Marge leaned over and hugged me. “I love you, Valerie.”
“I love you, too, Aunt Marge.”
She got up and replaced the book and the key, then said, “I’m heading to bed, dear. It’s been a long weekend and a long drive.”
“Okay,” I replied sweetly and got up as well. “I think I’ll get to bed, too.”
Alone in my room, I stared at the ceiling.
Soft moonlight spilled in through the window. Crickets chirped out an easy rhythm, but sleep refused to claim me. Thoughts kept cycling in and out of focus. My mind wouldn’t shut the hell up.
It took hours to finally drift into a choppy, restless slumber, only to fall into the same haunting nightmare I always had.
Chapter Sixteen
I was exhausted.
It was the first day of October. But it was Monday, stereotypically the least favorite day of the week, and I was sure most everyone was feeling the drag, too.
Holden met me at my locker and leaned on David Knoll’s. “Hey Val,” he said enticingly, brushing a strand of my sleepless hair behind my ear. It didn’t stay.
“Hey Holden.” I smiled warmly.
He leaned in closer, thumb stroking my cheek. “I missed you yesterday.” Then he dropped a feather-light kiss on my lips. It was soft and sweet, and it chased off the chill of my early morning nightmare.
“I missed you, too,” I said as I leaned into his warm embrace.
“Get a damn room,” Loren snarled sardonically. She was stuffing her books into the locker to the right of me, but I ignored that bitch. I still couldn’t believe she was secretly dating Cade. She slammed the door and strolled past us like we suddenly didn’t exist.
David Knoll cleared his throat.
Holden raised an eyebrow and glanced at him. “What’s up, David?”
“You’re in front of my locker,” he muttered as he stared at the tiled floor.
Holden smirked. “You have a problem with that?”
David shook his head. “No, it’s cool. I’ll wait.”
I grabbed Holden’s hand and pulled him over to Loren’s vacated space. Then I wrapped my hands around his neck and shook my head. “Don’t be like that.”
“Thanks,” David said quietly, but we ignored him.
Holden sighed. “Sorry. It’s just…I’m new to this being nice thing, too, you know? And I’m still strung out about Saturday. If that bastard so much as glances my way, I’m gonna drop him flat.”
“That sounds like a terrible idea,” I said blandly. “You’ll only get yourself suspended, and that can’t be good for football, right?”
“Screw football,” he spat. “He deserves what he has coming, and then some.”
I shrugged. “Maybe he does. But I’m asking you…no fighting? Please?”
“Oh ho ho…” He chuckled humorlessly. He sounded frustrated, but he looked sarcastic and hot as hell. “Valerie, you don’t know what you’re asking.”
“Yes, I do,” I purred as I pulled his forehead down to mine. “Please Holden. For me. No more fighting between you and Cade.”
He pulled back a little. “Why?
“Because…” I sighed. “He’s my friend. Or, he used to be.”
He looked away and muttered, “Of course.” He sounded almost pissed, but not entirely surprised, which was odd. I thought Cade had done a damn good job of keeping our friendship a secret. Holden took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “I’ll try.”
A hopeful smile lit up my face. “Seriously try?”
“Yes.”
“Holden…”
He sighed heavily. “I’ll try not to kick his ass, like I’m fighting an addiction to heroine, okay?”
My smile spread wider. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he growled as he kissed me again.
Homeroom was much different that day because I actually had a friend to talk to. Charlene waved at me as I took my seat and turned her way. She really was pretty: hair much more golden than my white-blonde, soft features, easy smile, tall. The all-encompassing word that best described Charlene was sweet.
“Hey, party girl,” she whispered with a sugary grin. “How are you?”
“I’m pretty good.” I glanced across the room at Holden, who was leaning back in his chair talking to the people around him, then back to Charlene. I wondered if she was an Elemental, too, or if she was at least in on the secret. Only one way to find out. “It was a fun party, though, huh?” I asked, making my eyes light up.
“It was! Holden’s parties always are. Not too big, not too extravagant. Just small-town fun.”
