Page 24 of Serpentine Valentine

A reckoning.

I both wanted to stay there in that narrow space between bookcases with a girl who scared me and awed me, and to run away, far away, never to return to Acheron U again.

“You’re trembling.”

That smooth-rough voice startled me so badly I dropped my camera. It plummeted straight down onto her face, but quick as a snake’s strike, Lex caught it in her free hand.

“Careful,” she murmured and I could have been going crazy, but I thought there was a flash in her eyes, a different kind of warning. “Youcould hurt someone with this thing.”

“I’m surprised you let me take your photo,” I said because I was muddled and off-kilter. As soon as the words were out, I regretted them.

“I don’t believe a camera can steal my soul,” she teased dryly.

“Still,” I pressed even though part of me shouted to shut up. “It’s vulnerable. I didn’t think someone like you would enjoy the feeling.”

“Someone like me?” She swung her legs down from the wall and turned to face me sitting on her bum with her legs crossed in one graceful motion.

“I-I...” I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath to steady myself. I’d never been so ineloquent and clumsy in my life. “I’m sorry. I only meant you seem strong and invulnerable. And obviously, I know a camera can’t steal your soul, but I’m a photographer, so I believe it can capture the essence of one.” I huffed out a frustrated laugh and dragged a hand through my tangled orange-gold hair. “You just don’t seem like the kind of person who wants to be known.”

Least of all by someone like me, I thought but didn’t have the nerve to say.

“Well, you don’t know anything about me, so I’ll forgive you the assumption.” She said it in this way that was both superior and benevolent. Like I was a silly kid, and she was so much better than me.

I reacted bizarrely to that tone, but then, it seemed to be a reoccurring theme in Lex’s presence. If a man had talked to me like that, I would have got my back up. Yet something about Lex’s confidence and grace was charming, almost funny. If I’d known her better, I would have teased her.

But then I thought, why not? I’d been with her for ten minutes and already made a fool of myself. There was nothing else to lose.

“Thank you, oh benevolent queen,” I said with a silly little bow.

When I raised my head again, my cheeks were flaming but I didn’t try to bite back my smile.

And I was glad because even though her mouth was flat, her eyes sparkled back at me.

“It seems we’re both more surprising than we seem.”

Why did that feel like a compliment? To be found more than I seemed by someone as obviously complicated as her.

She stood so quickly, she startled me. I took a step back only to slam into the bookcase. A book beside my head trembled and fell forward.

Lex lunged forward and caught that before it fell, too.

“You have good reflexes,” I breathed because she was close.

Close enough to smell––something dark and rich like tilled soil and crushed violets. Close enough to see the complete perfection of her complexion, not a pimple or stray hair in sight. Only a tiny scar like a silvery spider’s web beside that full mouth.

And blood.

“Oh my God.” I touched the base of her neck without thinking, rubbing a thumb over the splatter of dried blood there. “Are you hurt?”

Her hand snapped mine up in a punishing grip that made my bones grind.

“Ow.”

She glared at me over our hands for a long moment before gentling her hold. Using our combined hands, she rubbed slowly at the blood until it dissolved under our touch.

Touching her felt sinful. My belly clenched hard and my thighs trembled.

I couldn’t even begin to understand what was happening to me, and I didn’t try, too caught up in Lex’s swirling vortex.