Page 31 of Lunar Diamonds (Celestial Magic #1)
DRAKE
R ising guilt, like the worst penetrating damp, was all I’d felt for seven days. I hated not talking to Riley this past week. Being so close to him yet always silent, seeing the hurt he tried to hide plastered across his face.
After the lake incident, I struggled with everything. I relied on the ginkgo powder with greater frequency now, my emotional bandwidth shrinking by the day. Old wounds were open. I tried my best to patch them over, losing myself in sketch after sketch of Riley.
Drawing helped. It always did, my one happy place in the world. With Riley’s loveliness on paper, that place of joy found itself a new piece of warmth.
Warm like those glossy lips. Fuck. I craved his sugar, but it’d have to stay in the jar. I wasn’t good enough for him. Not a wanker like me, who manipulated a weakness and didn’t get the guy.
And I never expected to.
But imagine him on your arm…
Nothing but a hopeless dream.
Between the sketching, I kept searching for the lunar diamonds. Each time, they pinged in the same place.
Tricked by that fucking wanker. I even looked for him, but could find no trace.
I moved to the window, facing the gray day outside. Heavy wind tossed the sea, fine rain spattering the balcony doors.
My fists clenched. Jonathon Aurora crawled around out there somewhere, playing games. He knew things about me, about all of us. I wouldn’t stand for that. No wanker poked their fingers into my brain and got to keep them. I’d find him and break his fucking skull in half.
Pop!
I found myself by Riley’s side on the stairwell, listing to the right in surprise.
“Sorry!” he squeaked. “Erin wants to see me downstairs. I forgot to warn you.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, taken aback by his adorable outfit of white sweatpants and a pink jumper.
You are a spark against the dark.
“It’s fine,” I said.
“Okay.”
Don’t look at me like that. It’s too much…
I followed him downstairs to join Erin and Isaac in the living room with a High Coven agent nursing a cup of tea.
Shit!