“This is amazing,” I sigh. Livvy and the committee must have worked so hard on this! I climb the stairs, with Ty on my right, and Logan to my left. Neither has said much since we started walking here, I guess I’m not the only one who’s apprehensive about tonight. I can hear the music from here, it sounds beautiful. We reach the top of the stairs to be met with Dimitri and a very large black velvet curtain. I have no idea how all of this fits inside of this gazebo.
“Fae magic,” he says, he must’ve seen the question on my face. He smiles at me, before frowning slightly at Tyler. It’s gone so quickly that I question whether I saw it at all. I take off my cape which Dimitri takes from me, putting it on a hanger behind him. “Have fun you three!” he says before pulling the curtain back. The view before me is like something out of a dream world.
“Have fun,” he whispers over my shoulder, before taking a step back.
It feels like I’m stood here forever just taking it all in. It’s like a mini dark paradise. The ceiling is so high, and it’s clear like glass, the moon and stars seem magnified by it. In the centre of it hangs a giant chandelier, which seems to just float in thin air. Coming from it are eight massive streamers of material in black and white, circling the room as they come down and go over the banisters which make up the mezzanine floor we’re currently on. In front of me there is a double stairway, one going left, the other right, down to the ballroom, because there is no other word for the round room in front of me. To the left are round tables with chairs, where people seem to be congregating with their friends. Dotted between them are more of the trees from the front, but they look like they’re growing up through the wooden flooring. To the right, is a bar which is all lit up with the same little lights that seem to illuminate the whole place. To the back of the room is a massive stage with a full band set up on, which is where the beautiful music I heard is coming from, fronted by a woman, who I can only assume is a Vampyr. She is singing so soulfully it’s heart breaking. I catch a glimpse of a shadow on the mezzanine level, and assume that is the Vampyr security here for the evening.
Ty puts his arm around my waist and leads me down the stairs to the left, with Logan following closely behind. We head over to a table where I can see Benny and the guys with their dates, plus Livvy and Peter all gathered around.
Logan touches my arm from behind making me stop and turn, I nod to Ty that I’ll catch up to him.
“You okay dimples?” I ask with a sweet smile. I can’t imagine how he feels being here alone with us all.
“Sure thing bright eyes, I just, I’m going to head over and grab a drink. Make sure you save me a dance tonight yeah?” he says to me, and I can see the pain in his eyes at seeing Livvy, looking how she does with Peter draped over her.
“Anything for you dimples.” I hug him before he heads off in the opposite direction, and then make my way to the table.
I hear Livvy squeal before I get there, and she’s in front of me before I know it. Just looking at her makes me want to cry. I totally understand now, why she needed that dress. It’s white, with full lace sleeves and the back and front going up to her neck, with white satin starting at her chest, falling in waves down to her feet. She looks just like her mom did on her wedding day. The dress is almost identical.
“Oh Livvy, you look…” I say to her with a lump in my throat. She hugs me fiercely.
“Don’t you dare Addie; you’ll make me cry! Plus, you’ll ruin the work of art that is your face right now. You look so beautiful. I hope Ty realises how lucky he is, because every single guy in here tonight is going to see just how beautiful you truly are.”
“Don’t be silly Liv. But you, you look just like her. They’d both be so proud of you, you know.”
She pulls me over to the table, where there is an old polaroid camera and snaps a picture of us both, then begins the round of taking pictures of us all as Logan wanders back over to our table, drink in hand. She gets one of me and Ty that I absolutely love, and gets a Keeper to take a picture of the whole group, then just her and Peter. I don’t know how she commands the willingness of so many people; she’s just a force to be reckoned with. Before she hands it over, she gets a snap of me, her, Logan and Ty together. Just the four of us, with Livvy and I in the middle, Ty to my right and Logan to her left. I might have to find a frame for that one, we all look so happy.
The night goes on in a whirlwind, and I’m having so much more fun than I thought. My dance with Tyler earlier made me think Livvy might have been right, and I’m torn up about it. Maybe once upon a time I thought about him as more than my friend, but he made it clear we’d never be more than that. Then we had that moment at Benny’s party, then he asked me to be his girl while we were dancing. I didn’t answer him, I didn’t know what to say, it’s all just so new. So for now I’m going to keep it to myself and just think it over.
