by Raye Wagner
Kai’s eyebrows squished together, and his gaze clouded over. Shaking his head, he stepped back into the crowd of students. “You were the one who said to get her that.”
Aricela looked up into Chase’s stormy eyes, the intensity pulling her like a magnet.
His gaze went to her lips and then returned to her eyes. He released her hand and said, “It’s just a drink.”
Without waiting for a reply, he left, disappearing into the mass of teens, taking away the heat of his presence.
Nysse looked at Kai. “Which one of you likes her?”
Kai threw his hands up in the air. “We don’t even know her.” He dropped his hands to his sides, and his backpack slid down his arm to the tile floor. “Sorry my sister is so weird. And my friend, too, it seems. Really, we just wanted to do something nice. Drink it if you want, or not. I don’t know anyone that likes cinnamon in their hot chocolate.”
He smiled, but this was different than the flirty I’m-so-adored cheeky grin from yesterday. This was soft and tentative, his dark eyes warm with sincerity. “We were trying to be nice.”
Aricela sipped from the small oval hole in the white plastic lid. Warm, satiny chocolate filled her mouth, the cinnamon dancing with the chocolate across her taste buds. The velvety concoction wasn’t quite as good as her memories of what her mother had made, but it was delicious.
The bell rang, and Aricela jumped. Someone bumped her from behind, and the cup slipped from her hands. Without thinking, Aricela snatched the cup midair before it could hit the ground and splatter.
When she looked back up, both Nysse and Kai were looking at her with matching wide brown eyes.
Shoot.
“That . . . You have really fast reflexes,” Kai breathed the words in awe.
There was a moment of awkward silence, and Aricela didn’t know how to address her mistake. She should’ve let the cup drop. Ignore or rune them?
“You’re brother and sister,” she said as if the cup fiasco hadn’t happened.
“Twins,” Nysse said, recovering faster than her brother. Her eyebrows remained knit as if she were processing what had happened and wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Her expression cleared, and she pushed her brother as she said, “But I got all the looks.”
Her comment was clearly a longstanding debate. Kai snorted and then said, “You wish.”
He reached out to tug on a lock of his sister’s pink hair. The affection between the two was clear, and it pulled on Aricela’s heartstrings.
The bell rang, and Nysse pushed her brother away. “Don’t start.” She turned to Aricela and said, “Come on. Let’s go to class, so Mr. Troust can yell at me again for talking to you.”
She didn’t know what else to do, so Aricela walked alongside of Nysse, sipping on the hot chocolate.
“Do you play any sports?” Nysse asked, but she continued talking without even waiting for a reply from Aricela. “Soccer is way bigger than football this year because of Chase. He’s the best player we have, and all the girls are in love with him. Poor Marc Stone. He’s the quarterback for the football team, and they’re good and all, but we haven’t made it to state the last two years in football, and we’ve been killing it for soccer. Besides, Chase has that tragic background and everyone wants to make him feel better, so you know . . .”
Aricela nodded, as if she understood what Nysse was saying. Santa madre, the girl could talk.
“I’m sure you’ll hear it sooner or later anyway, but his mom and sister died about three years ago. He got put into foster care, and when Kai found out that Chase was going to have to leave, he threw a complete fit. I’ve never seen mom and dad jump like that. Of course, they like him, too. Luckily, it all worked out and he didn’t have to move away.”
There was more to the story. Way more. And Aricela didn’t need a rune to tell her, either. But whatever his past, Aricela wasn’t there to get involved.
“Okay.” At least the girl, Nysse, was being nice enough. “Thanks for the heads-up. And I wasn’t going to try and change him or fix him. I’m not really interested in him.”
“Really?” Nysse stopped in the middle of the doorway of their classroom. Her dark features pulled down into a grimace, and she asked, “You like my brother?”
“No.” Aricela blushed with mortification. The entire class had heard Nysse’s question, and twenty-six sets of eyes were staring at her. “Not at all.”
