Page 32
THIRTY-ONE
IMOGEN
It’s eerie as fuck as Jesse leads me through the iron door into the tunnel below the dungeons. I had no other choice but to go with him and my heart is thumping so loudly I’m sure he can hear it.
Jesse has a flashlight that illuminates the dark space and as we walk, he holds tightly onto my hand.
“This is what it takes to get you alone, Imogen.”
His teasing tone causes me to smile. “You only had to ask.”
We stop where the tunnel splits in two, and Jesse sighs.
“I’m sorry, baby. I’ve been a shit boyfriend.”
“Don’t apologize, Jesse. I’ve hardly been the greatest girlfriend, either.”
“I want to be.” He pauses and turns and as his eyes bore deep into mine, I see regret more than anything. Apology even, and I sigh. “Perhaps this was never going to work. It’s been intense and we are too young for that.”
“I understand.”
He squeezes my hand and says regretfully, “We are standing underneath the tunnel that brought us together.”
I glance up. “How do you know?”
“I planned it.”
His eyes glitter as he cups my face in his hands.
“I brought you down here for a reason, baby.”
My chest tightens as he says huskily, “I want us to start again.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Under the rules of The Claiming, we are a couple for the rest of the semester. We must honor that, of course, but I don’t want to make you. So here’s the deal.”
He smiles and I relax for the first time because there’s an expression of honesty in Jesse’s eyes that I haven’t seen there before.
“We make our own pact under the place where we began. To set ourselves free but carry on as friends.”
I’m shocked as Jesse says the words because I never thought it would be this easy.
He smiles softly. “But I want more, Imogen. I meant it when I told you that, but you are not there with me yet. So–”
He takes a deep breath and the uncertainty in his eyes is endearing as he whispers, “Will you go to the prom with me as my date for the night?”
My heart actually melts as I sense his uncertainty, and yet before I can answer him, he holds up his hand. “I want us to start again. A boy asking the girl he is obsessed with out on a date, hoping like crazy she says yes and hasn’t already given her heart to somebody else.”
My heart sinks. How can I possibly agree when he’s too late? My heart has already gone.
He carries on. “I’ve told you what’s expected of me when I leave. I’ve already made the decision I’m not returning home and will live with the consequences of that.”
“Where will you go?”
I’m shocked but not surprised. He shrugs. “I have options. Frankie offered me a job with his family, but well, I’m trying to save myself and would you sign a deal with the devil to escape a demon?”
“You make a valid point.” I grin. “He would look after you, though. I already know that. You’re his friend, and loyalty means everything to the Majerios.”
“Sure, but I have other plans.”
“Like what?”
“It definitely doesn’t include farming.”
He frowns, causing me to laugh out loud, and it strikes me how nice this is. How natural, and I appreciate his openness.
“I would like to travel for a year and I’m thinking across the states. I don’t have a passport so international is out, but I would kind of like to see a lot more of this great country and can turn my hand to anything along the way.”
“It sounds like a lonely plan.” I’m worried about him and he shakes his head.
“I’ve been alone all my life. I’m good company.”
“Jesse. I–”
I raise my hand to his face and hold it flat against it, smiling into his eyes as I whisper, “I will be your date to the prom because there is no one else I would rather go with.”
I don’t mind that he kisses me, a soft pressure with no demands.
A sweet kiss between two people who share a connection.
More friendship than sexual and completely different from the ones I share with Drake.
This is the Jesse I fell for when I arrived.
Open, honest, cheeky as fuck, and attentive.
I’m happy to be his date to the prom but as friends only.
Perhaps I can help him that way rather than a full-blown relationship and I appreciate his handling of this situation.
Footsteps running toward us cause us to break apart and as Jesse shines the flashlight, we see Summer heading our way, her phone lighting her path.
“There you are.” She pants, “Frankie wants you in the main chamber, Jesse. He sent me to take your place.”
“He did?”
Jesse seems surprised at that and sighs before turning back to me.
“I’ll catch you later, baby, and thanks.”
“You don’t have to thank me, Jesse. I should be the one thanking you for the invitation.”
He smiles softly. “We’ll talk later.”
He drops a soft kiss on my lips before heading back the way we came, securing his golden mask in place as he leaves us and Summer whispers, “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t bear the thought of you alone with him down here. I still don’t trust him and Luca doesn’t either.”
“Why not?”
She shrugs. “Because of the people he mixes with when he’s missing in action.”
“The teacher?”
I’m such a hypocrite and hate the double standards playing out here.
If anything, I kind of understand Jesse more and I’m probably worse than him because I’m crazy about Drake willingly and not because he drugged me into submission.
That makes me guilty and Jesse a victim, and I’m increasingly uncomfortable about that.
Summer groans. “This place is creepy as fuck and the battery is low on my phone. Let’s head back to the tunnel chamber. There’s nothing to see here, anyway.”
“Literally.” I laugh softly. “It’s crazy to think of the monks patrolling these tunnels back in the day, subjecting their prisoners to despicable acts while they pretend to be holy as fuck.”
“Sometimes evil is wrapped in innocence, Imogen. I happen to trust an openly corrupt person way more than one who pretends otherwise, and then lulls his victim into a false sense of security before inflicting the killer blow. It’s black and white in my world with no gray shadows in between.
If anything, that’s more honorable than those who pretend otherwise. ”
I don’t miss her warning and wonder what else Luca told her, but something about the way Jesse looked at me tonight was different.
There was sincerity in his expression and a willingness to do right, and I wonder if somehow Jesse has found a way to break free of all this and put himself first for once.
It changes nothing between us, but I will be a good friend to him. He deserves that because nobody should be alone in a crowd. Not on my watch, anyway.
Table of Contents
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- Page 32 (Reading here)
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