“Oh, I assumed he was much older.” Lainey twists her lips. “He’s so young. How’d he die?”
I point to another article I’d bookmarked. “He died in a fire last year, and at the young age of seventeen, Danielle inherited everything.”
Matt shrugs. “Guess this means she’s the luckiest girl alive, while also proving she’s not too old to be in high school.”
“Whose side are you on?” Lainey scolds him, before asking me, “How come I’ve never heard of this William guy?”
Scowling at Matt for poking holes in our distrust of Danielle, I put my phone away. “The only reason I remember his name is because I happened to be translating a website in Latin when the news flash about the D.C. billionaire’s death popped up in the feed.”
“Why are you taking Latin?” Matt asks.
“I’m not.”
His brows shoot up. “You translate things in Latin on your own?”
When I nod, Matt looks at me like I’m some kind of alien. But if I rubbed car grease all over myself, dressed in fitted clothes and grew a few inches, suddenly I would turn him and the entire guy population at school on? Grrrr.
“She’s weird like that.” Lainey flicks her hand before returning her attention to me. “I’m confused. If this girl’s home is in D.C., what’s she doing here? And how does Ethan even know her? I thought he was in Michigan with his parents?”
Since telling Lainey the “Corvus/trainer/whatever-Danielle-is” truth isn’t possible, I spin a backstory my friend will accept. “Supposedly Ethan knew her from middle school before she switched to a foster home in the D.C. area, which is apparently where she eventually ended up becoming William’s adopted daughter.”
“Wish some rich dude had adopted me. I sure as hell would love to be driving a Maserati right now.”
I roll my eyes at Matt and keep talking. “Ethan stopped off to see her on his way back from Michigan. He said she wants to go to Central and decided since she has a friend living in the area, that she’d rather finish up school here, where she has easier access to the campus for interviews, tours, and such.” The entire time I’m weaving this fantastical tale, bile is rising in the back of my throat.
“She’ll be going to my college too?” Lainey sighs her frustration, then looks at Matt. “How about let’s keep Danielle’s rags-to-riches story between us. No reason to give this girl a leg up at school any more than she’s already got with her sex-on-a-stick curvaceousness.”
“You said it, not me,” Matt snorts, smiling.
“You must be talking about the new girl,” Drystan says before dropping into the seat practically on top of me. “Sounds like the same thing all the ladies said about me when I started at Blue Ridge. Well, at least the ‘sexy stick’ part.”
While Lainey and Matt laugh at his misinterpretation, I say, “That’s ‘sex on a stick,’ Welsh boy.” Tilting my head, I tug at my ear. “Do I detect a bit of jealousy? Are you worried your limelight’s dimming?” I snicker as I grab my latte and we all slide over to give him room.
“How’d you get here, dude?” Matt jerks his head toward the entrance of the café, confusion in his gaze.
“Maddie and Megan dropped me off.” Drystan grins as he glides close once more. Pinning me between his thigh and Lainey’s, he amps up his Welsh accent. “And, no, I’m not worried. It’s not like I’m interested in the population she’s attracting.”
Matt snickers. “Point taken.”
Drystan grins and shakes his hair, spreading snow all over the table and me, then leans back against the seat. “All these stupid blokes are so sodding gobsmacked by her, their girls are turning to me. Suddenly my end of the pool just got a lot more crowded.”
Brushing the snow off my jacket, I take my irritation with Danielle’s presence out on Drystan with an elbow to his ribs. “Scoot over. Your bloated ego is suffocating me.”
He rubs his ribs as he moves to give me room. “You’re growing soft, Nara. That barely hurt. We need to get you back to training.”
“It’s snowing, Drystan” If I went toe-to-toe with him in the mood I’m in, I’d leave more than a few bruises behind.
The look I give him must convey that, because he holds up his hands and chuckles. “Okay, okay. We’ll take a pass on training today.”
As his laughter subsides, Drystan’s hazel gaze holds mine and I realize he’s trying to give me an excuse not to wallow at home. If Lainey and Matt saw Danielle follow Ethan today, then I’m sure Drystan did too. Then again, if a little snow isn’t stopping the destruction of pure evil, why am I being such a wimp?
