by M. Leighton
I noticed that each time he touched me, it became more and more uncomfortable when he broke the contact. Though he said nothing, I couldn’t help but notice that Jackson’s expression grew darker and darker with each passing moment.
When it seemed that my pleasure over his touch and his distaste of it would literally cause me to bust, I could hold my tongue no longer.
“What have I done to make you hate me?” I asked as I came to a stop in the shadow of a huge maple tree.
“What?” Jackson’s expression was thunderous yet puzzled.
“Don’t even try to deny it, Jackson. You think I haven’t noticed how much you hate touching me or being near me?”
“Princess, I—”
“And stop calling me ‘Princess’ as if we haven’t known each other practically our entire lives.”
“Alright, Madly,” he snapped. “I don’t hate you. I simply have a job to do, that’s all.”
“Jackson, the least you can do is tell me the truth.”
“I am. I—”
“No, you’re not. I can tell that you hate me. I just don’t know why.”
“I don’t hate you, Madly.”
“Then why do you treat me like you do?”
“You are the heir to the throne. I am a Sentinel. I treat you with respect and I protect you. How else would you have me treat you?”
I wanted to scream in frustration, frustration because I couldn’t make him say what I wanted him to say. I wanted him to say that he couldn’t stop thinking about me. I wanted him to say that he found himself wanting me like I found myself wanting him. I wanted him to say that he found himself craving my nearness like I found myself craving his.
But I couldn’t. No matter how much I wanted it, I couldn’t make him say those things, couldn’t make him feel those things.
I tossed my hair over my shoulder and straightened my spine.
“I’m sure you treat me just like the rulebooks tell you to treat me, Jackson. Just like the perfect Sentinel robot that you are.”
Stepping angrily past him, I proceeded on through the forest, leaving Jackson to catch up to me.
We didn’t say another word the rest of the trip as we made our way through the trees to the outskirts of the park, to the outskirts of Slumber itself, where Kellina’s house lay.
When the woods began to thin and part, a big white plantation-style home was revealed. It had two wide wrap-around porches (one on each level), thick, sturdy columns and was situated in a circular patch of lush green grass. It sparkled brightly in the late afternoon sun, looking nothing like I’d pictured it would. I had imagined it to be much more rustic, shabby even. But this mansion was impeccably kept.
Jackson stopped at the edge of the trees, looking at the house and then scanning the woods all around us.
“Here’s what we’ll do,” he said, still watching the house. “We’ll follow the tree line as far as it goes and then when we get to the grass, we’ll just be a teenage couple skipping school for a walk in the woods, alright? Just in case someone’s home.”
Not once did Jackson meet my eyes, which frustrated me to no end.
“Whatever,” I snapped.
I followed Jackson as he weaved his way through the tall oaks and maples. We circled the house as far as we could, until there was nothing but grass ahead of us. Jackson stopped, looked back at me and then grabbed my hand.
“Come on.”
We emerged from the dappled shade of the trees into the bright sunshine and I felt its warmth suffuse me from head to toe. I refused to consider that the bubbling heat in my belly had anything to do with Jackson’s long, strong fingers wrapped around mine.
“Do you remember when I almost dismembered Collin DeSpirito because he tried to kiss you against your will after your third-level graduation?”
Jackson’s voice was light and happy, and his question took me so off guard, I had to look up at him to make sure someone else hadn’t taken his place.
He was smiling, his face relaxed and gorgeous. He glanced down at me, a teasing and flirtatious gleam in his eyes. I was instantly confused.
“What?”
His brow wrinkled slightly, his smile widening enough to bring out the single dimple in his right cheek.
“You mean you don’t remember that?”
“Of course I remember that. I just- I’m just—”
Jackson chuckled, a sound that resonated in my chest and tugged at my heart.
“Who could blame the poor guy? The way you flirted with him—touching his arm and laughing up at him—he was overcome by your extraordinary beauty. I’m sure if I had killed him, he’d have died happy.”
