Page 16

Chapter Twelve

RAIN

T he music echoed in a way that should be impossible.

It was as if the building itself had become a speaker for the sound.

The floor vibrated with the bass. The metal supports for all this glass resonated with the singer's voice.

Whether it was country, EDM, or death metal, the sound quality was impressive - and the nectar I'd sucked back made it impossible to stand still.

For hours now, I'd been dancing. Usually that was with Aspen, but Hawke, Wilder, Keir, and even Torian had come to join us throughout the night. Yeah, and I may have had a few more glasses of the sweet syrup the fae loved so much.

Since that shit didn't cause a hangover - and was supposedly rejuvenating - I had no reason not to. Tonight was New Year's Eve. It was the end of the old and the beginning of the new. In so many ways, that was a metaphor for my life right now.

I'd been unwanted. Now I had dads. Two of them!

I had friends. Most importantly, I had Aspen, and she kept looking at me as if I was the most beautiful girl in the world.

The dancing had made us both sweaty, but the way her hair stuck against her neck looked good.

Her electric blue eyes had me entranced. The rest of her?

As we gyrated to the song, I watched her breasts bouncing.

The flow of her hands was almost a tease.

I could imagine them sliding down my sides.

The thing I couldn't get enough of, however, was her mouth.

Those burgundy lips, painted to match her shirt, were full, lush, and parted a bit as she panted with exertion.

Fuck, she was beautiful. I wanted to kiss her and keep going.

I wanted to see where my tongue would end up, no longer caring if I looked stupid doing it.

I was scared of taking things further with her, mostly because I'd never done it before, but that didn't feel important right now.

I just wanted her, because the stuff in this drink - was it even alcohol?

- made all my fears and insecurities fade far, far away.

"Why aren't you into my brother?" she asked out of the blue.

I laughed and kept dancing, but when she ducked her head a moment later, it was as if she was reminding me to answer.

Granted, Aspen had taken a few breaks to suck back some nectar too.

Together, we'd had a few more glasses. Sometimes when dancing, sometimes not, but this shit was starting to add up.

"Seriously?" she pressed. "You know he's into you, Rain."

I scoffed at that. "Your brother is into himself!"

"He's really not," she assured me. "But is that why you're not hitting on him?"

"No, I'm not hitting on him because I like you more!"

And that made the biggest smile take over her face. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," I agreed, shifting a little closer so our gyrations matched.

Laughing, she backed up, waving a hand between us. "None of that! Nope. We're being good."

"But I don't wanna be good." I fake pouted, catching her hand. "I feel all warm and fuzzy!"

"Which means we both need another drink," she decided, using that contact to tug me to the side. "More nectar never hurts. Besides..." She flashed me the amazing smile she had. "...It's almost midnight!"

I sucked in a breath, trying to check the time. Just one little problem: I couldn't find my phone. Not that I didn't have it. Nope, I simply couldn't remember which pocket I'd put it in, and this outfit only had two where it would fit.

First, I grabbed one butt cheek. Next, the other - which had a suspiciously phone-sized lump. Pulling it out, I tried to read the screen while Aspen kept towing me onward, but my eyes just wouldn't focus. Granted, the smile on my lips was basically stuck in place too.

Yeah, I liked this fae stuff. It had all the giggles of alcohol without the downsides. Huh, I wondered why.

"Is this shit magic?" I asked, waving at my face .

"Yes, you're magical," Aspen assured me.

"The drink, silly!" I insisted, pretty sure I wasn't quite pronouncing my words properly.

The smile she gave me did nothing to prove me wrong. "Are you tipsy?"

I tried to scoff, but it sounded more like a raspberry. "Far past that!"

So she pulled me closer. "It's made from whatever the tree has that makes magic," she explained, now hugging my side as she angled us both towards the silver oak. "Humans usually get happy on it. Fae get drunk, because it's like magic - but not quite all the way to magic."

"Ah..." Somehow, that made sense to me. "So Wild magic likes it?"

"Dunno." She glanced over, running her eyes across me, but not in a sexy way - sadly. "I'm going to guess it does, because you are fucked up, aren't ya?"

"Happy!" I insisted.

And she laughed, making it clear she wasn't exactly sober either. "I'm tingly."