“You ready for that dance you promised me, bright eyes?” Logan whispers in my ear from behind me. I nod to him, and we walk over to the dance floor when the string quartet starts playing alone. The song is haunting and slow. Logan takes my hand, and wraps his other arm around my waist.
“You know Dimples, I never thought I’d see the day where we managed to dance like this without breaking bones.” He chuckles and his smile is wide.
“I know what you mean bright eyes, we never were the most co-ordinated of people, well unless you count Defence, then you’ve got that handled.” I smile back at him as he leads me across the floor.
“Thank you, and thank you for always being my friend Logan. I know I don’t always make it that easy, and I know it doesn’t always seem like I appreciate everything you do for me, for all of us. You’re the glue. Without you, we’d all just be lost. You know that right?” I say looking up at him. I want to make sure he gets it. I seriously love him like a brother, and all I want is for him to be happy and I tell him as much.
“Thanks Ads. But shut up before you make me blush. Men don’t blush.” I laugh at him so loudly, he tries to smother my mouth with his hand, so I lick it and he pulls it away quickly. “Gah, you’re so gross! I wouldn’t have you any other way!” he says lifting me up and spinning me around making me squeal.
“You know he really does like you right? I mean, guys don’t really talk about that stuff like you girls do, but I think he’s been in love with you since the first day you told him to stop being a stupid boy. You should give him a chance.”
The song comes to a close and we head back to the table, when I see Livvy running across the room in tears to the bathroom. I nod to Logan and chase Livvy while I wave at him to head back to the table, but he doesn’t listen and follows me to Livvy. I burst through the bathroom door to find her in a crumpled mess on the floor, tears streaming down her face, sobs wracking her body. I sink down to her and wrap my arms around her tight.
“What’s wrong Livvy? What can I do?” I ask her.
“He… he cheated on my Ads… I saw him with that whore! And then he tried to deny it and make me sound crazy, but I saw him! I just…. I can’t believe… I thought he loved me,” she gets out between sobs and I hug her harder, trying not to crush her with the rage building in me towards Peter.
“Oh Livvy, he’s an absolute asshole and he doesn’t deserve you! I’m going to beat the living shit out of that cockwomble!” I say in a quiet rage. “Just wait here two minutes okay?” she nods as I help her up off of the floor, then I grab her some tissue to dry her face.
She pats her face dry and retouches her make-up. “Don’t let him see how much you’re hurting, believe me, that scrotum-sucking turbomong is going to regret ever making you cry.”
“No Addie, don’t. I don’t want you to get into trouble because of him. We’re over, I just, I want it to stop hurting.” She starts to cry again as I take her out to Logan who is waiting with open arms to take her. I tell him what happened and his face clouds over with anger. I’ve never seen him look like it, he’s absolutely livid.
He walks us back over to the
table so I can get Ty, and we can leave. Logan sits Liv down next to Benny, while I head to Tyler to tell him we’re leaving. As I reach Tyler to tell him, I hear a scream from Livvy. I spin around to her, and see she’s okay, and looking towards the bar, where Logan is on top of Peter, beating the living daylights out of him. After a shocked pause, Ty and Benny run over to pull Logan off of him, before the Keepers get to him. They pull him off the floor and up the stairs, as the Keeper’s head over to Peter who doesn’t seem to be moving. I’m secretly jumping up and down on the insides for Logan, while a little disappointed it wasn’t me.
I take Livvy’s hand and we head back up to Dimitri, who hands me my cape back without me asking, and just nods at me as we leave. We head down the stairs to the exit, where I can see the boys all talking about what the hell just happened. We get to the bottom, where Livvy runs over to Logan and hugs him. They walk away from the rest of us, heading back towards the dorm building. I walk up to Ty, who puts his arms around my waist and brings my back to his chest.
