Page 49

something we shouldn't have done

I opened my locker to grab my water bottle when a glitter bomb went off, splattering me and all my contents with pink glitter. “What the actual–”

“Demons below,” Jamiel said. “What happened?”

There was a little note inside, a heart signed with her name.

“Celestine.” I shoved the paper into my pocket, not bothering with cleaning up anything as I stormed towards the other end of the hall, a trail of glitter following me. I felt like some fairy princess. “I’m going to slaughter you,” I said in a deathly low voice.

“Good morning to you too,” she muttered, closing her locker, and when she finally looked at me she burst into laughter, covering her mouth as she did. “You finally opened your locker, hey?” Students around me giggled as they walked to their own class, the hallways quickly emptying.

“I thought we were on somewhat good terms.” Neither of us had pulled anything on each other for a long time.

“Cute that you thought–”

“Clean it up,” I demanded.

“Not my mess.”

“You made this mess.”

She turned away. “I’m going to class. ”

I pulled her back to me. “Clean it up, Reaper.”

She sighed. “Can’t I do it later?”

“No,” I said, dragging her towards the janitor’s closet. I shoved her in and closed the door, so teachers wouldn’t ask us why we were skipping class.

She intentionally smacked her book on my arm as she put them down on a shelf. I shot her a glare while she picked up some tissues, attempting to wipe it off the sleeves of my uniform. “You know it’s edible.”

I didn’t trust her enough to try. Celestine was struggling to get the glitter off, only managing to spread it with the tissues and push it more into my clothes. “Lick it off me then.”

She looked back up at me. “You’re weird.”

“You said it was edible, so eat it. Unless it’s actually poison and getting me to eat it was your plan all along.”

She rolled her eyes at my dramatics and licked the glitter candy off my hand first, her cold tongue tickling the tips of my finger.

“Good girl,” I teased.

She met my eyes with a smile as she sucked on my finger. Shit. “You’re missing out.” She smiled, continuing to clean me off. “It tastes good.”

You're a Demon, Celestine, you can't taste, but thanks for the excuse.

There was glitter at the edge of her lips, and I took her head in my hands, pulled her closer and licked the corner of her lips. “Tastes like shit,” I lied. It was sweet, like candy. I released my hold on her. “Or maybe it’s you.”

She grabbed my tie, pulling me down again, dragging her tongue across my jaw in one long glide. “Try again.” She stuck her pink glittery tongue out, revealing her sharp Demon canines .

I licked the glitter off her tongue, and she put her hands behind my neck, pulling me closer so our lips would finally meet but only for a moment before she pulled away. It was so innocent, timid and as if she was slightly unsure I wanted it, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t.

Bloody hell.

I stared into her eyes; cold, dead, like mine, but at that moment, there was also a soft gleam. “Did you taste it?” she whispered.

I leaned towards her. “No.” And gently placed my lips to hers again.

We can't go back from this.

I picked her up, so I didn’t have to lean down anymore, and she wrapped her arms and legs around me, not removing our lips from each other.

Our hesitance quickly turned into need. She played with my hair, pulling me closer and I pushed her against the shelves, the items falling and clattering to the floor.

She let out a gasp as I pressed myself towards her, attempting to close the gap between us more.

I inhaled her scent, gods, she smelt so good, and tasted even better. I could barely gather my thoughts.

“I hate you,” I muttered between our kisses. I hated what she was doing to me. My hand grazed up her thigh and under her skirt and I ran my thumb across her scars.

“I hate you more,” she whispered.

“Shut up.”

She bit my lip in return and my entire body heated up more than it already was, my heart racing, on the verge of bursting.

I can't breathe.

“I’m going to bloody kill you after this,” I said, my breaths ragged.

She nodded with a sigh, leaning her weight more onto me. “After.”

I felt so dizzy. Weak. I’d never felt like this before, there were too many emotions for me to comprehend and I didn’t understand how Cel was able to bring it out of me. Her mouth parted a bit so I could slip my tongue in. I wanted to get closer, but I couldn’t and it was almost frustrating.

I lost control.

“Hyacinth…” She tilted her head back and let out a soft moan. “I… Don’t stop, please.” Her body turned limp in my arms.

I cursed, moving down to kiss her jaw, licking and sucking on her neck. I couldn’t get enough of her.

The door burst open, and I frantically set her down, but she couldn’t stand on her own just yet, so I held her up. I had spread glitter onto her. “What are you two doing in here?” the janitor asked.