By the goddess Hel. This was exactly what Aricela hated most about high school. She pushed past Nysse and stomped to her seat, waiting for the snickers to die down. If she had to, Aricela would rune them all. She was not going to be the butt of a joke.
Someone snickered, and another person joined in.
Aricela scanned the room. There was only one person not looking at her or Nysse.
Chase sat at his desk, with his teeth clenched, feathering a pencil across a pad of paper. He cleared his throat and set the pencil down. His gaze lifted, and he called, “Nysse, leave Ari alone. She doesn’t like Kai.”
The muffled giggles evaporated, and Mr. Troust clapped his hands and called the room to order.
Aricela went to her desk. Part of her wanted to tell Chase to mind his own business, but another part wanted to hug him in gratitude. Just the thought made her uncomfortable. Mostly she didn’t know what to do, or maybe she didn’t know how to do it, so she did nothing but slide into her chair and stare at the top of her desk.
Mr. Troust gave a pop quiz, and after almost everyone failed, he turned it into a group assignment. As if the students shouldn’t be held responsible for not knowing how to solve quadratic equations by now.
As soon as he told them to get to work, Nysse turned around in her seat. “Do you want to come over after school?”
Frowning, Aricela wondered why the girl had any interest in her. “What for?”
Nysse blanched, and her lower lip quivered. She turned back around without answering.
She was the weirdest girl Aricela had ever met, but guilt wiggled in her chest, a long-forgotten sensation from a past life. Then she was thrown forward as Chase kicked her chair. Again.
Glaring, she turned to face him. “What is your problem?”
He raised his eyebrows, and his lips flattened. Pointing his pencil at her, he said, “That was rude.”
She couldn’t deal with all of it. She wasn’t trying to be rude. She wasn’t trying to do anything except survive until she got the name of whomever she needed to reap so she could hopefully not get sent to Hel. She didn’t want to get involved with these people. She didn’t want to get involved with anyone ever again. She only wanted to do her job.
Aricela’s dark eyes narrowed. But, somehow she couldn’t leave it alone. Something about those deep blue eyes was like a magnet, and she leaned toward him and whispered, “We’ve already established you think I’m rude.”
He closed the distance until there were only a couple of inches between them. The world dropped away, and a warm haze of energy sparked between them.
“Be nice, Ari,” Chase said, his warm breath caressing her face. Still whispering, he said, “Nysse could use a friend.”
She clenched her teeth and readied a retort, but the words died on her lips. There was no malice in his features. Only concern. And Aricela couldn’t tell if it was for her or Nysse.
He stared at her, his gaze taking her in, pulling her closer, and then he whispered, “You could, too, I’d wager.”
She wanted to slap him, or snap at him, anything to lash out as he poked at her.
His eyes were wide as he leaned back in his seat and released a long exhale.
The spell was broken, and Aricela turned around, letting his words sink in. He was right, and that was what really stung. The only person she had was Larissa, and she was Aricela’s mentor, connected to her out of obligation. Aricela reminded herself that she didn’t want friends, that it was her choice to be alone. It hurt less this way.
But, this was her job, and if for no other re
ason than Nysse and her brother were well connected in the school, she actually should befriend them.
Aricela swallowed her pride and touched Nysse’s shoulder. “I’m sorry I was rude. I . . . I am . . . terrible at making friends.”
Nysse swiveled back in her seat, her face contorted as she tried to keep her emotions in check, and she shrugged. “It’s okay.”
Something about the girl’s vulnerability made Aricela soften. “I would love to come over.”
“Really?” Nysse asked with a watery smile. “I’d love that, too. And the boys have soccer practice, so no one will be around to bother us.”
Aricela nodded. It would be better without Kai around, she told herself. If there was no Kai, there would definitely be no Chase. There was a pang of disappointment, but she refused to even acknowledge it.
Chapter 4
Nysse loved to talk. Seriously, she had to love it. She filled the air with the sound of her voice, her chatter ceasing only long enough for the girl to breathe. The only thing in her pink bedroom that even came close to competing with the incessant one-sided conversation was the heavy smell of lavender. A small ceramic pot filled with a waxy purple substance sent the flowery scent out in undulating waves.
