Chapter 37. Eloise
Eloise
“Okay, spill it. What did you do at the prince’s house? Hmmm?” Maggie wags her eyebrows as Grayson walks away. She’s dressed in black wide-leg pants and a cropped black tube top like a lady boss. “You were practically climbing him like a tree trunk before I came over.”
“I was not!” But I do think it probably looked that way, and while I was doing it partly to get back at Grayson, I have to admit that I enjoyed it. “It’s just, well—”
“Is he a good kisser?” she asks with every ounce of seriousness, and I’m pretty sure I turn an awful shade of red. “Good god, well, at least he lives up to the hype.”
I don’t correct her. He probably does live up to the hype. Instead, I change the subject. “Sorry I’m late, by the way, and that we couldn’t get ready together.”
“Yeah, well, you can make it up to me by partying until ten minutes before curfew and then running back to campus with me shoeless and wild like the goddesses we are,” she says, and I grin.
“Deal,” I say, and mean it. This is my first party, maybe my only party, and I plan to enjoy every second of it with her.
Which is where our conversation ends, because Adrien and Sofia are suddenly there, and Maggie stops talking altogether.
Sofia is in a gold strapless dress with a slit up one thigh, perfectly complementing her light brown skin. Her dark hair is in ringlets over one shoulder and her lips are crimson. I might get in line to date her, too.
“Feck me,” Maggie whispers.
Sofia raises an eyebrow. “My brother tells me you ladies want a tour of our house?”
I flash Adrien a grateful smile for helping Maggie like that.
“We’d love to!” I say, when Maggie just stands there staring. “But first, I need to use the restroom. Can I catch up with you guys?”
Sofia looks like she’s completely aware of what’s going on. “Uh-huh.”
Maggie blushes. “We can wait for ye, Eloise—”
“Don’t bother, Maggie,” Sofia says with a sigh. “I suspect my idiot brother arranged this so he could get some alone time with your friend. Besides, I give a pretty damn good tour. You’d be sad to miss it.”
Which is all it takes for Maggie to throw back her beer and follow Sofia.
“All lies,” Adrien says to me with a devilish grin as they walk away. “But while we’re here we might as well…”
I laugh. “Seriously? We sit at the same table for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We’re friends. You don’t need gimmicks to hang out with me. I’m willing.”
“Willing to dance with me?” he asks, and now I do hesitate, looking through the crowd for Grayson.
“If you’re looking for Grayson, he’s upstairs,” Adrien says. “He followed Naomi up to one of the bedrooms.”
My insides twist uncomfortably. I know we’re only fake dating, that I have no claim on him. But what kind of a jerk says he wants to kiss me and then immediately hooks up with someone else? And with Naomi of all people?
“Sorry, did I say the wrong thing?” Adrien asks.
I put down my empty wineglass, grabbing another.
Adrien at least has the decency not to say I told you so. “Dance with me?”
I chug my wine. “Why not.” I will not let Grayson Stone ruin this party for me.
Adrien takes my hand and leads me inside.
The wine apparently makes me bold because the first thing I say is, “How were you childhood friends with Maggie if you live here and her family are Laborers? There is no way you were exempt from all the classist BS.”
Adrien laughs. “Wow. You’re direct.”
I shrug and the motion feels a little warm, like my skin is buzzing.
“We didn’t always live here,” he says. “My dad got a manufacturing contract with the University a few years back and it’s a long story, but after my sister got into Uni and then it looked like I would get marked Gifted, our family rose quickly.
We went from a merchant’s house in the Academy town to this in about three years. ”
He stops on the dance floor and I stop with him.
“Honestly, that might be the best thing you could have said,” I reply.
”How so?”
“I hope I can do the same. For my family,” I explain. “That was the whole point in coming here. In working hard to get into University.”
Adrien flicks his wrist and the song morphs, moving from a fast beat to a slow dance. Everyone around us hoots and hollers, coupling up.
“May I?” Adrien asks, and offers me his hand.
I place my hand in his, forcing myself not to look for Grayson. He’s doing what he’s doing, I tell myself, and I won’t let it bother me. Really, I should have known better. But even so, I can’t help but feel a twinge of hurt.
Adrien pulls me close, looping his other hand behind my back. He’s attractive, that’s for sure, and he smells like clean sheets and cologne. But I don’t feel butterflies. Not the sensation I do when Grayson so much as makes eye contact.
“You’re wearing my ring,” Adrien says, and I don’t love the way he makes it sound like it means something.
It doesn’t. He’s my friend and it’s pretty and I don’t have many pretty things.
But I don’t know how to broach the subject without making it weird.
If I’m misreading his intent, it’ll be more than embarrassing.
Which is also when I feel Grayson headed my way. I can’t explain it, but it’s like a tingle at the back of my neck or a tightness near my belly button.
“Can I cut in?” Grayson says in a rough voice, suddenly appearing by my side.
“No,” Adrien replies. “You may not.”
Grayson’s jaw tics. “I wasn’t asking you.”
“Yet the answer is still no,” Adrien says, his hand tightening at my waist in a way I don’t like. Shouldn’t I be the one answering this question?