I licked my lips and leaned in closer. “It was a little strange how it ended, though, wasn’t it?”
Cade cocked his head my way for a fraction of a second before feigning disinterest again.
Charlene frowned slightly. “Not really.”
“So…that’s common?” I asked skeptically.
Charlene hesitated. “Not ‘common’, but not unusual.”
“Not for you guys, anyway,” I clarified. The last comment was slathered with insinuation, but she merely smiled kindly.
I stared at her, trying to read between the lines in her eyes, but I couldn’t. I thought she knew the truth, but I couldn’t tell how much, and I really didn’t want to press the issue in school, surrounded by a ton of people who were forbidden to know.
My eyes slid to Cade. I thought Holden and Sienna were right about him; I was sure he was a part of all this. That he was one of those who created the chaos that ruined the party with Elemental violence. But why? I wasn’t vain or naïve enough to believe it was solely because of me. There had to be more to it. But how could I find that out?
The bell rang and Cade dropped his pencil. It wasn’t that he couldn’t make mistakes, but that seemed just a little too careless to have been an accident; Cade wasn’t careless. I watched him curiously as he bent down to pick it up. When he lifted his head, he stared right in my eyes and whispered, “We need to talk.” Then he righted himself as if nothing had happened.
He was out the door before I could blink, and my heart was left hammering in my throat. The fact that he affected me so much, even after he had proved to be a royal asshole, was kinda disgraceful on my part. I shouldn’t have felt anything greater than indifference to a guy who wouldn’t even acknowledge me in public.
Holden was suddenly in my line of sight. I watched him as he narrowed his eyes and allowed them to follow Cade out the door. Then he glanced back at me. Could he see my pulse throbbing?
“I’ll see you in chemistry,” he said finally. Then he, too, was out the door.
Charlene squeezed my shoulder and smiled knowingly. My hammering heart suddenly faltered and sank like a stone. Something was off, and I thought I knew why…but I didn’t want to think about it.
We had a test in Calculus that took up the entire period. I did well enough on it. It forced me to think, which left me no time to think, so that was an odd sort of blessing.
By the time second period, Advanced Chemistry, rolled around, I was a jittery mess. I was ready to test Holden with some of my newfound knowledge, even though I wasn’t really sure how to do it. Worse, I wasn’t actually sure what to expect out of him. His response to the aftereffect of my half-conversation with Cade wasn’t exactly promising. He didn’t seem jealous or anything, but put-off was probably a good way to describe it.
Holden wasn’t there yet, so I glanced at the assignment sheet and started setting up our work space. That day’s assignment was supposed to be fun and simple—so, simple, at least.
I didn’t care about the assignment. I cared about my lab partner. Whatever had happened that morning, with Cade actually speaking to me and the subsequent rush of my blood, seemed to tip Holden off balance, and I didn’t like seeing him like that. He didn’t deserve to feel slighted, least of all by me. He’d done nothing other than bring me in, carve me out a niche in his world, and make me feel alive…
I fervently hoped Avene
lle would shut the hell up and let us alone for once. Oddly enough, she had her own worries to attend to that day. She and Benjamin were back to fighting the entire period.
Holden squeezed my knee a few seconds later and dropped into the chair beside me. “What’re we doing today?” he asked as he picked up the assignment sheet.
“Sugar glass,” I said carefully as I finished arranging our materials.
“Sugar glass, huh? Oh, we can even make stained sugar glass.” He glanced at me. “You like painting and art. Let’s get creative with this shit.”
I laughed, but nodded. He seemed to be in a better mood. “Okay, sounds good.”
He lit the Bunsen burner with the striker and I glanced at him. It might not have been the time to start prying, but with his better mood, I didn’t want to miss the chance. “Would Chase need to use that?”
“What?”
I shrugged and pointed at the striker. “Just curious. I thought maybe he had another means of starting fires…” Holden’s eyes went uncharacteristically wide. “Maybe…a match?” I asked innocently.
