The Burning Shadow

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  “I am going to throw this hamburger in your face.”

  His lips twitched. “Please aim for my mouth.”

  “You’re ridiculous.”

  “Among many other things.” Picking up a fry, he pointed it at me. “Look, I know that my reaction to learning that a guy grabbed you hard enough to leave bruises may be seen as excessive, but if he touches you again, I’ll do worse.”

  “Luc, seriously—”

  “He hates Luxen, right? He thinks they don’t deserve basic rights and there’s nothing better than a dead Luxen?” He tipped forward, voice low. “They feel the same way about those who support the Luxen, interact with them, and protect them. He feels the same way about you, and he proved that when he grabbed you.”

  My stomach took a little tumble.

  “So, he needed a really good warning to stay the hell away from you.” Luc popped the fry in his mouth. “And if I hadn’t done it, Connor would’ve, and since Connor is registered and tracked, that wouldn’t have ended well for him.”

  “It might not end well for you. You may not be registered, but it’s not like you’re invisible.” I reached for the napkin to wipe my fingers. “Hell, you’re in here with no contacts, and I have no idea how no one realizes what you are.”

  “Because appearances can be deceiving, Peaches.”

  My eyes narrowed as I roughly cleaned my fingers. “How so?”

  “Well, there may be an anti-Luxen sign on the front door of this fine, greasy establishment, but our waitress? One of the rare older Luxen. Unregistered and hidden in plain sight.”

  I stared at him.

  “And that happy group of teens over there? Not a single one of them are human.” When I started to look behind me, he stopped me. “Don’t be obvious, Peaches. The owners?”

  “Luxen?” I whispered.

  “A Luxen female and her hybrid husband. The older couple that everyone thinks are the owners are actually decoys. They’re just two humans that have known the real owners for over a decade.”

  Placing the napkin on the table, I picked up my Coke as I mulled this over. “They really are hidden in plain sight.”

  Luc smiled. “We’re safe here.”

  My gaze connected with his, and a weird flutter started deep in my chest like there was a nest of hummingbirds attempting to buzz their way out. Which was so stupid, because he irked me just as much as I liked him.

  Which was a lot.

  Luc picked up a fry, popping it into his mouth. He didn’t break eye contact. Not once.

  Heat pricked at my skin as Luc’s lips kicked up. A humming, burning connection flared to life. The buzzing in my chest spread to my stomach. More intense than before, and I knew that could only mean one thing.

  Trouble.

  Big trouble.

  12

  Growing up, I loved Halloween—Halloween and Christmas. Or at least I thought I did. Who knew if I really did since I had no real memories beyond the last four years, but every Halloween I could remember, I loved dressing up and watching scary movies while gorging on candy.

  This year was different. Everything felt off, and it wasn’t just because I was actually at a club instead of at Zoe’s or Heidi’s house, sitting next to Luc and staring at him like—

  “You’re staring at me.”

  Blinking, I jerked my gaze away from Luc. I had been staring at him. It was kind of hard not to when he was sitting there, his head tilted slightly to the side and a mysterious smile curling the corners of his lips.

  “No, I’m not,” I muttered.

  “Uh-huh. Looked like you completely dazed out over there. What are you thinking about?” Luc asked.

  That was a loaded question, because it felt like I was thinking about everything. Lifting a shoulder, I scanned the crowded dance floor of Foretoken as columns of vibrant purple light streamed from the ceilings, gliding over the churning bodies. I’d lost sight of Heidi and Zoe in the crush of angels and sexy cats, Black Panthers and vampires. What wasn’t I thinking about?

  My head was running a million miles a minute and not really conducive to being at a club. I felt like I was better suited for staring morosely out of a coffee shop window.

  “Peaches…”

  I looked over at Luc. He sat beside me, one arm thrown along the back of the couch. His other hand rested on his thigh, his long fingers tapping. He was the picture of lazy arrogance, but I knew he could spring into action at any moment. When I didn’t answer, the hand behind me tugged on one of my pigtails.

  I pulled my hair away from his fingers. “You’re not just going to read my thoughts?”

