by Trisha Lynn
Chapter Forty-Two
She tried desperately to wipe the remnants of the dream from her mind as Marissa chatted about their upcoming night of fun. Tomorrow night to be exact. Marissa seemed slightly more herself this morning and Adeila hoped that she had forgotten about the heated moment of power play that she clearly witnessed between her and Loki. Adeila had ensured to mention numerous times on the ride to school of how Loki was Marissa's date, and how they were going to dress and silly girly things to put her friend's mind at ease. That seemed to placate Marissa for the time being. That or maybe Marissa was just being nice to her because it was her birthday. Who knew with her? She was becoming as annoyingly mysterious as Loki.
Adeila had a bad feeling about the whole club thing, but dissuading her best friend was only wishful thinking. The girl was stubborn and completely ridiculous when she got something into her blonde head.
Since coming back from the Fae realm Adeila had a hard time being in close proximity with large crowds of people. School was a plethora of sounds, scents and emotions’ swirling around her and it was almost smothering. She found that every chance she got; she reveled in the peacefulness of nature. More and more each day she craved being outside, being in the sun, and the vegetation around her. She'd always enjoyed nature, but now she sought it out at every possible chance. So being in a club with hundreds of people was going to be a challenge.
The club idea was entirely Marissa's, and Adeila was just barreled over and along for the ride. Although she had to admit she was extremely happy that Loki had agreed to go with Marissa, even if Adeila knew it was more for her own benefit then for her friend's. Marissa never needed to know that. Especially now that she knew Marissa felt the strange connection between her and Loki.
Her mind wondered briefly how Loki, Sorryn and Saibol all got id's for the club, they weren't necessarily citizens, then she realized she herself wasn't either, and somehow someone must have faked her birth certificate and social security card and all that. Her real parents had said they had made the adoption go smooth, which must have been partly what they had meant. Loki had said that they had some humans in the mortal realm that knew of them and were helping them; she assumed one such must have done not only her paperwork but also the Fae's that entered schools and any other kind of program. Each, obviously, had to have some kind of fake id.
She remembered again how little she really knew about the Fae, and decided she needed to begin writing every little question down to ask one of the Fae at her disposal for answers.
Her eyes fluttered to the rear view mirror, where a black Mustang tailed her. Sorryn. Since returning to the human realm on Sunday afternoon she'd had a Fae tailing her every move, as if someone was going to bother her now that she had entered the Fae realm. She still didn't really understand what kind of dangers she could be in. Why her father had insisted so much on sending her with escorts. She felt constantly watched and although she liked all of them, it was slightly annoying. They changed up vehicles each day so that Marissa wouldn't catch on, and so far she wasn't the wiser.
Adeila couldn't wait until enough time had passed when the Fae would see that she was not in danger and then her Faerie body guards could go back to catching the bad guys like she knew they were itching to do. None of them had said anything, but she knew without a doubt they would rather be catching rogue Fae then watching her every move and keeping her clear of non-existent danger.
.~.
High school was filled with so many loud noises and nasty body odor smells, she had no idea how she really hadn't noticed it before. Of course, no one said happy birthday to her. Teenagers never paid attention to such things. So focused on themselves. She was lucky that Marissa had remembered and promised to take her out for a milk shake and give her her present that night. Adeila obviously couldn't tell her that she had made plans with Loki right after school for some training, but she'd have to make something work. Maybe train a couple hours then run and meet Marissa. She felt sometimes like she was leading a double life. Oh, wait, she kind of was. Damn.
With Loki talking quietly beside her, Adeila approached the lockers that morning. Since today was another lesson day Loki was discussing a few things that they would go over and how she should prepare herself. Apparently today was a magic learning lesson so no need for her to wear gym clothes, like her last lesson, which had been self-defense. When they rounded the corner she stopped short, Erik and his friends were half way down the hall in a heated conversation. Her hearing was on over-sensitive mode today, she couldn't control it, and she had yet to have a chance to ask Loki about it. She planned to as soon as they met that afternoon. She'd stamped down control on her magic but her senses were a different story.
She knew she should try to block out the boys conversation, but when she heard her name whispered, she straightened and allowed her senses to reach out to them.
“Shut up, man!” Erik's voice was reaching anger.
“Why, dude?” His friend Chris was looking at him with an exasperated expression. “I can't believe your letting this go on so long. I mean I thought you'd have ended this like a month ago.”
“I like her. Like, really, like her. I didn't plan to.” He shrugged his shoulders. “It just happened.”
“Yeah, people are saying you guys are really like boyfriend/girlfriend. Thought you were just supposed to get her to think you two were dating? Wasn't that the deal?” The boy let out a cruel laugh but Danny stepped in, holding up a hand.
“Hey knock it off, Chris. She's actually wicked cool. I don't know why no one saw it before. If Erik's really interested in her, then clearly the bet is off.”
“No way! She's a total nerd! But whatever, not my problem. I just wonder what she'd say if she knew the truth, ya know?”
Another boy, Brad Nessin, stepped in. “Isn't there another bet going around about how you won't be able to bang her before end of the school year? I'm taking you all up on that one!”
Erik grumbled and then turned away. He stopped dead in his track when he saw her staring at him from the hall. A look of horror passed his face, before a mask began creeping over it.
Her heart was in her throat, she turned to Loki. His hands were balled into fists and there was a murderous gleam to his eyes, which had turned them from their golden green to a deep burnt sienna orange, steel gray edged the center. She shook her head, and reached over to touch his arm. His eyes focused on her, and some of the golden returned around the edges. Like her, he'd obviously added in the bits of the conversation that were missing.