“Just looking for something to clean up glitter,” I explained, reaching and grabbing the first thing I saw, a mop. “I think this will do.” I’m going to stab myself with this.

The janitor squinted, looking back and forth between us, heavily breathing. Cel quickly recovered from her cataplexy episode, and I released my hold on her.

“I’ve already cleaned it up and found the trail leading here. Go clean yourselves so you can stop spreading it around the school,” he grouched.

I nodded and took Cel’s hand, bringing her books on our way out, and handed them to her. Her eyes held onto mine, glowing a soft red. Her lips were swollen, lipstick smudging around her mouth. My body twitched, wanting—needing to do it again.

A fleeting moment, an eternity.

I leaned close to her ear and whispered, “I’ll get you back.” I lingered close to her for a moment longer, hesitating about what I was going to do next, but I managed to gain control over myself and pull away before leaving in the opposite direction .

I licked my lips, the last bit of her still on it, savouring the taste of her.

As I turned the corner, I got a glimpse of Cel.

She was crouched down, leaning against a locker, covering her eyes.

There was a slight smile on her lips, and she bit down on her bottom one to suppress it. I couldn't help my smirk and cursed.

When I looked in the bathroom mirror, I was completely and utterly mortified.

My face was flushed, and her dark lipstick stained my lips.

The janitor wasn’t stupid, he knew exactly what we were doing.

I cleaned myself up, unable to get all the glitter off, but it was good enough.

I splashed water on my face, trying to cool myself, and my eyeliner ran.

The one day I wear non-waterproof eyeliner…

With my fingers I rubbed the rest of it off and lined my eyes again.

I shouldn’t have kissed her.

I took two pills to distract myself and considered walking to the Great Bridge so I could jump off.

“You’re late,” the teacher snapped, when I finally arrived to class.

I ignored her and took the seat my friends had saved for me.

“Are you okay?” Iri whispered.

I nodded.

“Your face is so red.” Lin snickered with Jamiel.

I covered my mouth with my hands. “I’m just pissed off.”

“That’s not your pissed off face,” Iri commented. “Are you blushing?”

“I just did something,” I muttered. “That I really shouldn’t have done.”

“What did you do to Cel?”

“Nothing,” I replied. I should have just skipped this class to fully cool off.

“You’ve still got lipstick on your piercing,” Lin muttered to me with a smile.

I quickly drew my lower lip in and attempted to lick it clean .

Iri went to check on Cel during one of our breaks, wondering what I had done to her. How nosy. Luckily, Iri couldn’t find her, apparently, she didn’t even go to her first class and was seen leaving school.

“You’re acting so weird,” Jamiel said during lunch.

“Yeah, you’re quieter than normal,” Lin added, but he seemed to already know what I’d done, though he hadn’t told the others.

“And awkward.” Iri laughed.

“Drop it,” I said, and they listened.

I didn’t sleep that night, meditating instead. Clearing my mind of everything and attempting to comprehend this morning’s events. Her heavy breathing, her racing pulse, her sighs, her cold, soft skin. The taste of her lips. Now I knew why her mother named her Datura.

Intoxicating.

I tried to focus but my mind kept wandering back to her.

Did she actually want to?

Did I even want to?

Where do we go from here?

***

The next day, Cel wasn’t at school, but the day after she was, so I heard, but I didn’t see her as she skipped our shared history class and wasn’t in the cafeteria for lunch. She avoided me for the next week. Honestly, I didn’t know how I would act the next time I saw her.

Niko had also been distant.

“Is there an assignment tonight?” I asked Niko, I hadn't received one since that night I took Cel to the Corpse Killers’s territory .

Niko turned to look at me, a look of anger filling his eyes. “You're not getting one any time soon.”

I furrowed my brows. “Why not?”

“You know why,” he started. “You used Celestine to break an Underworld law of crossing into another’s territory.”

My eyes lowered to the floor.

He scoffed. “You always talk about wanting to kill her and I should have taken you seriously when you threatened her. I knew you couldn’t do it yourself, but I never thought you were pathetic enough to get someone else to do it.

I had no idea just how far you'd go, how close you got to getting her killed…” Niko shook his head.

“I've never been more disappointed in you, Hyacinth.”

I pursed my lips. “I apologised to her—”

“And you think that's enough?” he snapped.

“I…” I hesitated. “I don't know what else I can do.”