"Oh, I'd tingle - "

"Get lost, you fucking ice bitch," someone said, the voice coming from right by my empty shoulder.

"Hey!" I turned, having every intention of shoving the prick to the ground. "That's Ice Princess to you! Girl works too, but if you think you can call her a bitch and get away -"

"Rain!" Aspen gasped, jerking me away. "Don't!"

"No one talks about my bestie that way!" I insisted, still trying to look around and figure out who'd said that. "She's mine!"

"Rain!" Aspen hissed, a warning in the tone this time. "Stop!"

So I stopped. I was supposed to be protecting her, not annoying her. "Sorry," I mumbled, giving her my full attention again. "I just don't like them saying that shit. I don't even know why they do it!"

"Because I don't have Summer magic," she explained, sounding like she was talking to a child. "It's ok. Not a big deal. I kinda like being different."

"Do you?" I asked. "Because I like being different. Well, kinda the same here. I mean, everyone has magic. I finally have magic, and it's cool magic, but not as cool as yours."

"And that," she told me, "is why you're so amazing." Then she raised her voice. "We need drinks! Who's filling?"

"Over here!" Ah, now that was Keir's voice. It made me giggle.

"He's going to kiss me," I whispered to Aspen.

"Yeah, at midnight," she agreed. "No one's going to kiss me. "

"I could."

"You most definitely cannot," she laughed. "Suitemates, remember?"

"Fucking rules," I grumbled. "And I'm even being good. But I would, you know. Then it wouldn't be weird."

She stopped. In the process, she also stopped me, and since I hadn't really been aware I was moving, that made the world spin a bit. Thankfully, when I tilted, Aspen quickly grabbed my shoulders, simultaneously keeping me from falling and moving to the spot where I could still focus.

"You don't want to kiss Keir?" she asked.

"He's cute," I told her. "Too cute. Sweet and cute. It's just..."

"What?" she pressed. "Rain, you don't have to kiss him."

"But you!" I huffed, making her quickly glance around us.

"I like him," she assured me. "I like that you like him. I don't want to date him myself, so kiss him."

"Yeah?"

The look she gave me was scathing enough it made it through my blurry vision. "We're not doing this again, Rain."

"I don't know how to be like fae!" I insisted. "I keep waiting for the catch with all of this. You, the guys, Keir, Jack, magic, shadows, and all of it!"

"But don't you see? That's the catch," she assured me. "You get magic and have to take the crow with it. You hang out with me, and have to put up with my brother."

"And Keir?" I asked. "Because hot guys are assholes, but he's hot and sweet, and that doesn't make any sense."

"And fae," she countered. "So he's not sweet. He's just honest. There's a difference. You just happen to like his brand of honesty."

"I kinda do," I admitted, wrinkling up my nose. "So I should kiss him?"

"You should kiss the shit out of him," she told me. "Throw your arms around his neck, shove your tongue down his throat, and make that boy moan."

So I nodded once. "I'm gonna. Tell me if I do good?"

"Always," she swore, and I felt something vibrate in the air between us just as a cup of that sugary sweet nectar appeared over my shoulder.

"Ladies," Keir said, proving he was the delivery boy this time.

"Keir!" I turned to him with a massive smile just as the crowd of people in the atrium suddenly began counting.

"Three!"

"Two! "

"One!"

"Happy New Year!" everyone bellowed.

"Happy fucking New Year," Aspen agreed, but she wasn't yelling. "Do it!"

"You good?" Keir asked, but it wasn't me he was looking at. Nope, his eyes were on Aspen.

"I'm good with it, she's good with it, and you are definitely good with it," Aspen assured him.

Which made those violet eyes of his shift to mine. "And may it be a very good year," he said, cupping the side of my face and leaning in.

Not caring about the drink he'd just handed me, I swung my arms around his neck exactly the way Aspen had said and leaned in. A hand stole the cup from mine, the fingers small enough they had to be Aspen's. The mouth that pressed against my lips, however, was all male.

This close, Keir smelled of fresh plants and a hint of some perfume. Deodorant or laundry detergent, but I couldn't tell which. I also didn't want to even think about it. Nope, all I could focus on was his mouth.

