar seemed a little disappointed when he saw me. Too bad.
“Let’s go.” I ignored the whispers around me.
Conversation between us was awkward as heck as we walked to the village. What could I say? Hey, look there’s the spot where you and your friend tried to molest us?
Even though the sun beamed down, I pulled my hoodie tighter around me and kept my head down. I hated the sun. I hated other students walking past me giggling. I hated everything about today.
It didn’t take long to walk to the village but the time dragged. The awkwardness seemed to all be on my side though as Oscar droned on and on about the type of car his father was going to buy him when he graduated.
“What do you think?” he turned to me with a smile that didn’t meet his eyes.
Something about that smile worried me. Worried me more than just the usual him being Oscar and being nice to me weirdness. He didn’t want to be on this date any more than I did but he worked hard to hide it.
Not hard enough though.
I hadn’t listened to most of his conversation. “Sounds good to me.” I hoped he’d still been talking about that stupid sports car.
We walked on again in silence. Even the chirping of the birds along the road seemed to mock me. Like haha, you’re on a date with Oscar.
If he didn’t want to be on this date and I didn’t, then what were we doing? If he and Blake had planned to ambush me, then he’d be much more gleeful so I didn’t think it was that.
“What do you want to do this afternoon? I heard you like parfaits.”
Yeah, I did. But didn’t want my love for parfaits tainted by his Oscarness. If we went to the parfait cafe, in future I’d always associate that place with him.
“I’m not really feeling like sweets. We should try something else.”
Oscar nodded. “We can go shopping.”
I forced a grin. Tramping around a bunch of shops with Oscar didn’t seem like a whole lot of fun either. What did people normally do on dates? I had no experience to reference. Lucas and Britney weren’t any help either. They didn’t really date, they just hung out together and their idea of fun was researching rare paranormal types.
But then, this wasn’t a date.
“Yeah, shopping sounds great.”
Maybe I’d get a chance to buy my new runners and today wouldn’t be a total write off.
“I need to have a look in here.” Oscar grabbed my hand, trying to pull me into a store. A store that looked way out of my price range.
I tried to yank my hand away from Oscar’s. Holding hands with him wasn’t just gross, his hand felt meaty and clammy. We weren’t on holding hand terms but Oscar dragged me as though he couldn’t get in that store fast enough.
I stumbled going in the door, that’s how fast he dragged me.
As I righted myself, I stared up at Ren’s face.
His gaze moved from me to Oscar to our hands joined together. I squeezed my mouth into a tight line while my chest tightened.
Words of explanation fought to gush out my mouth. I could make this right. But explaining seemed wrong. Ren was nothing to me. Not a boyfriend, not even a friend. And I couldn’t explain why I was with Oscar without dumping a whole back story on him that included things I didn’t want him to know.
Still, I didn’t like the way his nostrils flared when he looked at me. Was it disgust or hurt? I couldn’t tell.
Oscar pushed Ren out of the way. “I don’t think you can afford to shop here, stable boy.”
I wanted to punch Oscar for that.
Ren walked out of the store without looking back. I tried to pull away from Oscar to run after him. No matter how stupid, I had to explain and make this right.
A penetrating beep cut through the stillness of the store. A shoplifter or maybe a fire alarm? But the glowing light accompanying the beeping came from my wrist. My watch.
A demon attack?
Awesome timing.
I’d slap a sloppy kiss of gratitude on those demons before they got sent back to their maker.
Chapter 14
“GET BACK TO SCHOOL.” I gave Oscar a hard shove. “The village isn’t safe.”
“I’ll look after you.” Oscar tried to put his arm around me in a protective way.
I rolled my eyes and shoved Oscar again. �
��Look after yourself.”
I was surprised that he even hesitated before running. The thought of him protecting me made me laugh.
As I rushed from the store, Ren grabbed my shoulder.
“It’s here. In the village.”
I’d worked that out from the nearby screaming but he had a better handle on the location than I did. He ran off and I followed him. Demons shouldn’t be here. The village had all kinds of wards to keep them out, but then, so did the school and that hadn’t helped any.
“Where are the others?” I panted the words as I ran.
“Mark, Britney, Lucas. Here. Seth nearby. Others at school.”
I’d have to fight but unleashing my power here in the open caused my chest to cramp. Revealing my dark powers in front of Ren had been bad enough without doing it in front of half the school.
As I followed Ren down a narrow alley, a burst of flame nearly burned my hair off. Nasty. What was that demon?
Voices shouted up ahead. Mark yelled to students to head back to campus.
“Get back to school. Now. Possible terrorist situation.”
That seemed to work with students fleeing in all directions. A few almost knocking me down. None of them should be this close to a demon. None of them should be in danger.
Another burst of heat. A dragon? I couldn’t kill a dragon. Dragons were made of awesome. Maybe I could tame it and keep as my pet. Even a demon dragon would have to be awesome. It could live in the stables with Ren’s horse and —
The next shot got me. I screamed, my arm throbbing. The sleeve of my t-shirt had singed away. The heat became so intense that I could barely stand it but Ren kept running forward and I had no choice but to follow.
Britney and Lucas rushed to join us.
“You two, help get the students back to school,” Ren gasped. “Cherry and I can fight.”
I put my arm over my face to protect my eyes as the smoke got thicker. I didn’t want to fight but I had no choice right now. The air became tinged with the smell of seared flesh that I hoped it wasn’t human.
