by Raye Wagner
But the sexy Latino behind him burst into laughter, and she snatched her hand back as she looked at the young man that had initially catcalled her.
She knew it couldn’t be her brother, Jude. This guy was too tall, and too clean, and his front tooth wasn’t chipped. But his eyes were the same and so was the way his hair flopped to the side. The similarities were enough that her mouth dried up and her palms became slick with sweat.
“Boom! She nailed you, Chase.” The young man continued to chuckle as he pushed his friend out of the way and extended his hand. “I’m Kai.”
Aricela looked down at his extended hand and then met his gaze. It didn’t matter that she knew it wasn’t Jude. She could only stare and blink, willing the image to disappear. But he didn’t go away, and his continued presence taunted her. She had to say something. “I don’t want to know you.”
Kai dropped his jaw, but the corner of his mouth was still turned up in a smile. “Rejected?” He turned to his friend. “What do you think of that? First day . . . She doesn’t even know how cool I am—”
“You’re not cool.” Chase grabbed his friend and pulled him away, muttering, “There’s no such thing as cool.”
“I’m not done with you yet,” Kai called back at her with a laugh. Then he faced forward, and the two of them made their way to the middle of the atrium. To the table with the cheerleaders.
Of course.
The girls squealed and giggled while Kai made the rounds. Chase nodded at one girl, and then drew back to talk with one of the other boys, but he glanced her way more than once.
The bell rang, and the students began to disperse. With a sigh, Aricela made her way to the office.
The lies about her family had gotten easier and easier. Over the course of a few years, she’d learned all the right answers to put the adult Mortals at ease, which was easier than having to use Runic magic on them later.
The office was stacked with books and papers, the only spot on the worn oak desk that was free from the litter was the keyboard, and it looked like it would lose the battle at any moment. The heavy middle-aged woman typing on said keyboard stopped, pushed away from her desk, and retrieved several papers from the printer, which appeared to be losing its own fight.
“All right sweetie,” the woman said, extending the stack of papers to Aricela. “Your first class is in L-102. If you go to the end of the hall, you’ll take a left, and it’s the first door on the right. Don’t forget to have your mother sign the rest of those forms tonight, and bring them back in the morning, all right?”
“Sure. Thank you. Um, what sports do you have going on now? Anything I could still sign up for?” Aricela forced a smile.
“Of course.” The graying-blonde grabbed another piece of paper and extended it to Aricela. “Tryouts were before school started, but I’m sure you can talk to the coaches. There’s cross-country, volleyball, and soccer, too. Well, here, you can look it over.”
Aricela shoved the papers into her binder as she stood. “You’ve been so helpful.”
The guidance counselor raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Well, then. Um . . . You’re welcome.”
Three minutes later, Aricela stood in the front of her algebra class, staring over the heads of the twenty students at the back wall, while her teacher prodded her with questions.
“Do you have any brothers and sisters?” he asked.
She stared at a large painted square root sign and frowned. “No.”
“And what is your favorite subject?”
Why would the math teacher ask about siblings? Her family had nothing to do with math. Neither did her favorite candy or color. Aricela faced the inquisitive instructor.
He was still new enough to teaching that he glowed with enthusiasm for his profession. His graphic T-shirt and baggy jeans made him look only a year or two older than most of his students, and his thick black frames screamed hipster. He was trying too hard.
“My favorite subject is lunch.”
She looked away before having to see his disappointment. Several students snickered, and Aricela let that be her cue to take a seat. She kept her gaze above the students’ heads, not wanting to have to deal with them until she knew which ones would be a matter of necessity.
The only options for seating were in the middle of the rows, so she took the one that got her the furthest from the front. She slid into her seat and ignored the hum of voices around her. Twenty-two kids in the class. Over four hundred students in the school. Aricela pulled the fall athletics schedule from her binder. American football, cross country, soccer, volleyball, and water polo. She’d need to get more information on who she was coming to collect. There were too many options, and she couldn’t be in all of those places at once.
“Did you hear me?” a girl asked.
Aricela glanced up to see the student in front of her, swiveled in her seat, staring her down with wide brown eyes. The young woman was beautiful, with warm russet skin and a sleek, dark caramel bob with bright pink streaks. She tapped a manicured nail on the desk between them. There was power in this Mortal, but she hadn’t fully come into it yet.
“No,” Aricela said.
The girl drummed several fingers in response as her gaze narrowed.
“I asked you what Kai wanted. This morning . . . when he stopped to talk with you. Did he ask you out?” She rubbed her glossy lips together, and when Aricela didn’t respond, she repeated, “Did he?”
Whatever power Aricela thought she’d pick up on was gone with the girl’s question. This was why Aricela didn’t like high school. It was all a game of who’s who. A game that was completely pointless.
“No. He didn’t ask me out. If that’s all you wanted, do you mind?” Aricela circled her index finger in hopes that the girl would get the message.
The girl rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to be such a bit—”
“Nysse, come on up here,” the teacher called. “Get your things—”
“But Mr. Troust, she was asking me questions about the work you assigned. I was just trying to be helpful. It’s not my fault her last school sucked so bad.”