“I wasn’t flirting with him. I was just—”
“Oh, come on! You had the attention of every guy at the ceremony. It’s almost as if you were trying to make someone jealous,” he said, winking down at me.
My heart fluttered behind my sternum. I felt like I’d had a mini-stroke or something. What happened to the surly Sentinel that I’d been walking with two minutes ago? Where had this Jackson—the one I’d known forever, the one I’d thought I’d loved—been all this time?
Before I could comment, the prolonged creak of a door opening reached our ears. Jackson stopped and turned toward me. Although I couldn’t take my eyes off him, I saw movement in my peripheral vision.
“Admit it. You were trying to make me jealous,” he said, grinning down at me. “Sell it, Madly,” he whispered, barely moving his lips, his eyes looking meaningfully into mine.
It was then that I figured out what he’d been doing. And it made me furious. He’d been pretending, merely playing a part with his friendly repartee. Meanwhile, I’d been falling under the spell of the Jackson that I used to know. Fortunately, two could play that game.
Turning on my brightest smile, I stretched up on my toes and wrapped my arms around Jackson’s neck. “Of course I was trying to make you jealous. How else was I going to get you to kiss me?”
I stared into the powdery blue of Jackson’s eyes, daring him to back down now. I saw the gleam of challenge light the shimmering pools, but behind it was something else—something warm and dark and forbidden.
“Is that what you wanted? For me to kiss you?” Jackson asked quietly, his hands drifting lazily up and down my sides.
As I watched, his pupils swelled to eclipse the azure of his eyes and his gaze flickered to my mouth and back.
“Mmm,” I murmured, unable to speak past the lump of excitement in my throat.
“You asked for it,” he whispered, tilting his head to one side and lowering his lips to mine.
The first touch of his soft mouth was feather light, little more than the kiss of the wind on my skin. But in that brief contact, electricity passed between us, a jolt that made my lips tingle, and I wanted more.
As if he could read my mind, Jackson obliged. Bringing one big hand up to cup the back of my head, he angled his face and deepened the kiss.
I felt the pressure of his mouth everywhere. It spread like fingers of flame down my neck and chest and puddled like boiling lava in my stomach. It overflowed and ran in hot rivulets down my legs, setting fire to my toes. My lips parted and I felt as much as heard Jackson’s groan, his breath flooding my mouth with moist warmth.
“What are you kids doing in my yard?” a harsh, old voice called, shattering the private world Jackson and I had found.
Jackson lifted his head and stared down at me for several long, intense seconds before he stepped back and turned toward the voice.
“Sorry, ma’am,” he called. “We were just out for a walk, heading that way,” he explained, pointing to indicate the other side of her house.
“Be on your way then. There’s no trespassing on my property.”
“Yes, ma’am. I apologize. We were just leaving.”
Taking my hand once more, Jackson pulled me along behind him.
CHAPTER THREE
We were almost past the house into the woods on the other side
before I finally managed to take my eyes off him long enough to glance at the woman standing on the front porch of the white mansion.
Considering her voice, she was taller and more elegant than I would’ve expected. In my head, I had the mental picture of a stooped, steely-haired, heavily wrinkled old woman in tattered clothes. But this woman looked nothing like that. Her short, dark brown hair was perfectly coiffed and her back was ram-rod straight. She was clothed in black slacks and a deep red blouse, and I could see her matching lipstick from all the way across the yard.
When we re-entered the woods and were well out of earshot, Jackson stopped and turned back toward the house.
“Do you think that was Kellina’s grandmother?” I asked.
“Probably,” he said, still holding my hand.
When he turned back to me, we simply stood looking at one another for what seemed like an eternity before he slowly dropped my hand and said, “We’d better head back.”
I nodded, feeling inordinately disappointed that our outing was over, to say nothing about how I felt about the end of our kiss.