“Well, that was more entertainment than I was counting on!” Benny bellows, laughing out loud. “Peter’s just lucky we didn’t all know when Logan did. He wouldn’t be walking,” he grumbles out.
“I know right! I can’t believe he would do that to Livvy, she’s one of the kindest souls alive! I want to beat the crap out of him myself,” I spit out.
“Calm down, my little fire cracker. He got his, I don’t think he’ll be around for a while,” Ty says, squeezing me before he kisses the top of my head. They talk some more about plans they have for the rest of the semester, and the rest of Benny’s friends join us.
“Let’s get out of here,” Ty whispers in my ear and I nod back to him. “Catch you tomorrow Benny.” He fist bumps Benny, and then pulls me to follow where Liv and Logan were headed.
Once we get back to the dorm, we find Logan on our sofa, with Livvy curled up on top of him, asleep on his chest.
“Hey dimples, how’s she doing?”
“She’ll be okay. She’s just devastated at him betraying her like that. I can’t think about it too much; it just makes me want to pound on his face again,” he says as he gets up, lifting her with him as he does. He walks over to her bed and tucks her in. She stirs a little but stays asleep, as he brushes her hair off of her face.
“Thank you for being there for her tonight Logan,” I let go of Ty and hug him tight. “I know she appreciates it too. More than you think.” He squeezes me back before letting me go.
“We’ll see you tomorrow yeah?” he says as he heads to the door.
“Of course. Night dimples.”
“Night bright eyes.” He heads over to his own room leaving me alone with Ty.
“I suppose I should head out now too. Did I mention how beautiful you look tonight Addie? Cause you really do.”
I smile up at him and go up on my tip toes to kiss him. He meets me halfway and sweeps me up, bringing me up to his height as he kisses me back. He walks me backwards as he kisses me, and pushes me against a wall, crushing me against him. I grab hold of his hair and kiss him until I feel lost in him. He pulls back from me, giving me chance to breathe.
“Night wildcat,” he says before kissing me again, putting me down and leaving the room. I lock the door behind him and lean up against it, touching my lips.
Just, wow.
That was incredible, but now I’m here alone, I’m terrified. I don’t want things to change, and now they’re undoubtedly going to. We’ve been friends for so long and I don’t want this to ruin things, it’s why I’ve been so hesitant up to this point. Not that he gave me much choice about the whole kiss thing.
I touch my lips again and sigh. Even though I’m afraid, I can’t help but be excited. I’ve never felt like this before. Screw butterflies, it feels like I’ve got eagles fighting in my stomach! I think I could see us as more, like much more. I’ve never thought about lifetime more, but maybe with someone who knows me so well, it might be something I want?
Five years ago
“Come on Addie, it’s your birthday. We should do something! At least let me make you a cake. You’re turning thirteen! It’s a big birthday, you can’t just pretend it’s not happening,” Livvy pleads with me. I hate birthdays. They don’t mean anything to me. My day of birth was the day I was abandoned. Why would I want to celebrate that? It’s not like I had a mom doting on me, teaching me about all sorts of things only a mom can, or a dad to protect me like a dad should. Livvy’s lucky, she might have lost her parents, but at least she had them for a little while.
“I said no Livvy. You know I don’t believe in them. There’s no point to them. It’s just going to be another day, and that’s the end of it. Just leave it. Please,” I sigh. I hate arguing with Livvy, she’s my best friend, the person I’m closest to in the world, but I just don’t see the world the same way she does. I wish I could, but there are too many bad things in the world to think it’s all sunshine and rainbows all the time. That’s why I want to be in the Red Guard, I want to keep people safe.
“Fine Addie. But I think you’re making a mistake,” she says and storms off across the courtyard. I hate it when she’s angry at me, but I’m not going to change my mind. I head back to our dorm and flop onto my bed face down. Birthdays suck.
“Addie? What are you doing?” I hear from behind me. I lift my head and see Tyler leaning against the doorframe. He’s got his hands jammed into his jean pockets, I swear all he ever wears is jeans, a t-shirt, and more recently that stupid beanie hat.