“You know what?” I point to him, my gaze focused. “I think training is exactly what I need. Fierce exercise would do me a world of good.”
A broad smile brightens his face, erasing the cocky arrogance. “How about a compromise? You promised to help me with my project, which also involves hard work and exercise. You ready to give it a go?”
When I nod, he grabs my keys from the table and jumps up. “Hope you got your training gear in your car. We only have an hour to take full advantage of it before class starts.”
“Class?” I ask, waving to Lainey and Matt as I follow after him.
“Yeah.” He opens the door and a gust of snow slams him in the face, making me laugh. Unperturbed, he smiles like he’s truly happy. “You’ll see. It’s everything you asked for and then some.”
Chapter Thirteen
Nara
“Well, what do you think?” Drystan asks, sweeping his arm wide.
The entire basketball court is full of gymnastic mats, ramps, springboards, odd-shaped walls with cutout windows sprinkled between the mats, random sets of stairs along the edge of the mats, and of course a very long, extra-springy slackline strung between two hooks on a far wall for balancing. Anything a parkour lover would want was here in the school’s gym right next to the park where we normally work on defense training and some parkour moves.
I take it all in, grinning as I stand in my workout T-shirt and shorts and run my hands up and down my arms to ward off the chill in the air. “Wow, how’d you find this place?”
“Actually, the guy who started this program found me. He saw me outside in the park doing my thing and asked if I wanted to teach a couple days a week. This gym is usually used for basketball practice, but for a couple afternoons a week, it’s mine.” Drystan wraps an arm around my shoulders and rubs his hand up and down my arm quickly. “Don’t worry, once we get going on those parkour moves you’ve been too afraid to try, you’ll warm up fast.”
I start to shake my head, still unsure if I’m limber enough to execute the crazy kind of inhuman twists and turns Drystan does effortlessly, when he says, “Oh, and check this out.”
I follow him up a ramp and around a wall with several cutout windows, then stare at hundreds of blocks in rainbow colors piled up to the edge of a squared-off pit below the ramp and right next to a set of stairs. “What is it?” I ask, shaking my head in confusion.
“Your favorite part.”
“Drystan!” I scream as he shoves me off the ramp. I roll in the air to protect my arms and face from the blocks’ sharp corners and tense my back, preparing for impact, but gasp with laughter when I’m swallowed in a soft mound of squishy foam.
“Padding!” Drystan roars right before he dive bombs straight for me.
I scream again and try to roll out of his way, but the blocks are like mini springs. I get thrown right back and end up as a landing pad for Drystan’s antics.
Air whooshes out of my lungs and I shove at his shoulders, wheezing, “Get off me, you goof.”
He quickly rolls away and rubs his chest. “What the ’ell are you wearing under your shirt, a plate of armor?”
I clamp my hand on the medallion. “No, just a necklace.”
Drystan leans over me and pulls the medallion out before I can stop him.
“Ravens? Why am I not surprised?” Laying it back on my chest, he shakes his head. “Take it off. It’s dangerou
s to wear jewelry while doing parkour.”
I wrap my fingers around the disk and try to ignore the dull throb of pain when the metal pushes against the scar on my hand. “I can’t take it off.”
He scowls. “Why not?”
“I just can’t,” I say as I turn over and try to swim/walk to the side of the foam pit.
Standing in the middle of the foam blocks, Drystan releases a breath of frustration. “Then find a way to bind it to your body so it’s not swinging around on your neck, Nara. The whole purpose of this—” He sweeps his arm to encompass the equipment in the gym “—is to make parkour as safe as possible for those who want to try it.”
“Fine. I’ll put on an athletic top under my T-shirt. The spandex should hold it against me. Happy?” I jump when he grips my waist, his thumbs digging into the base of my back.
“You’re going to get hot in all those layers,” he whispers in my ear right before he lifts me over the pit wall.
I ignore his teasing and move to pick up my sports bag. “I’ll be fine. Where’s the bathroom?”
