Cursed Hearts (A Crossroads Novel)

by Light

  “Both,” he decided, crossing his arms.

  “I wasn’t either of those things before I met you.”

  Dallas pursed his lips.

  “Oh, and for the record,” Christian said, “I wasn’t going to go after her anymore, because you asked me not to. That’s what friends do. They don’t stab each other in the back.” He wasn’t sure that was a true statement, but making Dallas feel a little guiltier was worth the lie.

  “So what now, you’re going to punish her to get back at me?”

  A low, booming voice drifted through the door, startling them out of their conversation. “Is there someone else in there with her?”

  “Shit,” Dallas whispered. “That’s Richard—her father.”

  They both pressed an ear to the door.

  “This is unexpected,” Ariahna said in a careful voice.

  “Unexpected, or unwanted?” Richard replied. “You don’t look particularly happy to see me.”

  “The feeling appears to be mutual,” she murmured.

  “Don’t backtalk me.”

  “No sir, I wasn’t. I’m sorry.”

  “…Did you have company just now?”

  Ariahna fell quiet. “Dallas came by,” she shrugged.

  “You know how I feel about the Hayes boy.”

  The dull tone of his voice conveyed his distaste perfectly.

  “I know,” she breathed. “He was just checking in. He wanted to know why I didn’t come to visit during the summer. He didn’t stay long.”

  “And what did you tell him?” he asked.

  The soft clack of expensive shoes filled the silence.

  “Nothing,” Aria finally replied. “I didn’t say anything, other than that I was busy. He didn’t question it.”

  “Good. And you’ll stay away from him from now on,” he ordered.

  Christian frowned at the door, listening to Aria fidget.

  She finally got up the courage to ask what was on her mind.

  “…Why are you here?”

  A dangerous energy ghosted through the air in reply.

  “I’m curious about that myself. Apparently after your little incident today, the school thought I should drop everything and rush down here to coddle you. And yet here you are, in one piece—well enough to make snide, discourteous remarks at the least—and taking my precious time for granted. How regrettable that I do not have a daughter resourceful enough to have prevented this from happening. I expected more from my only progeny.”

  Christian glared at the brass doorknob, shaking his head in disgust. “Jeez, what happened to a simple, are you alright?” This guy definitely wasn’t winning any father of the year awards. Dallas pressed a finger to his lips insistently, and Christian wasn’t sure he’d ever seen him so freaked out.

  “I apologize,” Aria whispered.

  “So you do remember your manners.” Richard shifted the conversation, startling her with his next query. “Where were you last night?”

  A deafening silence rang out in reply.

  “I asked you a question.”

  “I was here, sleeping,” she said unevenly.

  “Is that so?”

  Christian could practically feel Richard’s jaw twitching.

  “Don’t lie to me,” he spat.

  The sound of a chain slinking against metal echoed loudly in Christian’s ears. “What the fuck was that?” he breathed.

  What? Dallas mouthed back. He hadn’t heard anything.

  “Isn’t this your necklace?” Richard asked.

  The piece of jewelry in question was a small, heart-shaped locket that had been given to Ariahna by her mother. It was handcrafted and engraved, and undeniably hers.

  “I… lost it.”

  “And I suppose you’re puzzled as to how it ended up at a crime scene?” he said, his voice dark.

  The tension was audible.

  Christian didn’t understand what was happening, or when he’d started shaking, but he was. A bead of sweat was glistening against his brow, and his heart was pounding in his ears. It felt like the beginnings of a panic attack. The odd thing was, he’d never had a panic attack before. A loud clattering sound startled him, and then Richard was talking in a voice so low he couldn’t make out the words. Christian panicked, banging loudly on the door.

  “Aria, we still studying together or what?”

  “What are you doing?” Dallas breathed.

  There was a lengthy pause.

  “Yes,” she called. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

  “…We will finish this later,” Richard said.

  Several more moments of silence followed, and then she was opening the door. Christian and Dallas stood up straight, pretending they hadn’t just been eavesdropping on their conversation.

  It still felt like his heart was in his stomach.

  “Did we make plans I don’t remember?” she asked playfully, trying to disguise just how shaken she was. Christian’s eyes were riddled with questions, and even if she knew what they were, she was sure she didn’t have the answers. She tugged down the sleeve of her blazer self-consciously.

  He had barely caught the movement.

  “Do you want to get out of here?” he asked.

  “No,” Dallas said sharply, answering for her. “What the hell was that? Did your dad really tell you to stay away from me? I know I’m not his favorite person, but that’s ten kinds of cruel.”

  “Exactly,” Christian muttered.

  Dallas looked at him with just a twinge of guilt in his eyes.

  “You were listening?” she exclaimed, crossing her arms.

  “What’s the real reason I didn’t see you all summer?”

  “Dallas—please, don’t.”

  “Don’t, ‘please don’t’ me,” he said.

  Christian backhanded him on the arm. “Just shut up. Can’t you tell you’re upsetting her? God, you’re denser than me sometimes.”

  Dallas had the gall to look offended.

  “…Did you involve my car in a crime?”

  “No,” Christian scowled.

  “Give me back my keys,” he said.