She could do nothing but turn back to Erik, who had masked his face entirely and was smiling at her.
“Hey, babe.” His eyes scanned her face, clearly assuming she didn't hear the conversation. No normal person should have been able to from so far away. He turned his attention to the hand she had still on Loki's forearm and took a tentative few steps closer. “What's up?”
“You tell me.” Her voice shook slightly from the hurt that was trembling along her every pore. She could see the wheels spinning in his head, coming up with some cover story, had she actually heard the interlude.
“Ah, just having a talk with my boys, and now seeing you.” His smile was hopeful, and then his eyes looked again, dramatically, at her fingers on Loki's skin. She watched a glimmer of jealousy flit across Erik's face. She dropped her hand away, but not because of his jealousy, because she figured it was probably inappropriate to continue touching Loki this long. She also didn't want to admit that touching him had been for her own comfort as much as it had been to ensure that he didn't attack Erik with that feral gleam in his eyes. She let her eyes drift up to Loki again, his gaze swept from dismembering Erik limb by limb, to hers, and she saw compassion and loyalty there. She shook her head slightly, hoping he would let her handle this. When he nodded, she turned back to Erik.
She wanted to smack him for his audacity to be jealous of the simple touch, and smack him for everything else that was so clearly a lie. From the beginning.
&nbs
p; She bit her lip to shock herself from the drowning sensation of hurt and betrayal she felt in her throat to the pit of her stomach and everywhere in between.
“What was that all about, Erik? Letting what go so long?”
Surprise and anger etched his pretty face again, dousing the light from his gorgeous blue eyes.
“I... Ah.” He was lost for words and she could see him still trying to grasp a cover story. She knew he got it when his eyes lit up again. “They were harassing me for taking so long to grow some balls to ask you to the Senior Formal.”
She stared at him blankly, and then rolled her eyes. “I wasn't born yesterday, Erik.”
But she wanted to believe him. She wanted to believe that, that is exactly what they had been discussing. She would have been so overly flattered by that, if she hadn't heard close to the entire conversation. She almost cursed this gift, or power, or whatever the damned Fae called it.
His eyes narrowed and he allowed them to linger on Loki for several seconds. “There's nothing else it could be, Adi. I assure you. Just some ball busting, but I was planning on asking you. Tonight.”
She swallowed, and again wished with every fiber of her being that, that was the truth, but she knew better. She knew that the conversation she heard was something much different. Something cruel.
“I promise you.” He said it again, bolder, with more enthusiasm. His eyes bore deeper, gazing at her, willing her to believe him. He took another step closer, then his eyes turned to Loki again, and there was a hard edge to them. “Don't you have somewhere to be, Staghorne?”
Loki growled a low, angry, predatory sound. “Oh, no I think I'm right where I need to-”
Adeila touched his arm again. Trying to silently tell him to relax. She appreciated the fact that he so willingly planned to defend her, but she had seen this coming. Months ago. She knew it had been too good to be true. She'd known it all along, but she'd still allowed herself to fall for him, to care, to want, to dream. She needed to handle this Erik situation, so she could get over it. Move on. Just like she knew she'd need to do, eventually, even without this particular situation thrusting her into it. Her heart had overturned her mind for the last time.
“Loki, its fine, I got this.”
His eyes went from deep green and pale orange to honey golden as they met hers. She watched the transformation in awe. She could see the rings of color and flakes of gray move. Twinkle, almost like stars. She could get lost in them for days. But now was not the time to enjoy his peculiar eyes, now was the time to deal with this.
After several pregnant moments of them just staring at each other, the compassion she saw in the depths of his eyes shimmering over her, an unexpected and strange twist to their relationship. She'd known he cared for her to some capacity, but it was nice to see that it ran this deep. He was her guide, her teacher, her protector, her Warrior, her mentor, and now finally her friend.
“I will see you later then.” He said it as such a promise that she had no doubt the truth in it, and it sent an unexpected shiver of anticipation down her spine. She wanted to lean on him after all of this, just a bit, see how deep this new found friendship really went. What she really wanted and wouldn't admit was a hug. A real deep, hard, long hug. At that moment she fervently wished for her Fae parents. She wished that she was back in Faerie and away from all this teenage bull shit.
After watching Loki walk away, she turned back to Erik. The bell rang. She let her eyes drift over his shoulder, not ready to look into his blue eyes quite yet, to find Sadie Simms standing there smirking at her. Adeila's eyes went back to Erik, finally, to find his eyes were hooded. He shuffled his feet, hurt shadowed his eyes.
Maybe he did feel something for her other than the original joke of dating her. She wanted to know why, though. Was it really a bet? A dare? What was he hoping to really get from her? Sex?
She wanted to voice those questions screaming in her head, but instead just shook her head and walked away; she just could not do this now. She had no words for this; the fight went right out of her when she looked at him. Betrayal raw and deep burned her heart.
She began to walk down the hallway to her next class, without even getting any of her books from her locker. She'd just tell the teacher she left them at home.
Erik ran up beside her, and tried to grab her arm.
“Honestly, I never meant to hurt you. I really like you. Like really. It might have been a stupid drunken dare at first, but honestly Adeila, I really -”
She held up her hand to him, Marissa watched in horror at their display where she stood at the end of the hall.
“I can't do this here. Just no, Erik. No.” Tears welled in her eyes but she wiped them away, angrily.
The girl ran over to her, and grabbed her arm, giving Erik the dirtiest look her angelic blond features could muster.
“Loki told me to find you. What the hell is going on?”
Adeila's eyes drifted to Erik who still stood, shell-shocked. “Why don't you just ask him?” And with that she walked to her next class.