  “You don’t like it when I do that.”

  “Has that stopped you before?” I squinted, thinking I’d caught a glimpse of Zoe’s super-cute Wonder Woman costume, but it wasn’t her. She’d disappeared with a college-age guy, and I had a feeling that tonight would end in shenanigans of the fun and naughty kind.

  “More than you realize, Peaches.”

  I shot him a look, and he grinned at me. “I’m just thinking about … everything.”

  His head inclined. “That sounds like a lot.”

  “It is.” And it really was.

  He was quiet for a long moment. “A penny for your thoughts?”

  I laughed, thinking I hadn’t heard that saying in a while. Truth was, I wasn’t quite sure I could make sense of the mess of thoughts or explain the weird restlessness invading every cell in my body.

  I felt like I should be out there, dancing with my friends and having fun, instead of sitting here, too afraid, too in control, too whatever to just let go and be who I used to be.

  And I didn’t want to talk about any of this.

  Twisting one of my pigtails into a rope, I looked over at him. Those eyes were shadowy in the dim light, but the heaviness of his gaze was still there, intense and consuming.

  “Did we ever go trick-or-treating? You know, as kids?” I asked after a moment.

  “That was random.” He chuckled. “We did a couple of times.”

  “We did?” My gaze tracked its way to his.

  He nodded. “I’d never gone before you. Never really had any interest in it.”

  My brows lifted. “How could you not want to dress up and go get candy?”

  “I wasn’t exactly a normal kid.”

  “You’re not exactly a normal guy right now.”

  He laughed again, shoulders rising and falling, and I liked the sound a lot. Sometimes too much. “True.”

  Shifting toward him, I drew a leg up. “Tell me about it? Like, what did we dress up as, and did you have fun?”

  “We had fun.” He dragged his teeth over his lower lip. “Paris would take us to the best subdivision, the ones where they handed out full-sized candy bars.”

  “Nice.” I laughed, letting my hair go and then twisting it once more.

  His lashes lowered. “He’d make us dump our bags at the end of the night and evenly count them out, but you always ended up with more.”

  “Because you gave me the candy?”

  “Hell no. I worked hard for that candy. Halfway through the night, you’d somehow trick me into carrying your bag. I had tiny arms back then. That crap was heavy, so I wasn’t giving away any of it.” He reached over, stilling my fingers around my hair. “You’d wait until I went to sleep and would sneak into my room and steal it.”

  “No way!” I let him pull my hand from my hair.

  “Hand to God, I’m telling you the truth, my sexy little Big Bird.”

  “For the third time, I’m not dressed up as Big Bird!” I exclaimed, pointing at my yellow tights that I’d paired with a pair of jean overall shorts and a long-sleeve yellow shirt with my other hand. The yellow beanie and the pair of ski goggles I’d found at a thrift shop completed the costume. “I’m a minion.”

  “You’re a sexy minion.”

  “Whatever.” I grinned. His costume consisted of a black shirt that read in white lettering I DON’T NEED A COSTUME. PEOPLE WANT TO
BE ME.

  God, that was such a Luc shirt.

  He was quiet for a moment, and the teasing eased from his tone as a distant look crept into his face. “The first Halloween, you dressed up as Princess Leia, and I went as Han Solo.”

  I snorted. “For real?”

  “Yep. Except you demanded to have a light saber.”

  My gaze dropped to where he held my hand, his fingers threaded through mine. It seemed so effortless, the whole holding-of-hands thing, so why was I so hyperaware of it? I cleared my throat. “Leia should’ve been a trained Jedi. Fight me.”

  “That’s not a fight I will win.” His thumb moved over my palm. “The second year, you went as a princess, but somehow, you got your hands on a pair of nunchucks, and you became a ninja princess. I still have no idea where you found a pair of nunchucks.”

  I really wished I could remember how I’d gotten my hands on them, because that sounded really bizarre. “And you?”

  “I went as a ghost. Sheet and all.”

  “Creative.”

  He snorted. “One year we went as outlaws. I was Jesse James, and you were Belle Star.”