Something about the audacity of the lie made Aricela smile.
“Aricela is that true?” Mr. Troust’s face was lined with weary disbelief, as if he’d had to put up with this girl far too often.
Several students snickered.
Nysse shifted in her seat but didn’t even bother to look at Aricela.
A mixture of pity and kinship welled from deep within her, and before she could push it down, Aricela said, “Yes. My last school was terrible.”
The snickering stopped. Mr. Troust’s expression shifted, and he stroked his chin as he studied Aricela.
She willed her face blank, but she didn’t care if he knew she was lying. She didn’t really care about any of it—at least that was what she told herself. But the nagging sense of pity didn’t go away.
“Well, I hope you get caught up. You’ll find you use math every day, in all sorts of things. If you need a tutor, let me know.”
“Not likely,” she grumbled under her breath after he turned back to the board and continued his lecture.
She looked back down at the spring sports roster and wondered if she would find her assignments on the football team. Perhaps she shouldn’t rule out volleyball and water polo, but she knew nothing about either of those sports. Surely, they wouldn’t put her here to collect from the soccer team, not with her history. That would just be cruel.
She needed Larissa to give her more information. Just knowing the school wasn’t enough. Perhaps, she should step out—
The person behind her kicked her chair. Aricela shifted in her seat but didn’t bother to even look as she continued to contemplate her best route to get to know the souls she’d need to lead to Valhalla. A task that was nearly impossible without knowing who they were.
Her seat jolted again with impact, and this time Aricela ground her teeth as she cursed the clumsiness of the student behind her
. If it happened again . . .
She hadn’t even finished the thought when she was thrown forward into the edge of the desk. It wasn’t hard enough to hurt, but it was not an accident either.
“Stop it,” she snapped, and she turned to face the bully behind her. She swallowed her next words as she met Chase’s deep gaze.
“Why’d you do that?” he asked in a low whisper as he tilted his chin forward toward Nysse. A lock of his dark hair fell forward, and he brushed it back with the pencil he was holding.
Where Kai clearly knew he was good looking, Chase probably didn’t care that he was breathtakingly attractive. Almost as if he had an invisible wall around him that encouraged distance. Even now, he wasn’t trying to chat her up. In fact, he was barely concealing his irritation with her.
She leaned toward him to get a better look at the paper he was working on, and his masculine scent teased her, pulling her closer. She shifted her focus to the sketch pad, and a surge of irrational betrayal flared within. The likeness was uncanny, especially considering the short time they’d been in class. Maybe he’d been working on the portrait for days. Maybe the pathetic ass was pining for her. Tapping on the picture she asked, “Is she your girlfriend, or do you just want her to be?”
His jaw hardened, and he flipped the sketch pad closed. “No. And no.”
“Right.” Why else would you draw the likeness of someone? She smirked at him, but it felt like picking at a tender wound. “I don’t believe you.”
Anyone who would be in love with such a flighty fool couldn’t have more than two brain cells. Either that or he wasn’t thinking with his head at all.
The bell rang.
Aricela shoved the papers Mr. Troust had passed out into the binder with the rest of her stuff and stood up, almost running into Nysse who had clearly been waiting for her.
“Um, thanks for that,” the girl said, shifting from foot to foot. “You know, earlier. I mean . . . Yeah, thanks.”
Aricela didn’t know what to say. Did you say “you’re welcome,” even if the only reason she did it was pity? She didn’t know the girl, and now she didn’t want to. “Sure.”
The girl smiled, a tentative lift on just one side of her mouth. “What class do you have next? Maybe we’re headed the same way.”
Several thoughts ran through Aricela’s mind. First, the girl had lied to avoid getting in trouble, and if she was a chronic liar, she could never be trusted. Not for anything. So there would be no sense in befriending her, not even for information. Especially, not for information. But a desire to understand what Chase could see in her made Aricela pause. There were other reasons to lie. Rationalizations Aricela herself had used before. “Are you a liar? I mean, is that a normal thing for you?”
The girl blanched and then blushed.
Chase cleared his throat, and Aricela realized he was still there, and he’d been listening the entire time.
He grabbed Aricela’s arm and glared down at her. His grip wasn’t tight, just enough for her to know he was serious.
Invisible fire licked up her arms, and her mouth went dry. She wrenched her arm away. “Don’t touch me.”
He sucked in a deep breath and pointed at her, his finger only an inch from her face. “Don’t call names.”
“Is there a problem?” Mr. Troust asked from the front of the room.
Aricela rolled her eyes. Without looking back at the two students, she brushed past them. She forced another smile for her teacher as she answered, “No, sir. They were just giving me the low down.”
Chapter 3
And then she walked out the door. She could rune her way out of there if she needed to, but she’d rather not. Not unless it was necessary, and Mr. Dark-and-broody was just weird. Why get all overprotective if Nysse wasn’t his girlfriend?
She glanced down at her schedule and snorted in disgust. Somehow, that guidance counselor thought she needed Spanish? At least she wouldn’t have to worry about giving the wrong answer.