  “I didn’t take your car.”

  “I don’t care. I want my keys back.”

  “I don’t have them on me,” he lied stubbornly.

  “I can see them in your pocket,” Dallas said.

  “Fine,” he breathed, fishing them out of his pants. Dallas looked entirely too smug for his liking. “…I never did have a dog growing up.”

  “What the heck is that supposed to mean?”

  Aria stifled a laugh. Christian had hucked the small set of keys down the hall, nearly clipping someone in the head. They slid across the hardwood floor like it was a sheet of ice, stopping near the lounge.

  “Fetch,” he said.

  Dallas looked like he was going to burn a hole straight through Christian’s forehead. “You’re dead,” he declared.

  “Dallas, do you remember the last time we had a disagreement?”

  Dallas’s face twisted bitterly.

  “Oh good, you do.”

  “Christian,” he said in warning.

  “Just go get your keys,” he sighed. “Then we can talk.”

  Dallas turned, grumbling the whole way down the hall.

  Christian waited until he was out of hearing distance before turning back to Aria with a devious smile. “If I asked you out on a date,” he said suavely, “would you say yes?”

  Ariahna bit her lip, unsure how to reply.

  “Just meet me on the roof at midnight.”

  “Okay,” she blushed. “But, tell me one thing.”

  “What would that be?”

  “What happened the last time you two had a disagreement?”

  Christian smirked. “…I won.”

  Chapter 15

  Ariahna stood at the top of the stairs, gazing down into the inky blackness of the teacher’s lounge. It was just after midnight, and Christian was probably waiting for her on the roof already. She press
ed her back against the metal door, unable to decide if she was having a social life or going back to bed. She took a deep breath, closing a hand around the doorknob and stepping out into the chill night air. The rooftop stretched out around her like a giant sea of concrete, giving way to an endless, navy blue sky. Gentle gray clouds drifted by overhead, and the smell of the ocean hung in the air.

  Christian was nowhere in sight.

  Aria wrapped her arms around herself, shivering softly and shuffling towards the edge of the building. She was just starting to feel like she’d been stood up when he jumped out from behind a large generator and grabbed her. She screamed in surprise before smacking him on the chest.

  “Christian!”

  “Boo,” he laughed.

  “The next time you scare me like that, you’re going to leave our date as a ghost. Then you can say ‘boo’ professionally,” she sighed.

  “That might be the cutest death threat I’ve ever heard.”

  “Keep teasing me and it won’t just be a threat.”

  “Before you decide whether or not you’re going to kill me, how about we actually have our date?” he said. “But first, you have to give me a kiss.” Aria raised her eyebrows at him. “Just on the cheek.”

  “Isn’t the kiss supposed to come at the end of the night?”

  “It’s good luck to start and end a date with a kiss,” he said.

  She squinted at him skeptically, trying not to return his smile. “Fine,” she said, leaning in to give him a peck on the cheek. He turned at the last second, capturing her lips and stealing the kiss. “Christian,” she said, pulling back.

  “Try saying it a little breathier,” he laughed.

  Aria’s face turned bright red as she backed away.

  “No, no, no,” he smiled. “I was kidding. Don’t leave.” He gently took her hand, leading her around the side of the building.

  Aria stilled when she spotted the chairs and table hidden away on a corner of the rooftop. “Are those… did you take those from the pool?”

  Christian grinned back at her, shrugging innocently.

  “Technically, Adam took them,” he said. “We stashed them up here last year so we’d have a place to come hang out when we skipped. Strictly speaking, girls are not allowed.” He blinked down at her. “Are you laughing? This is a sacred place. Don’t mock the pool chairs.”

  “You’re taking me on a date to your secret clubhouse.”

  “Just for that, you get to sit in the broken chair.”

  Ariahna looked back, noticing that one of them was lopsided. “Or I could just fix it, and neither of us has to sit in a broken chair,” she said, raising her hand.

  “No!” Christian exclaimed. “You can’t fix the chair.”

  “Why not?”

  “Adam broke it and he’s going to fix it. If I fix it, it’s like I’m admitting I did it. And we both know that it was him.”

  “So instead of having two functional chairs, one of you has to sit in a broken one? That seems a little silly.” Aria stopped herself just shy of calling the argument childish.

  Christian shrugged. “It’s kind of better this way. Half the fun of going up to the roof is fighting over who gets the good chair.”

  “Do you expect me to fight you for it?”

  He paused, trying to read her body language. “Would you think that was a fun date activity?” he asked cautiously. Aria bolted for the chair and Christian stared at her slack-jawed for a moment before scrambling after her. By the time he reached the lounge chair, she was sprawled across it, grinning up at him. “Cheap,” he said. “I can respect that.” He glanced out over the rooftop at the dense trees. “I just realized something,” he said, keeping his voice somber.

  “What?”

  “You’ll be cold without me sitting beside you.” He grinned, cuddling up to her side. “Just don’t notice the blankets on the ground.”

  Aria looked like she didn’t know what to do.

  “Do you want to pick up where we left off?” he said.