“I’m lying face down, dreaming about a vat of ice-cream, what does it look like I’m doing?” I spit out. I really can’t be dealing with people right now. I don’t want to be mean to him, he doesn’t deserve it, but I’d really rather be alone. “What do you want Tyler?” I regret it as soon as I say it. He looks hurt. I know he’s just trying to be my friend; why does everything have to be so complicated?
“Don’t worry about it Addie. I’ll leave you alone,” he says, then turns around and leaves, closing the door.
Now I’m alone and I don’t feel any better than I did before. This sucks. Screw it, I’m going for another run. I get up and put on my Defence jumpsuit, put on my sneakers and redo my ponytail. I look in the mirror, I don’t know why, I look how I do for every Defence class, and then head out. I start out round the back of the dorm building, and decide to run the perimeter of the grounds. The rhythm of my feet pounding on the pavement with the constant sounds of my breathing soothe me and I soon zone out, there is nothing more but the pavement in front of me, and the next step to take.
I round the corner and I can see the entrance gates. I keep my head up and focus on keeping going, as I get closer I notice cars pulling up to the gates. Cars are so rare these days, that it must be Head Vampyrs or the Fae. Maybe, though I can’t imagine it would be the Fae, they never come to the Academy. I slow down and bend over, so I can watch from a distance. The gates open and the cars drive up to the main entrance. There are three of them. I watch as some of the Elite Guard climb out of the front car, I can tell they’re Elite by the black and red of their uniforms. Then out the back car climbs two other Vampyrs, these aren’t Elite, they’re Heads. I recognise them from initiation, Marcus DeLauter and Xander Bane; the Heads of their respective houses. They all gather at the middle car, and out climbs a woman I’ve never seen. She’s so beautiful. She has long dark black hair just like mine, and her dress is bright red, but she looks so elegant, like a dancer. She looks over in my direction, and I think she sees me stood here watching her. No-one else has noticed me, but it feels like she can see right through me. Her eyes are purple; I can’t look away. That’s when I realise that she is Queen Eolande Valoire. I look away quickly. Why is the Queen here? She’s hardly been seen in the general world since her daughter died. I don’t know much about it, it all happened before I was born, but I know that she wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important.
I put my head back down and continue on my run, not looking
back. I probably wasn’t meant to see that, and I’m not going to say anything to anyone. It’s not like I know anything anyway.
I get back to the dorm and grab a shower. I’m so gross right now. I get showered and put on my PJ’s, then head back into my room to find Tyler, Logan and Livvy all in their PJ’s too, sat around the TV on the floor with cushions and popcorn.
“Hey guys, what’s going on?” I ask. I know we didn’t have anything planned.
“Well, since you didn’t want to do anything for your birthday, and I refuse to let it pass without any acknowledgement, I figured we’d have movie night, as an unofficial birthday party. Surprise!” Livvy says. I should’ve known she’d do something like this. I roll my eyes at her and laugh.
“Fine, fine, but I get to pick the movie!” Tyler and Logan groan. So shoot me. I have a soft spot for old word romance movies.
“I swear Addie, if you pick The Fault in our Stars again…” Tyler moans
“You’ll do what Ty? You guys agreed to this, and since it’s unofficially for my birthday, when I didn’t want to do anything, you’ll sit there and pretend you love it as much as I do. And just for me, you’ll act like I’m not a total loser when I cry at the end.” I stick my tongue out at him and he throws a cushion at me.
“That’s it! You’re so dead!” I say, as I catch the pillow and dive at him. We mess about for a while, while Livvy and Logan whisper to themselves. Then Livvy jumps up and leaves the room. I look over at Logan who looks as confused as I do, then she bursts back through the door, cake in hand with a candle sticking out of the top.
“I couldn’t light it, and I could only find one candle, but you needed an unofficial not your birthday cake,” she squeaks, with a giant smile on her face. I can’t help but smile back at her.
“Thanks Livvy, this is the best non-birthday birthday, a girl could ask for!” I get up and hug her, then pull her back to the floor where we all get comfortable and Ty puts the movie on.
Descent (The Immortal Chronicles Book 1) Page 5