The first ten minutes at the Ciprianos’ had been as awkward as a first date, but then Nysse handed Aricela a glass of lemonade and let loose with her social gossip. Aricela hadn’t said more than a couple of words since. And now she sat on the plush shag carpet in Nysse’s room, alternating between listening to her new acquaintance and the humming of the lawnmower outside.
Nysse was back on her favorite topic it seemed. Aricela had asked Nysse if she liked Chase because she talked about him a lot, but the girl’s expression had been enough to communicate that she didn’t. So it was a mystery as to why he was the topic of conversation.
“Everybody says they’ll go to state this year, and Mom is certain they’ll make it to the national championship. Now that Chase has his head in the game—”
The entire room froze. Chills crawled over Aricela’s heart and through her veins as stillness descended like a blanket. The silence was heavy, weighted, almost . . . expectant.
She waved her arm in the air then in front of Nysse’s face. But there was no response, and even the steam from the melting wax was a stationary haze in the air. The eerie silence extended further than the room. The lawnmower was silent, too.
The bedroom door clicked as someone turned the knob, and Aricela jumped up and drew her artavus. The door swung inward, and the hanging pink feather wreath should’ve swung with the force, but it too was bound by the unnatural control.
Three beautiful cheerleaders walked into the room, holding blue and red pompoms. One was blonde, with lips painted the same red as the piping on her uniform. The second one was Asian, with black nails and enough eyeliner for all of Las Vegas. The third had rich auburn curls and pale, shimmery lips that belonged in advertising. She was striking in her perfect beauty. With long legs and a tiny waist, she was possibly the most beautiful woman Aricela had ever seen.
The air simmered with their energy.
“Aricela Topaz, you are not living up to expectations,” the beautiful brunette said with a smile that was both stunning and cold. She dropped her pompoms, and they evaporated into the air. “You were given power and, with it, responsibility, little Valkyrie. And you are failing with both.”
Panic clawed its way up Aricela’s chest as she recognized the authorities before her. She opened her mouth to protest, or possibly plead, but her voice was gone.
“It’s not your turn,” the blonde crooned. “We’ve been watching you . . . and the Valkyrie Council.” The girl narrowed her eyes, and her lips pursed in an expression of disgust. “They are becoming . . . unwise.”
Only the Asian girl’s smile seemed sincere and sad. “You have a destiny to fulfill. It is your right, but . . .”
The brunette circled Aricela, who stood rooted to the beige carpet. The Norn trailed her pink, manicured nail across Aricela’s arm and back before doing the same to the other arm. She finally rested the tip against Aricela’s chest. “If you aren’t going to fulfill your fate, we will have to weave you a new one.”
Aricela had read about this, but Larissa said it almost never happened. She’d assured Aricela that the Norns only got involved if—
“Destiny needs a course correction,” the brunette finished Aricela’s thought. Her shimmery lips curled into a mocking smile. “Like now.”
The blonde joined her sister in front of Aricela. She leaned over, and with her red lips said, “If you don’t reap these souls, I will personally come back to take away your artavo.”
Aricela’s mind raced. Without her artavo, she wouldn’t be able to use runes. And without the runes, she would no longer be Immortal.
“Oh, but that’s not all, little one,” the blonde continued in her melodic voice. “I will find the worst hole in all of Mexico, the most Narco-infested pueblo, and give you to the camellos myself. You will go back to a place exactly like where Larissa found you and die just as you would’ve if she had not taken pity on you.”
Nausea roiled over Aricela. The idea of being a servant in Hel’s Hall was bad. But what the Narcos would do was infinitely worse.
She wanted to ask why they would be so cruel as to make anyone endure the torture of the drug traffickers. But her voice was gone, so instead in her mind she cursed at the three Norns with every profanity she’d ever heard from her brother, his friends, and even the Narcos.