Jackson and I walked all the way back to the dorm in silence, though this silence was filled with a thousand different things. Or at least I felt like it was. Gone was the anger from earlier, replaced by a quiet introspection, a shared awe over what had just happened.
I desperately hoped that Jackson had felt something real, too. It seemed as though he had, but with Jackson, there was no way to be sure.
When I opened the door to my room, we looked at each other and I smiled. After only a tiny hesitation, one side of Jackson’s mouth twitched up into the ghost of a smile before he disappeared through his own door, closing it quietly behind him.
With a sigh, I did the same, only on my side, I was greeted by one aggravated Jersey.
“Where have you been?” she demanded, her hands on her hips and a deep frown creasing her brow.
“I was with Jackson, checking out the woods near Kellina’s house. Why?”
“With Jackson?” she asked, straightening, clearly confused.
“Yeah. Why?”
“What were you doing with him?”
“I told you. We were check—”
“I heard you the first time, but why were you with Jackson?”
“Because he’s the Sentinel assigned to me, that’s why. What’s the big deal? Geez!”
Jersey continued to stare at me, her frown making me uncomfortable.
“Madly, I think—”
Jersey stopped herself, as if she’d suddenly changed her mind about what she was going to say.
I watched her impatiently.
“You think what?” I prompted.
Jersey shook her head. “Nothing.”
I could tell by her body language that it wasn’t nothing, but I wasn’t in the mood to press, so I let it go, turning instead toward my closet.
After a couple of minutes of strained silence, Jersey plopped down on my bed.
“So, what did you find?”
“Huh?”
“In the woods.”
“Oh. Nothing really. Kellina’s got a really nice house, but her grandmother sounds mean.”
“Hmm,” she muttered distractedly. “We still on for the beach tonight?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Well, I thought maybe we could turn it into a little more of a party, so I invited a few people from school.”
“Jersey!”
“I thought it would look more…authentic,” she smiled, proud of herself.
“But I told Kellina it would just be us.”
“Settle down, Madly. I only invited a few. We need to get to know these people, right? I mean, now more than ever.”
She had a point. There was no arguing that. It still just irritated me that she’d taken such a liberty without asking me. Of course, that was pretty typical of Jersey. She was a worry-about-the-consequences-later type of person if I’d ever seen one.
“I know you’re right. I just…” I trailed off, letting the words die on a sigh.
“Besides, it’s not like it’s turning into a rave or anything.”
A couple hours later, I’m pretty sure Jersey reconsidered that statement. We could hear the loud throb of music long before we got to the beach. Then, once we got a little closer, we saw the thick throng of people surrounding a huge bonfire that was already ablaze on the sand.
Kellina stopped with one foot still on the sidewalk. “I thought there were just going to be a few people here.”
I cast a withering look at Jersey.
“It was supposed to be just us, but word got out. I hope you don’t mind.”
I could see the indecision on Kellina’s pretty face. She did mind and I knew it.
“Come on, Kellina. Stay. It’ll be fun,” Jersey chimed.
Kellina looked from the crowd to me, to Jersey and then back to the crowd.
“I guess I can stay for a little while.”
I smiled in relief. “Good. Come on.”
Before we left, Jersey said she’d seen Jackson and that he was sending several Sentinels to the party. For the first time (probably ever), I didn’t mind. I knew Kellina would be safest in the midst of the Mer.
My stomach flipped over at the thought of Jackson, but I ruthlessly pushed him away and put all my focus on Kellina.
As we approached the mass of squirming bodies, I caught sight of Aidan. He’d preceded us to the party. He was so outgoing and funny, he’d made a few friends almost instantly, friends Jersey had invited to the party. And you knew the majority of them would be male. You could always count on Jersey to invite the boys. She loved to flirt.
He spotted me, turned and said something to the two boys with whom he was talking, and then made his way over to our trio. He was smiling and happy as he approached, but as I introduced him to Kellina, his smile faded somewhat.