And he kissed me. Not a polite peck like I'd half expected. Not something to merely keep his promise. This kiss was the kind that made my toes want to curl. My back definitely bent as he leaned in, and my mouth parted. The first time his tongue swept against mine, I moaned.

But I was supposed to be the one kissing him. That was what I'd told Aspen, so I kissed him back, pulling him even closer and leaning my hips in. Body to body, with a few hundred people around to witness this, I kissed the man the way I knew how.

With Keir, the steps were easy. Knowing he was sexy was self-explanatory.

Doing this didn't make me second-guess everything, but that was only because I'd done it before.

I knew how to like guys. I knew how to make them all hot and bothered.

Aspen wasn't the same, so for just a moment I tried to shut my brain off and just go with it.

Our mouths moved. His hands gripped me hard.

I might be leaning, but the warmth filling me wasn't only due to the nectar I'd been drinking.

There was something about being held by a man this impossibly sexy that set off butterflies inside me.

Knowing my girlfriend was watching? It only made this more intense.

Not better. Not worse. I was merely aware of every single movement I was making, and only half of them were intentional. The arch of my back wasn't. The grip of my hands was. The sliding, nearly delirious motion of our mouths, on the other hand, was completely instinctive .

He even felt good up against me. Keir was broad enough and tall enough to make me feel small.

His hair was long enough my fingers could get buried in it.

And, as my tongue swirled around his, the deep sound in his throat became the best part of it all.

It proved he liked this. Hell, maybe that he even liked me as much as I wanted him to.

Then my body jerked to the side and I was alone.

"Tor!" Aspen yelled.

"Bastard!" Keir snarled.

I turned in place to find Aspen's brother planted beside me with his hands still up. Keir was two paces away, and the guy had clearly been shoved.

"She's had too much!" Torian roared.

"You think I don't know that?" Keir asked. "That's why - "

"And you're fucking taking advantage of her?" Torian broke in.

"I asked!" Keir finished.

"He promised!" I screamed at the back of Torian's head. "Don't you dare get all up in my business, acting like you know what's best for me - "

Torian turned, but I was pissed. It took all of two seconds - because I wasn't thinking quite as quickly as I should - to realize this prick had just shoved Keir away from me.

He'd fucking broken up our kiss. The same damned kiss I'd been hyping myself up for, fretting over, and feeling guilty about.

And now it had been interrupted by this self-serving ass?

Aspen was ok with this. Keir was ok with this. I was the luckiest girl in the world, but no. It couldn't be that easy. The most arrogant boy I'd ever met just had to stick his nose in where it didn't belong. Again.

"You are drunk," Torian insisted.

"I've been planning that kiss for days," I shot back, doing my best to glare him right in the eyes. "Just because you think you're the fucking king, or that you run this school, or that you get to order your sister around doesn't mean I have to listen to you!"

My anger was building, the lack of control fueled by the drinks I'd had. I could feel it pressing at my mind and growing in my chest.

"You kissed me!" he growled, this time keeping his voice low.

So I stepped closer, right into his face. "I am not your fucking bitch. Aspen isn't an ice bitch. And you know what? You're not my daddy! I already have two of those to make sure I'm not fucking up."

As I spoke, my shadow grew. The eyes opened, revealing holes where the light broke through. The louder my voice got, the thicker the thing became until it simply stood up, making a barrier between me and Torian.

"Rain," he said with a voice forced to be calm, "you need to - "

"No!" I screamed, my inebriated mind refusing to let him finish.

So the shadow shoved, using all that pressure inside me to do it.

Torian flew, his feet lifting off the ground as his body was catapulted through the air. Keir jumped, trying to help, causing the pair of them to crash down together into the plants. Aspen screamed something that sounded like my name, but the floodgates had just been opened.

Darkness poured out.

There was so much of it, and it spread faster than I could imagine.

Like some kind of cross between water and vapor, the shadows bled from my hands, my chest, and even my feet.

Blackness rolled across the ground, smothering the plants.

It billowed into the air, bouncing off the glass roof just to roll back down towards the ground again, immersing the crowd in it.

And it kept going. In a matter of seconds, the well-lit and open area where we'd been partying became a container for the most tangible shadows I'd ever seen. The cheers and laughter of the student body turned into screams of fear.

I barely had time to even realize what was happening, and then darkness swallowed up even me, leaving no light at all behind.