Drystan hops over the wall and spreads his arms. “All locked up. You’ll have to change right here.”
I roll my eyes and glance over at the bleachers pushed against the wall to accommodate all the equipment. “I’ll change beside the bleachers. You stay here.”
As I’m changing, Drystan shouts from across the room. “Hurry up, Nara. Class starts in forty minutes. Stop hiding back there like a chicken.”
“Chicken?” I say as I struggle into the fitted spandex top. “You do realize those are fighting words, right?”
A low chuckle echoes in the gym. “I’m counting on it, right ’nuff.”
Jamming my T-shirt over my head, I pull my ponytail free of the shirt and step out from behind the bleachers. “Why do I get the feeling you’re intentionally trying to antagonize me?”
Drystan runs full speed across a matt before jumping up the side of a wall, monkey-climbing to the top. Once there, he springboards from the top of that wall to a higher wall before diving straight through the small cutout window of a third adjacent wall, where he executes a perfect landing roll on the matt. He glances up at me with an innocent smile. “Because you need an outlet, and I’m willing to be your punching bag.”
I approach him on the matt and grunt my disbelief. “You’re nobody’s punching bag.”
He straightens to his full height and shrugs. “Maybe I just like to see you get all riled.”
As he speaks, he punches my upper arm with a fast right hook, then takes off up the ramp we’d been on earlier. I stumble back and rub the sore spot, before chasing after him. “That was a cheap shot, Drystan. I thought this was about me learning parkour.”
Drystan’s waiting for me, hands raised in battle mode, feet bouncing on the platform. “You’ll get all the parkour you want being my assistant in this first class and any others you decide to attend, but you need to be ready for anything, Nara. I’m just making sure you’re not being anybody’s punching bag or doormat or any other euphemism for that matter.”
I realize he’s referring to Ethan and Danielle. Drystan doesn’t know everything that’s at stake and the secrets I have to keep, but the implication still stings, especially since there are things I still don’t know.
Anger wells so fast, my face flames. “I’ve never been, nor will I ever be the kind of girl who let’s people run all over her.” Before he can move, I spin into a roundhouse kick and slam him in the chest, sending him flying back into the foam pit.
“Good to know,” Drystan says in a wry tone as he stands among the colorful squares and pounds his chest as if trying to regain his breath. Moving to the edge of the pit, his eyes glitter with respectful amusement as he folds his arms on the pit wall. “Now that your claws are out, the gloves are coming off.”
My jaw slacks a little when I think of all the bruises I’d acquired while “training” with him. “You’ve been holding back on me?”
“Hope you don’t plan on moving fast during soccer practice.” Drystan lets out a pleased laugh right before he grabs my ankles and yanks, tumbling me back into the pit.
Nara
“What’s the Dark One doing here?” Drystan sounds annoyed as we walk into the gym ten minutes late for soccer practice.
The last person I expect to see is Ethan, but there he is, dressed in a blue T-shirt, black track pants, and soccer shoes, passing the soccer ball to a guy in the middle of the gym. I smile at him despite the tension between us. It makes me happy to see him dribbling a soccer ball again. I know how much he misses playing.
Five girls from school had shown up for Drystan’s parkour class. None of them liked the fact that he used me as his assistant to demonstrate the parkour moves he planned to teach over the next several classes. The girls’ tittering appreciation of Drystan prior to class had annoyed the six guys who’d shown up, but as soon as the boys saw Drystan in action, they were all in and pretty much ignored the girls the rest of the class. Once the session was over, Maddie and Megan stayed after to praise Drystan’s athletic skill. I stood by the door, sports bag in hand, and kept pointing at my watch to let Drystan know we had to go.
Between the physical sparring session with Drystan and demonstrating parkour moves I’ve yet to master, I’m absolutely beat. The last thing I want to do is spend forty-five minutes running around in yet another school’s gym, but Drystan needs a ride and Lainey has given me a hard time about missing soccer practice, so I have to come to this scrimmage the coach has set up.
