Page 101 of Dominion

Okay.

I didn’t get a chance to protest or to tell her that it might be better for me to go home, before she started dragging me toward the swings, proving to be a lot stronger than I would’ve thought. Her hand was tightly wrapped around mine. She abruptly stopped, almost making me slam into her back.

“Nessa!” one of the boys yelled out, grunting shortly after.

“Don’t even look at my sister,” another voice piped in, piquing my curiosity. “We talked about this.”

“Dude, she’s like two years younger than me. There’s no way in hell that I would ever look at her in that way.”

“You better not.”

“Chill out, D.” Vanessa laughed. “You know that Jake likes to see you mad.” The boy she was talking to grunted, but I still didn’t gather enough courage to look up.

I didn’t want them to make fun of me, but maybe they wouldn’t if Vanessa was with me.

“Who do you have there?” somebody else asked, and I could feel that voice all the way to my heart.

I slowly lifted my head, seeing the group of five boys hovering around two swings. Three of them snickered and joked around, but the other two... I have no words to express what I was seeing in front of me.

They wore serious looks on their faces, looking like complete opposites of each other. While one had sandy blond hair and softer eyes, the other one had dark brown hair and sharp, green eyes, reminiscent of the forests around here. And it felt... It felt as if I knew them.

I didn’t have words to describe this feeling as I gawked at the two, most possibly, prettiest boys I had ever met. They were obviously older than us, but I had never had such a reaction toward anyone. I had a crush once, on Aaron Richardson, when I was ten years old, but it was nothing like this.

I wanted to get to know them. I wanted them to talk to me, to come closer. I wanted their names.

“Hi,” I croaked lamely, hating how weak my voice sounded. “My name is Skylar.”

“Skylar,” the blond one murmured, getting up from the swing. “You new here?”

“Uh, yeah.” I looked at Vanessa as he kept approaching us. “I just moved here with my mom. Like, a week ago.” I laughed nervously. “It is so nice to meet you.”

“Dylan.” He smiled, showing me the perfect white teeth and a little dimple in his cheek. “My name is Dylan.”

“Or assface,” Vanessa added, laughing as he tried to pinch her. “He’s my older brother.”

Her brother? But they looked nothing alike.

The movement behind Dylan pulled my attention, to see the dark-haired boy casually walking toward us, his eyes never leaving mine.

“And that’s Asher, or well, Ash,” Vanessa said just as he took my hand in his, creating little zaps of electricity over my skin.

“N-nice to meet you, Ash,” I stammered, shaking his hand, but he never said a word.

“You look familiar,” Dylan finally said, his gaze firmly on my face, just like Ash’s was. “Are you sure you didn’t live here before?”

“Positive.” I chuckled, trying to pull my hand back but there was no use. Ash had a strong grip on me—not enough to hurt me, but enough to keep me hostage.

“It is nice to meet you, Skylar,” Ash finally said, bringing my attention back to his green eyes. “Welcome to Emerton.” He smiled, but I already knew.

I was in a world of trouble.