But when she walked into the classroom she almost turned around. Her stomach clenched, and the chills of painful memories danced down her spine. She wanted to throw up. Was this the Norns’ idea of a cruel joke?
And to make it worse, Kai’s face lit up when he saw her.
He bounded from his seat and met her at the door. “It’s Aricela, right? Listen, I’m sorry about earlier. I wasn’t trying to be an idiot. Sometimes, it just happens. Please don’t hold it against me.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, willing him to disappear. But he was still there, smiling like a goof. His enthusiasm was like a puppy . . . who needed training.
“I’m not really a jerk,” he said, and his smile faltered. His warm skin glowed with health, and his dark eyes were filled with hope.
Impossible hope that one day would be shattered and broken and betrayed. He was naïve and innocent, and it wasn’t his fault he looked like her brother. So much like her brother.
“I’m sure you’re not. I just don’t . . .” It didn’t matter that she didn’t want to get to know him. It didn’t matter that he looked like Jude. He wasn’t Jude. Jude, if he was still alive, which he probably wasn’t, would be well into his thirties by now. Not Jude. And, she might need this guy for her job, which meant she had to suck it up. “I don’t do well with moving to a new school.”
His smile returned. “No worries there. I can help you out.”
She let out a slow breath. “I appreciate it. I really do. It’s just . . . I need to get through the first day. Can you give me a day to get my bearings?”
Disappointment drained his smile and then the enthusiasm from his eyes, and he glanced to the back of the room.
Aricela followed his gaze and slammed back into the depths of Chase’s eyes—only this time he was glaring at her.
Great. He was in another class with her? His emotional intensity was giving her a headache, and that shouldn’t even be possible now. How had he gotten there before her? She glanced over the rest of the room, but Nysse wasn’t in there.
So many emotions simmered and bubbled, Aricela couldn’t even sort them. Inexplicably, her focus returned to Chase.
Kai cleared his throat. “Do you want an introduction? He’s the guy you punched earlier today.”
Aricela broke the connection with Chase and shook her head to clear it. There was something more going on with that young man, and it didn’t matter how attractive he was. She needed to stay away. She turned her attention back to Kai. “No. Thank you. Definitely, no.”
The bell rang, and Aricela went to have her paperwork signed by the teacher.
The rest of the day was uneventful, and Aricela sighed a breath of relief when it was over. She grabbed her helmet and debated going through a portal to avoid the parking lot. Ultimately she decided against it. She’d have to come back for her bike later.
“If you tell me that 1200 Nightster is yours, I’m going to ask you to marry me,” Kai said, sidling up to her as she walked down the hall to the exit doors.
“Leave her alone, Kai,” Chase growled from behind them. “She’s asked you at least—”
Aricela smiled. She couldn’t help it. Kai was like a dog after a bone, and now that she was leaving, she could afford to be a little indulgent. “It’s mine. And I’m not going to marry you.”
Kai whooped, jumping and punching the air.
His excitement made Aricela review her words in her head. Maybe the boy had lost some of his cognitive ability. Maybe he played football. “You do realize, I said no.”
He grinned. “But you smiled. At me.”
“See you tomorrow, Ari,” Chase said in a low voice that seemed to touch her soul. His dark eyes were hooded as he watched her.
“It’s Aricela,” she snapped before pulling the black helmet over her head and straddling her bike. She’d head home to the apartment to change her clothes and then come back to scout out afternoon practices. And maybe Larissa would be there with a name.
But Larissa di
dn’t even show up.
~~~
Kai was waiting for her at her locker the next morning, holding a cup with a familiar green and white logo. “I thought you might like a little pick-me-up.”
Students passed between them, mingling around the hall, and Aricela slowed her approach. Narrowing her eyes, she asked, “What do you want in return?”
Kai looked as if she’d slapped him. He shook his head. “Nothing. I was trying to be nice.”
“Ari doesn’t know nice,” Chase said, stepping up to his friend. Taking the cup from Kai, he then grabbed Aricela’s hand, and before she could snatch it away, he put the small cup into her palm. “Take it, please.”
She grabbed the cup and then held it back out to Chase. “I don’t drink coffee.”
Chase shook his head. “Knowing Kai, it isn’t coffee.”
Kai was grinning like a fool.
Nysse pushed through the crowd of students and bumped into Chase. Her plum-painted lips pouted, and she said, “Thanks a lot for taking off on me.”
She then shook her head and rolled her eyes at Aricela. “So you’re the reason we had to go back through the drive-through. I should’ve known.”
“I didn’t ask for a drink,” Aricela said with a shake of her head. Holding the cup out, she continued, “I don’t even want it.”
Nysse frowned. “Why not? It’s delicious.”
“I don’t take gifts.” Revulsion made her grimace as she thought back to the gifts Xavier had brought her. “Ever.”
The noise in the hall continued to climb as more students filed in, stopping at their lockers before homeroom.
Chase wrapped his hand around hers and pushed the cup back toward her. “It’s not a gift, Ari. It’s a drink. No commitment for anything later. Kai was only trying to be nice.”