“Aidan this is Kellina Stratford. We have Calculus together. Kellina, this is—” I trailed off, looking helplessly at Aidan. I’d never had to introduce him to a stranger, a non-Mer, before and I had no idea how to categorize our relationship. I couldn’t very well admit that we were to be betrothed in a few months.
“I’m Aidan,” he provided, swooping in to save me from a would-be blunder.
Relieved that he’d taken the lead on that one, I turned back to Kellina. I watched her cheeks flood with color and a sweet, shy smile curve her lips.
“It’s nice to meet you, Aidan.”
“I don’t think I’ve seen you around,” he admitted. “I would’ve remembered that.”
More color poured into Kellina’s cheeks and I looked to Aidan. His eyes were fixed on her face in an odd way, a way that said he couldn’t have looked away even if he’d wanted to. I felt like I recognized that look. It was the expression I imagined my face carried when I looked at Jackson.
“So,” I interrupted, suddenly uncomfortable with Aidan’s blatant fascination. “Aidan, why don’t you introduce us around?”
“Ok,” he said, speaking to me, but still looking at Kellina.
We followed Aidan into the thick of things and he introduced us to a surprising amount of people. Jersey knew quite a few of them, but Kellina and I were like runaways from the island of misfit toys.
The last subgroup of people that Aidan took us to was comprised of what I liked to call “artsy” types. Two of them were musicians, one an aspiring author and one a painter.
“Really?” Kellina said when Aidan introduced the last girl as CoCo Crane. “I love to paint.”
And just like that, the two girls were quickly absorbed in a world of their own.
Jersey went off to talk to someone that she knew, leaving me to watch Aidan struggle for a way to break into the conversation.
“That’s freaky,” Aidan said to Kellina. “I’ve always loved landscapes. I’ve even painted a few myself.”
My mouth actually dropped open. Not only had I never, EVER known Aidan to paint, he’d never once mentioned a love for a
rt at all, much less landscapes in particular. I backed up a few steps, just far enough to take me to the periphery of the party.
As I scanned all the happy faces, I saw one boy doing basically the same thing that I was, probably looking just as much an interloper, too. He was a skinny kid with black-rimmed glasses and braces. He was watching someone intently, but I couldn’t tell who. The reflection of the fire in his glasses obscured his eyes.
I sighed. In a crowd of so many, I felt like it was just me and him. The outsiders.
At that moment, I felt more alone than I could ever remember feeling. Upon arriving in Slumber, I had been casually excited about events such as these, viewing them as an opportunity to meet the people who’d sprung from such legendary loins. Of course, I had had every intention of having some fun in the meantime, too. But now, I couldn’t help but feel the weight of my responsibility as it crushed all the pleasure out of the experience.
I had suggested the party simply as a means to get to know Kellina, earn her trust and maybe even (in a roundabout way) fill her in on a history she wasn’t even aware she had. But now I was finding that it was impossible for me to relax and enjoy myself. Now I was frustrated and becoming increasingly put out with Aidan.
Turning away from the jubilation, I made my way toward the water, toward the calming waves and the home beneath them that I missed more poignantly than ever.
I walked along in the shallows, the water just grazing my ankles, and I let my mind wander to the beautiful crystalline architecture of Atlas. Closing my eyes, I inhaled deeply, letting the salty sea air set the tone for the pastel peaks and myriad waterfalls of my home. There was not a single corner in all of Atlas where you were not serenaded by the gentle gush of falling water. I was convinced there was not a more exquisite, soothing place on the face of the earth.
Invariably, thoughts of the predicament of the Mer intruded on my peace. I wondered if I was strong enough, wise enough to recapture even one of the Lore, much less all eight.
Immediately, I started to feel overwhelmed. Drawing in a calming breath, I reminded myself that I just needed to concentrate on catching the Wolfhardt Lore. If we were lucky, that would be the only one we needed.