The Asian girl approached, cutting in front of her sisters, to stand in front of Aricela. They were almost the same height. The striking girl cupped Aricela’s face in her hands and looked her straight in the eye. “If anger fuels you, then embrace it. Find your passion, your purpose, your reason for being where you are right now, and accept it. You have the power to not go back. Own it.”
Aricela closed her eyes. The pressure on her face disappeared, and all at once the noise of life returned to the room, the house, and the street, as if someone had flipped a switch.
“—no one can stop him.” Nysse finished her sentence, delivering it to the empty spot where Aricela had been sitting. She looked up at Aricela and frowned. “How did I miss you standing up?”
Aricela opened her eyes. The Norns were gone, but their threat hung like a weight against her heart. She stared at the ground, the fibers of the carpet bent and twisted together with specks of browns and grays amidst the lighter beige. There was no carpet in the barn at the governor’s casa in Xtepal, but the matted, filthy straw mixed with dirt and sand was close to the same color. The idea of going back to the Narcos was so much worse than serving in Hel.
Without looking up, Aricela shrugged her response and sat back down. Her mouth was dry, and her heart hammered at a desperate tempo, but she had no words.
A door slammed, and Kai’s laughter floated up the stairs. “I’m so not kidding; she’s everything I’ve ever dreamed about. Come on, man, you have to admit she’s hot.”
“The boys are home already?” Nysse asked, muffling Kai’s friend’s response. She looked out the window to confirm and then turned around and glanced at the clock. “That was like, the fastest two hours ever.”
Nysse scooted to the edge of the bed, stood, and then offered Aricela her hand. “Do you want to stay for dinner? It probably won’t be anything fancy because it’s Wednesday, and Mom doesn’t cook on the days she stays late. Or do you have to get home and eat with your mom?”
Aricela accepted the hand up, instinctively brushing at her jeans with the thoughts of the Narcos. “Thanks.”
She wanted to flee, even more so now that Kai was here with a friend, but the pit in her stomach wasn’t going to leave just because she did. She needed to complete this job, and that meant taking risks. No, they weren’t risks. It meant she had to live outside her comfort zone.
Nysse stood at the door, worry etched in the furrow of her brow. “You don’t want to stay?”
“I’d love to,” she said, plastering a smile on her face that made her cheeks hurt. “You’ve been”—she tried to think of the best translation—“such a gracious host.”
Nysse quirked her head. “When you talk like that, it makes it obvious you didn’t grow up here. I mean, your accent makes it obvious, too, but gracious host? I don’t even know the words that would translate like that.”
“Nysse!” Kai yelled from downstairs. “Come down for dinner, or I’m going to eat it all.”
“We’d better hurry. Kai and Chase tend to eat all the good stuff in the first five minutes.”
Wait. “Chase is here?”
A slow smile spread across Nysse’s face, and she nodded. “I told you he lives here.”
She opened the door and ran down the stairs, yelling, “I can smell it’s Chinese. You better not eat my egg roll, Kai!”
Aricela followed her friend, with butterflies swooping in to occupy her stomach. How had she missed Nysse telling her that? If she’d known Chase lived there, she definitely wouldn’t have come over.
The chatter and laughter stopped as soon as Aricela rounded the corner.
The kitchen was huge. Bigger than her entire apartment. With double ovens, granite countertops flecked in browns and golds, and a huge island with a bar where almost a dozen white boxes lay open filling the air with the smells of oyster sauce, ginger, and sesame oil as well as sautéed vegetables.
Kai stood at the bar, his hair wet, the collar of his red shirt still damp with sweat. His eyes lit up, and he radiated elation at the sight of her. But Aricela skimmed right over him, instinctively seeking out Chase.
The tall young man was also still in his shorts, but he’d taken his jersey off, and his broad, muscular back tensed as he turned to Aricela. He had tattoos everywhere. Words she wanted to read and designs she wanted to trace. His chest was as defined as his back, without an ounce of fat between his skin and muscles, but black ink had kissed him over and over, and she wanted to be closer to see what he’d felt was so important that he had to make it a permanent part of him.