I sense Ethan’s intense stare while Drystan and I sit on the bench to pull on our indoor shoes, but I pretend like it’s no big deal. Let him notice that I have other people in my life to keep me preoccupied. I don’t want Ethan to see how much the idea of him spending his afternoon with Danielle bothers me.
I’d just laced my second shoe when a shadow hovers over me.
“Didn’t know you played,” Drystan says to Ethan in a dry tone as he rises to his feet.
Ethan stares Drystan down. “I only came for Nara, but your team was apparently down some players and the coach asked me to step in to warm up for the scrimmage.”
Drystan shrugs off Ethan’s dig about our tardiness, then glances at me. “Looks like the scrimmage is about to start.”
I don’t like Ethan towering over me with that tense look on his face, so I stand too as Drystan trots off. “How was training?”
“Training went fine. I got your message, so I stopped by your house, but you weren’t home.”
“I was helping Drystan demonstrate moves for his new parkour class. That’s the project he asked for my help on.”
Ethan’s mouth hardens when I mention Drystan. “Parkour?”
“It’s a type of exercise that involves jumps and twists across obstacles. Parkour utilizes moves and fast thinking to help you push beyond your limitations.”
Ethan crosses his arms and watches Drystan warming up with the ball. “I don’t trust him, Nara. I don’t think you should either.”
I sigh and readjust my ponytail. “While you were gone, he saved my life more than once, Ethan, so he’s definitely trustworthy. Speaking of trusting…” I wait until Ethan turns back to me. “That’s why I called. I think you should be careful around Danielle. Did you know her adoptive father, or whatever she called him, recently died in a fire that left her inheriting his entire estate?”
His expression hardens. “You’ve been investigating her?”
I raise my chin. “Someone has to be objective.”
“I told you to stop researching—”
“You asked me not to research ravens.” I hold his gaze with a bold stare. “And I haven’t been.”
“Nara?” Lainey calls.
“You coming?” Drystan follows up, kicking the ball in my direction.
Nodding, I trap the ball, then send it back to him.
“Yeah, I see just how objective you are,” Ethan says, jaw muscle twitching.
When the
coach blows the whistle, signaling the beginning of the scrimmage, I’m surprised Ethan runs back onto the court, but I shake off my unease and try my best to focus on playing.
Of course our coach assigns Ethan to the opposing team, putting him and Lainey on one team and Drystan and me on the other. We play hard and manage to score right away. I’m impressed by Drystan’s ball handling skills, but then I shouldn’t have been; he grew up playing this sport.
As Ethan shoots for his team, the strength behind his shot makes me cringe for the goalie. I’m thankful I’m not playing goalie tonight.
Each team scores two more shots in rapid succession. Now it’s tied, three-three and the competition gets fierce. Ethan and Drystan trade shoulder jabs and hip checks that the coach just ignores most of the game, but near the end of the scrimmage, Drystan rips a shot that curves unexpectedly, and Ethan has to twist sideways to avoid getting smacked in the head.
Thankfully the coach blows his whistle about something else, which gives both guys a few seconds to cool down. But the minute the game starts back up, I swear I hear Ethan say “bite me” and Drystan reply “piss off” the next time they pass each other.
I try to ignore them and keep my focus on the game. Finally an opportunity opens up. I get to the ball first and make a quick pass to Drystan, hoping he’ll score the winning goal.
Just as Drystan’s about to take the shot, Ethan comes at him from the side. It’s a clean slide tackle, knocking the ball away first, but Drystan’s legs get tangled in Ethan’s, and he goes down hard.
As soon as the coach’s whistle shrills, Ethan tries to help Drystan up, but Drystan knocks his hand away and scowls.
“What was that about?” Lainey asks.
The game had gotten pretty intense with lots of players getting physical, but not as much as Ethan and Drystan have with each other. I shake my head. “Proof that pride and testosterone don’t mix.”
“Slide tackling is only legal outdoors. Ethan had to know the coach would call him on that,” Lainey whispers.
Destiny, YA Paranormal Romance (Brightest Kind of Darkness Series, Book #3) Page 14