He blinked few times, then smiled faintly. “Sure…”
Chase was the only one I thought I had figured out. Based on Holden’s reaction, I was pretty sure I was right. Chase equaled Fire, check.
“What about you?” I asked. “Are you a match kind of guy? Or maybe a lighter?”
He narrowed his brown eyes. “No…”
Glancing at the ingredients I’d laid out, I picked up a cup of water. “What about this?” I asked, pouring it into the pot he’d situated over our burner. “Do you like things wet?”
Holden took a sharp breath then chuckled. “That’s a trick question.”
Damn he was clever; he’d already caught on to my game. At least he was playing along. He knew that I somehow knew, and he was answering my questions anyway.
I grinned, saying, “Is that a no, then? Hmm…” I grabbed another measuring cup. “Sugar. A plant derivative.” I dumped it, too, into the pot. “Do you have a green thumb?”
Holden scoffed. “No.”
He followed my lead and grabbed the last few ingredients, emptying them, too. I handed him the stirring stick and watched as everything melted and blended together, then began to bubble.
“So, have you used the process of elimination to figure me out yet?” he asked nonchalantly as he stirred. “Do I eat popcorn in a sandbox under the moonlight?”
I giggled. He was such a smartass. “I don’t know about the first part, but I say yes, at least to the last.”
“Under the moonlight? Why?”
I smiled. “Because I think you’d like the open air.”
He smiled approvingly. Holden equaled Wind, check. He tapped me lightly on the nose. “You’ve done your research. I’m just curious, though, who or what was your source?”
“A magician never reveals their secrets?”
He shook his head. “Uh-uh. I don’t think so.”
“I can’t,” I said regretfully. I’d promised Aunt Marge I’d keep the family secret, and I’d do my damnedest to hold true to my word. I glanced at the pot. It seemed hot enough to me. “You should check the temperature.”
He did, and it was, so he poured it out into a rectangular container and handed me the dyes.
We didn’t say anything for a few minutes. It was the second time that day I’d felt some sort of tension between us. I wasn’t even sure where it was coming from this time. My reluctance to throw Aunt Marge under the bus, maybe? Residual irritation from the morning?
He was sitting silently in the lab seat beside me, working on the five questions at the end of the assignment. I dropped some blue dye into the thin mixture and spread it around. I wasn’t sure what sort of pattern I wanted to make; I mostly just wanted to create something emotionally provoking. Something peaceful, maybe, or sad even. Then I added some red, just enough to turn some of the blue into purple.
“I can’t,” he muttered slowly, out of the blue. He wasn’t even looking at me. “That’s a much easier excuse to use when it’s coming from you, huh?”
All the blood drained from my cheeks. Damn it, he was right. How careless could I be? I suddenly felt almost sympathetic toward Cade and Sienna for uttering those infuriating words to me. “Holden, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean—” Ugh. What did I mean? “It’s just something…” I sighed. “I swore I’d never tell.”
He stared at me blankly.
I held my breath. The tension was killing me.
“Not curious about anybody else?” Holden asked, changing the subject as he dropped his eyes back to his textbook.
I swallowed and kept spreading the colors around. Green came next. “What do you mean?”
“I figured you’d at least be curious about your friend,” he said almost bitterly. “Or do you have him figured out already?”
He was of course referring to Cade. Who else in that tone?
I probably should have had him figured out first. Everything was coming together now that Holden was prompting me. The lilacs Cade had ‘picked’ me that first day, his all-natural eating habits, how I’d defined him as eco and he said I had no idea, how Holden and the crew had chosen to destroy the grass and gardens to get back at him.
“I think I have him figured out,” I said quietly. “As for everybody else, I am curious. I’m just not sure who is, or knows, or doesn’t know.”
“Know what?” Avvie asked almost tersely. I didn’t know how much she’d heard, but Benjamin had gone, maybe to the restroom, and she’d probably been entertaining herself with us since then, waiting to take out some of her frustration on someone who gave a shit, because Benjamin sure as hell didn’t. She had picked the wrong lab table.
