“You’re the sweetest guy I know, Ayden. I like you too,” I told him honestly and pulled my gloved hand into his hair to play with it like I’d seen Sorrel do with her boyfriend. I was out of my element here. I had no idea how to do this, but it felt so good to be wanted.
His eyes suddenly went half lidded and he had to let out a steadying breath. “Oh, what I wouldn’t give to kiss you.”
A lump formed in my throat because it was a super sweet thing to say, but also, it made me feel so sad. What if he couldn’t? What if Ariyon was the only one in the world who could touch me?
“Maybe we could try…not here, but another time?” I threw it out there, feeling stupid immediately. I sounded desperate.
He frowned. “Fallon, I would never forgive myself if my kiss made you writhe on the floor in pain.”
And just like that he’d killed whatever growing thing this was between us. Even though he’d just rejected me, I nodded in understanding and the song ended. Dropping my arms from his neck, I gave him a slight smile. “I’m going to find Eden. I’ll catch up with you later?”
His face betrayed his discomfort, clearly he hadn’t expected this conversation to go that way.
“Fallon, wait. I’m sorry. I just meant that—”
I waved him off. “We’re good. I’ll see you later.” I ducked under the roped off area and then took a right, going far into the tree line to avoid the crowd of people. They were everywhere, packed and fanned out so I had to step into the thick brush to avoid them. What was Ayden thinking? Confess his feelings for me only to tell me it would never work? What was the point of that! I wanted to cry but I was more angry than sad in that moment. I wished he’d never said any of that to me at all.
“Psst! Bane,” a familiar voice called to my right, and I squinted deeper into the trees to see Ariyon sitting on a black metal bench, drinking straight from a wine bottle.
“Are you drunk?” I asked him as I stalked over and crossed my arms. Right now it was simpler to talk to Ariyon than his brother. I could do mean right now, that was easy.
“My brother likes you,” Ariyon announced, taking a deep swig from the bottle.
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just shrugged. “Well, thanks to this curse, every single guy in school can like me and nothing will come of it,” I groaned.
He stood then, startling me as he left his wine bottle on the bench and stalked towards me. “Everyguy?”
I rolled my eyes. He was talking about himself.
“Okay, almost every guy. It’s a good thing you hate me,” I gibed and reached out to poke him in the chest. He caught my hand midair, and with a yank he removed my glove and held open my bare palm, causing me to take a sharp intake of breath. Tracing small circles on my palm, he held my gaze.
“Believe me, I want to hate you, Fallon. Your mother and her psychotic familiar killed my parents, and you lookjustlike her.”
I did? He had a picture of her?
Dropping my hand, he reached up and traced his thumb across my bottom lip. “Except these. Her lips were thin.”
It felt like my soul left my body then and my eyelids fluttered closed. He didn’t know what he was doing to me. Or he did and he was playing with me, and I didn’t care. Maybe he got off on the knowing that he was the only man in the realm right now who could touch me. But it was something I’d wanted for so long, my breath hitched as his fingers pulled away from my lips and trailed across my cheek to the back of my neck. He grabbed my neck and pulled me closer to him just as someone let out a blood-curdling scream.
My eyelids flew open, and Ariyon held my gaze for a second before he bolted from behind the trees and into the backyard.
Holy Fae!Was he going to kiss me or was I imagining all this? I wasn’t sure my poor heart could take being played with like this. I pulled on my glove and then turned around to see what the screaming was about when I saw a flutter of black feathers in the tree next to me.
‘Stay there. A Nightling is here,’Yanric said, and my blood ran cold.
A Nightling?
Ignoring the bird, I ran out into the mayhem to see students sprinting in every direction.
They beelined for the exits, screaming as black, smoky shadows zipped in and out of the crowd.
From what I knew of the dark fae, they could turn to smoke, going nearly invisible and then reappearing, solidified, right behind you. It was a power Yanric had as well, which scared me.
Eden.
I had to find Eden. I rushed through the crowd, people bumping into me as I tried to make myself small and hope no one touched my exposed hair or neck. Keeping my arms out in front of me like a box, I created a bit of safe space around me as I pushed my way through the massive crowd.
“Eden!” I screamed her name and charged in the direction of the drinks where she’d said she was going.