  “Belle Star?”

  “She was a famous outlaw believed to have hung out with Jesse James,” he explained, and now that I knew we’d been dressed as outlaws, I thought that sounded adorable. “Neither of us really knew who they were. It was Clyde’s idea. You … were sick one year and couldn’t go.” His voice grew quiet. “You’d been so excited to go. Halloween and Christmas were your favorite holidays, but you were just too sick.” There was a pause. “That was before we knew what was wrong with you. Paris thought it was the flu.”

  I tensed as I watched him close his eyes. It hadn’t been the flu.

  “You cried and cried because he wouldn’t let you go. It … got to me.” He rubbed at the center of his chest with the heel of his hand. “Anyway, I went out for you, determined to bring back more candy than you’d ever seen.”

  My heart stuttered in my chest as I lifted my gaze to his. Immediately, the image formed of a little boy with messy bronze hair and mischievous purple eyes, going out to get Halloween candy like a soldier going through his drills. Was that another rare memory or just my imagination? I decided it didn’t matter, because I liked the image enough to file it away.

  “And did you?” I asked, thinking I already knew the answer.

  His gaze met mine. “Of course I did. You had a thing for Mounds bars. I got you enough to last half a year.”

  “Really?” I smiled. “I love Mounds, and I know no one else who likes them. Zoe nearly vomits in her mouth when I eat them in front of her.”

  “Because they’re disgusting?”

  I rolled my eyes. “They’re not disgusting. They’re delicious heaven made of coconut and chocolate.”

  “Your taste in candy is about as bad as your taste in movies.” He was close again, his mouth inches from mine.

  My heart rate kicked up. “And what about before? Was I a fan of James Bond?”

  “Yes and no. You thought James Bond should’ve been Janet Bond.”

  I laughed, but it quickly faded. “Sounds like Nadia was ahead of her time.”

  “You were ahead of your time,” he corrected softly.

  The next breath I took hitched in my throat, and I didn’t know what to say. It was weird. I was like a volleyball, bouncing back and forth from accepting that I was Nadia, that she was me, and then feeling like she was a completely different person.

  All I did know was that I didn’t feel like her right now.

  “Nice costume,” Kent remarked as he dropped into one of the chairs next to the couch. He was definitely in costume, wearing striped black-and-white tights and some kind of ruffled shorts that were secured just above the knees with an elastic band. His white shirt had puffy sleeves and large buttons up the center. There were large teardrops painted under his eyes.

  “She’s Big Bird,” Luc offered.

  I was going to punch Luc. “I’m a minion.”

  “And you’re adorable, honeybuns.” Kent kicked his feet onto the small glass table.

  “What are you dressed as?”

  “You don’t know?” He sent me a boyish grin that hinted at dimples. “I’ll give you a hint.”

  “Okay.”

  Kent leaned over, his brown eyes wide. “We all float down here.”

  “You’re Pennywise!”

  “Kind of.” He rocked back, lowering his eyebrows as he pointed at the teardrops under his eyes. “I’m emo Pennywise.”

  “Emo Pennywise?” I laughed as I looked him over. “I see it now. I like it. Are you as psychotic as the normal Pennywise?”

  “I like to think I’m the version of Pennywise who still eats children but then feels bad about it afterward. Not just because I imagine children would give you indigestion but because eating children would make me feel like a glutton and I have a gluten intolerance. I feel like kids would be full of gluten,” he explained while Luc blinked slowly. “And it would be tiresome, you know, having to lure kids into sewers to nom nom on them. I imagine when I wasn’t eating children, I’d mope around, bemoaning how hard my life was and how everyone misunderstood me.”

  I stared at him. “You’ve put a lot of thought into this.”

  “I have.”

  “To a scary level, Kent.”

  That grin grew and dimples appeared. “I know.”

  “I knew there was a reason I liked you so much,” Luc chimed in. “You’re the perfect kind of weird.”

  “That I am.” Kent smiled happily, which was a weird look with the tears and all. “Where’s Grayson?”

  “Probably out on the streets, stealing candy from kids,” remarked Luc, and I snorted.