Holden glared at her until she looked away, but we didn’t speak another word that period.
I didn’t like it. I decided that immediately as I walked to World Events alone. Knowing their secret was supposed to make me closer to them, not split us apart. It was unnerving to think that I’d somehow pushed Holden away. Hopefully not far, but still.
He wasn’t walking me to my classes, and that seemed odd to me. I could’ve been reading way too far into everything, creating the tension myself because I was expecting it.
Maybe he thought I didn’t need his protection from Loren anymore? Well, he was probably right. She didn’t have any reason to beat my ass as long as I stayed away from Cade.
Maybe he was giving us both some time for the truth to settle? I supposed finding out about something completely impossible is supposed to be terrifying or whatever, but it just…wasn’t. Our society had been conditioned too well. We no longer feared outlandish things. We were no longer surprised at the prospect of supernatural beings exposing themselves.
Not that it had ever happened.
But turn on the television or crack open a book, and it becomes obvious. Watch a movie, play a video game, listen to the radio, have a chat with a friend. It just no longer seemed weird to me. If anything, I was mostly just disappointed that I couldn’t be one of the special ones.
Especially since it was something I could’ve shared with my mother.
Maybe—and this one scared me the most—maybe my feelings toward Cade had finally created a rift between Holden and me? That was the last thing I wanted, but I certainly couldn’t blame him for being pissed.
I had no clue what I truly felt for Cade. I knew that he didn’t make things easy, but I also know how my body reacted when he paid me even an ounce of attention. It was pathetic. It was also involuntary. There was something drawing me to him still, and that was definitely going to be problematic.
After World Events, I was staggered when Holden insisted I sit with him and his friends for lunch—not with the whole football team, only the elite.
Jay was there, along with Charlene, Bear and Emilie, Jimmy Reynolds and Trisha Burbank, Curt Haywood, and Sienna. I recognized most of them from the party, though Ashley Gadson had replaced Trisha the other night. Poor Jimmy couldn’t
seem to choose. I might’ve felt a smidgeon of his pain.
I was almost surprised to see Sienna, though. Apparently I didn’t have any morning classes with her, and I had kind of forgotten she was back. She looked like she was standing on a thin bridge of ice, and one wrong move would send her falling into the abyss. That feeling was directed at me, of course. Clearly she wasn’t sure how I’d react after Saturday night’s events.
My eyes slid around the table taking inventory. Holden was a Wind Elemental. Where did everyone else fit in?
“You remember everyone,” Holden mostly stated rather than asked as we sat down. He slipped his arm around my shoulders, whispering, “Jimmy, Curt, and Trisha don’t know.” Right on cue. Thank you, Holden. To everyone else, he said, “So, how’s it going, guys?”
Bear McAdams glanced my way. His glaring, dark gray eyes made him look even more no-nonsense than his buzz cut, burly arms, and taciturn nature. I could see why he was a lineman for the team. I swallowed hard and averted my eyes, but they fell on Curt. Luckily he didn’t seem to notice. In fact, he might’ve actually been stoned…
“It’s been an interesting morning,” Charlene admitted carefully.
Jay scoffed. “The no retaliation rule has to go, man. I’m sorry, but it’s bullshit. No offense, Val.”
Irked, I glanced at Holden and hissed, “You told them I said that?”
He leaned into my ear. “How would you have felt if I promised not to touch pretty boy Landston but allowed my friends to beat him to hell? Kinda loopholes our agreement, don’t you think?”
I pulled my lips shut shamefacedly. He was right, but it surprised me that he’d been so fair about it. It made me like him even more. Inhaling deeply, I twisted my hair around a finger and willed myself to chill the hell out.
Jimmy grinned and looked around. His shaggy hair curled slightly at the ends. “So what’s going on? More messing with the eco-warriors?”
“Who are the eco-warriors?” Trisha asked distastefully. The snoot in her tone was unmistakable, even from across the table. My lips curled and my eyebrows rose. Already, I didn’t like her.
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