LURE
Page 24
My mouth fell open, and I gawked at him as he began to walk away. Why was he smiling about the gods using Wyatt to punish me? The Matt I became friends with over the summer wasn’t sadistic.
That Matt was a lie.
Finally, I found my voice. “How do I even know you’re telling the truth? It’s against their rules to hurt mortals!” I yelled over the sound of waves crashing behind me.
His body shook like he was laughing, but he continued walking in the other direction. “It’s against their rules to send demigods to hunt sirens, Goose. Besides, my dad’s the messenger for the gods.”
Hermes.
Wonderful. Another boy whose father completely despised me.
***
I took Wyatt to see the view from The Lighthouse tower that afternoon, and he was wheezy, remembering his fall from the rocks weeks before. He pinned me against the railing and tried to talk me into going to Boston to meet his friends next weekend.
“You sure your dad won’t have something to say about that?” I teased, twisting around and sliding my butt onto the railing.
“Don’t do that. It scares me,” he said, peering over the edge and shuddering at the sight of the rocks and sea below. I wanted to remind him that it did not matter if I fell—I would resurface without a scratch.
Laughing, I took my hands from the rail and wiggled my fingers in his face. I leaned back and poked my tongue out when his eyes widened. “You’re avoiding my question, Golden Boy.”
He crept nearer, parting his lips like he planned to respond. “You’re beautiful in this light.”
“Times up,” I said, lifting my legs and letting myself fall from the tower. Desperate yelling followed me. I smiled as I hit the ocean. No transparent bodies formed in the water today, nobody called for my help. It was calm. As I swam to the surface, I even tried to convince myself that my life was not entirely bad.
I had Wyatt, after all.
Lightning and thunder cracked simultaneously overhead as I emerged from the ocean. Wyatt raced up to me, out of breath and flushed from his trip down the tower. In one swift motion, he jerked me to him. That ridiculous, cocky smirk spread across his face, even as he tried to catch his breath, and I feigned a frown.
“You’re impatient and scary an—”
I covered his mouth with the tips of my fingers and shook my head. “You talk too much.” Standing on my toes, I pressed my lips to his. Part of me was still upset he came after me last night, and I poured my anger into the kiss. I didn’t care that I could hardly breathe. Barely think.
Thunder continued to crash across the sky, casting dark shadows across the beach that the lightning occasionally brightened. I knew this storm was because of all of the rules I broke. I would deal with it later. I heard the earsplitting pound of a heartbeat, and I froze. One, two, three . . . nine, ten, eleven . . . thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two . . .
“I hate when you make that face,” he said, pulling back. One of his eyebrows lifted as he looked into my eyes.
I placed the palm of my hand over his chest and finished counting. “I love the sound of your heartbeat.” Today, the beat was not steady.
Today, his heart sped for me.
I love you, Wyatt.
“I’m glad you moved here,” I whispered. I wanted to say more, wanted to ask for more. I couldn’t. He smiled and lowered his head again. I pushed the Solstice from my mind. I didn’t think about Matt or the shock of his touch or even his warning from this morning.
Now was important.
Wyatt was now.
“Me too,” he said.
And I reminded myself that immortality was not forever.
###
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephanie Jenkins lives in Tennessee with her husband and two small children. When she's not writing young adult fantasy or cleaning Crayola off walls, she enjoys going to the gym and over-indulging in old musicals. She may or may not be slightly addicted to Disney princess films and sour gummy worms.