  I could actually picture Grayson doing just that.

  Pulling my legs up, I circled my arms around them as I watched the people dancing, and nervous, antsy energy built inside me. As I watched the bodies moving in tune to the music, the urge to get out there and move my body along with them crept over me. The restlessness from earlier returned with a vengeance. There was a desire to let the music seep into my skin and muscles, to throw my head back and let the rhythm guide the way my body moved. I’d had that desire before, and now I thought I knew why.

  It was something I used to do as Nadia, so why couldn’t I do it now?

  “Oh, there he is,” Kent murmured, and I looked up, following his gaze.

  It was Grayson.

  The tall, blond Luxen dropped into the chair opposite Kent as he pulled out a Blow Pop. He also wasn’t dressed up. I doubted he’d ever celebrated Halloween. Probably hated Halloween and Christmas and Valentine’s Day and every holiday there ever was. He paused, unwrapping his Blow Pop as he looked over at us. “What?”

  “You’re so pretty,” Kent said with a grin.

  Grayson arched an eyebrow at him. “Everyone looks like they’re having an amazing time.” His tone could’ve dried out the Everglades. “So glad I came down here.”

  “You didn’t have to,” Luc pointed out.

  “And not bless you all with my presence?” Grayson smirked. “I would never be so selfish.”

  I rolled my eyes but kept my mouth shut. Grayson wasn’t a fan of mine. I had no idea why. I’d never done anything to him. At first, I’d thought it was because I was human, but he had no problem with Kent.

  My gaze drifted back to the dance floor, and once again, I could feel the tension tightening my muscles. I could do it. Go out there, find the girls, and dance. I could.

  I didn’t budge.

  But Luc did.

  Pulling his arm off the back of the couch, he rose, offering his hand. “Come on.”

  Dammit.

  He’d read my thoughts.

  I didn’t move as I shot him a look. There was no way in this lifetime I was going to let him drag me out onto that dance floor.

  Luc wiggled his fingers. “Trust me.”

  I froze.

  Luc had never asked me to do that.
Once I had asked if he expected me to trust him, and he’d responded that he’d never asked that of me.

  And now he was?

  That was kind of a big deal.

  Truth was, I did trust Luc. Not when I first met him, but I knew now that he wasn’t going to make me do something I didn’t want to or wasn’t ready for. Aware of Grayson and Kent watching, I unfurled my legs and placed my hand in his.

  Luc tugged me off the couch. “You all know where to find me if you need me,” he said as he led me around the glass table. “Just make sure it’s important.”

  “In other words, someone had better be dying.” Kent grinned, and I shook my head. “Got it, boss.”

  Luc didn’t lead me to the dance floor, thank God. He guided me around the floor and back down the hall, toward the entrance marked EMPLOYEES. Most of the letters were scratched out, leaving only the word PLOY behind. We didn’t speak as we went up to his apartment, not until we were inside, the door closed behind us. One of the lights near the couch flipped on, casting buttery yellow light.

  “What are we doing?”

  Luc walked around so that he stood in front of me. There was a secretive twist to his lips, one that caused a curl low in my stomach. Without saying a word, he carefully took off the beanie and ski goggles I wore, dropping them on the couch.

  I lifted a brow. “Luc.”

  “You’ll see.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket, thumbing through something before sitting it on the arm of the couch.

  Having no idea what he was up to, I let him take my hands in his. A moment later, a steady beat echoed from his phone, just the clap of drums, joined by the riffs of the guitar.

  The tiny hairs all over my body rose as Luc pulled me toward him, placing my hands on his chest. The song. I remembered it had been playing the first time I’d walked into the club with Heidi.

  Don’t fret, precious, I’m here …

  Step away from the window, go back to sleep …

  There was something more about the song, though …

  Luc’s hands dropped to my hips, and I stopped thinking about the song. “Just close your eyes,” he said, “and let go.”

  That was harder to do. I stared up at him with wide eyes. Dancing with him was no easier than dancing in the club with a bunch of people I didn’t actually know … or like … or care about.