  “Where we left off,” she mumbled, frowning down at her hands. “Christian… what happened last night—the kissing I mean—I’ve never… really done anything like that. And if you just asked me up here to make out, I’m not interested in that. I just wanted to spend time with you.”

  Aria lifted her gaze, staring him straight in the eye.

  “Do you really like me, or is this just… something else?”

  Christian felt his mouth go dry. “I… like you,” he said. “But that question doesn’t really protect you from ‘guys like me’. Someone who really liked you would tell you as much, and someone who just wanted… something else, well, they would say the same. There’s not exactly a real answer to that question. Not one you can trust.”

  She smiled, looking out at the sky.

  “I think that was an answer I could trust,” she said.

  “…Maybe,” he mumbled, furrowing his brow.

  A moment of silence passed between them.

  “So, what now?” Aria asked.

  “I don’t know…”

  “Well what do you usually do when you come up here?”

  He thought about it.

  “Usually I just watch Adam eat chips and try and talk at the same time. It’s much more entertaining than it sounds. I thought I saw Abraham Lincoln on his tongue once.” Christian stopped talking when he noticed Aria’s disgust. He didn’t really have anything planned, he realized. Making out had been the plan, and that plan had hit a snag.

  “Oh, I know,” he said. “How about a little stargazing?”

  “It’s kind of cloudy.”

  “We can fix that easily enough.”

  Christian swept his hand through the air, sending the fluffy gray clouds floating away on a high wind. The stars smiled down at them like gems sparkling in a dark, beautiful sea.

  “I think there’s even a meteor shower tonight.”

  “Really?”

  “No,” he smiled. “But I’ll make one for you.”

  Ariahna turned to look at the stars, nestling her head close to his shoulder. Tiny streams of light started shooting across the sky – slow and few at first, and then more rapidly and repeatedly until they covered the school and stretched out across the woods.

  “…You probably shouldn’t have done that,” she murmured, unable to tear her eyes away from the gorgeous sight.

  “What, are you afraid I just brought Kal-El to earth?”

  “Who?”

  “Never mind,” he chuckled.

  “No, I was more thinking that an unnatural meteor shower might make the news, and then The Witches Collective might open an investigation, and my father would be assigned to it—and he’s really thorough in his investigations—and it would get back to him that it was you,” she said, sucking in a breath, “and then you’d get in trouble and he’d find out we were together and—”

  “Okay,” Christian said. “I’m going to stop you there.”

  Aria exhaled tightly. “Sorry.”

  “Just live for now. You can’t enjoy the moment if you’re constantly worried about the consequences.”

  “That sounds like the philosophy of someone who’s heading to prison,” she said offhandedly, biting her lip at the look he was giving her.

  “…I think you’re mistaking me with your other boyfriend.”

  Her face flamed to life with anger and embarrassment.

  “What? I heard about his little heroic stunt today. It all just sounds a bit suspicious to me. What was he even doing there? And how did he get to you so fast?”

  “How… how would you know how quickly he got to me?”

  Christian sighed. “A friend of mine was there and saw the whole thing. Well, sort of. He said that the back-up generators kicked on in a matter of seconds, and when they did… No one can move that fast, not even with magic. It just makes me think—do you know that people say he burned his own house down? The guy sounds… unstable.”

  Aria sat up, gla
ring down at Christian.

  “That guy you’re talking trash about probably saved your life last night, and he definitely saved mine today. You should have a little more respect. He did almost take a bullet for you.”

  “Are you in love with him?” he asked, unable to stop the words from spilling out. The thought alone left a foul taste in his mouth.

  A long silence followed his question. The pause had been great enough for Aria to examine the aching sensation in her heart, that feeling of intense emotional pain. She might love him. Or she could have, at least.

  “Why did you ask me up here tonight?” she whispered.

  “Truthfully…” Christian leaned in slow, stopping just inches from her lips. “I don’t know,” he breathed. His hand came up to caress the side of her face. He was searching for something in her eyes. Perhaps an explanation for why he was acting so weird; or maybe a reason for why his chest hurt whenever he looked at her. “Why did you come?”

  By the time he whispered the last word his lips were moving passionately against hers. A rush of heat was spreading through his limbs as he cradled her head in his hand, laying her back. His fingers found the skin just above her jeans, gripping at her hips in anticipation.

  Ariahna shuddered under his touch. This hadn’t been what she’d come here for, and now she was wondering why. His hands were hot enough to melt away her inhibitions, and his lips were softer than she remembered. He’d coaxed her tongue into his mouth and was now sucking on it slowly; and it was the single, most intimate sensation she’d ever experienced.

  A soft moan touched his ears as Christian’s mouth found the delicate curve of her neck. He was sucking hotly on her skin, building her pleasure and dragging it out with a few strokes of his tongue. He could feel the air trapping itself in her lungs, leaving her to burn beneath the weight of his body. He curled his fingers around the back of her thigh, pulling her leg up against him as she tugged at his shirt.

  “Christian…”

  Aria was panting beneath him, trying to find the strength to tell him to stop. His mouth closed over hers again, and she got swept away in the seductive dance of lips and the darting of quick, eager tongues. His fingers clawed gently over her stomach, filling her with hunger and warmth.