I must have an emotion about it that shows up on my face because Grayson’s eyes flick to mine and back again. “There are two ways this is gonna go, Adrien. Both involve you stepping the hell away from Eloise. But in the first one, I don’t throw you across the room,” he says.
“Why don’t you go back to whatever you were doing upstairs,” Adrien replies, and now I want to hit them both. To top it off, Adrien pulls me closer and leans down to whisper in my ear just to annoy Grayson.
But I never get to hear what he was going to say, because a wind spell blasts Adrien in the shoulder, sending him back a step.
Now people are staring. Great.
“Stop!” I demand, and I’m about to tell them they’re acting like Neanderthals, but it’s too late, because Adrien retaliates with his own wind spell.
Grayson gets up a shield, but the force of it sends him sliding along the wood floor.
Everyone near us backs up, staring like this is the most interesting thing to happen in forever.
They’re not fighting over me, which would be bad enough. They’re fighting because they don’t like each other and they’re just using me as an excuse.
Grayson lifts his hand to cast, but I’m there in a flash, grabbing his wrist, looking him straight in the eyes and saying, “No. You do not get to do this.”
His gaze meets mine. I can see he’s pissed. And for a second, I think he’ll shake me off. But then his shoulders drop an inch and he says, “Okay.”
Adrien, however, isn’t done. “Nice lipstick. That yours, Grayson?” he says, and my stomach twists.
“Screw you, Adrien, you miserable prick,” Grayson says, before he wipes his face with the back of his hand, removing a faint red lipstick mark.
My stomach plummets to the floor, my hurt turning to anger so quickly, I can’t reel it back.
I step between them. “That is enough,” I say, pulling two daggers from the floor faster than I ever have.
They smack into my palms and my fingers curl around them.
“If either of you launches another spell, I’ll wait until the second your shield is down and throw these daggers at your balls. Go ahead, try me.”
They both stare at me and so does the rest of the party.
People are gossiping, Naomi included, who’s currently whispering something to Ivy with bloodred lips.
Ivy laughs, and all I can imagine is that she’s telling her she just made out with Grayson and they’re laughing at me.
I do, however, hear Maggie clapping and cheering my name from the upper balcony.
Seconds pass and no one casts. Finally, Adrien brushes off his shirt and gives Grayson a death glare before walking off. The dance floor fills in as I release my weapons, merging them back into the floor. But I don’t stay. I stalk out of the room to the deck, needing air.
“Claws,” Grayson says, following me, but the nickname only makes me angrier.
“Don’t you dare,” I say, turning when I reach the railing.
He pushes his hair back from this face with an exhale. “Look, I know I—”
“You embarrassed me,” I say with too much emotion. My pulse hasn’t gotten the memo to slow its frantic pace and the wine is loosening my tongue.
His eyebrows push together. “Adrien—”
“No, this isn’t about Adrien. This is about you. First you tell me you want to kiss me, not because we’re fake dating, just because—I don’t know why. And a second later you’re following Naomi into a bedroom and coming out with lipstick on your mouth.”
Regret flashes across his face. “I didn’t kiss her.”
“Like I said, I’m not interested in being lied to,” I say. “I think you should go. It’s Adrien’s house, and you’re clearly not welcome here. I don’t want you here.”
He closes his eyes for a brief second. “It really isn’t what you think.”
“You just suddenly needed to talk to her in a bedroom?” The words bother me. Because they sound jealous, and I’m not jealous. At least I’m pretty sure I’m not.
“Naomi wanted to talk to me, yes. But it was about me being a crap friend. And yeah, she insinuated that I could stop by her room any night I wanted, but that’s not something I plan on taking her up on. Ever.”
“And then she just fell into your face with her red lipstick?” I say, hating how much I care. No one has ever told me they wanted to kiss me before. While it’s probably no big deal to Grayson, it was important to me—a really big, heart-stopping moment. Before he completely ruined it.
Grayson huffs. “She did kiss me—admittedly way too close to my mouth. Which she wouldn’t have if I wasn’t distracted because she just told me that Adrien set me up. That he told her I was planning on taking revenge on you by breaking your heart.”
I freeze. I can’t tell if he’s lying and I hate that I have to question it. But isn’t that how it’s always going to be with Grayson? Me questioning when and if he’s telling me the truth? I’m about to walk away, but he grabs my wrist.
“Don’t, Claws. Please.” The last word is so quiet I barely register it.
But I’m far too amped on emotion and instead of just yanking my wrist from his grip I spin, spellworking a dagger and bringing it to his neck. “Stop manipulating me.”
He doesn’t back away. “If you think I’m manipulating you, then go ahead and use that,” he says.
“You’re right that Naomi kissed me, and even though I didn’t kiss her back, if I was you, I’d be pissed to hell, too.
I might be a lot of things, not all of them good, but here, tonight, I meant everything I said to you.
I had zero intentions of making you jealous. ”
My heart beats double time and I edge the dagger closer to his skin. “I am not jealous.”
“Well, I was. With Adrien. With that damn aster ring,” he says, and his words hit harder than expected.
“Aster?” I say, and I’m just now realizing Adrien spellworked the flower after his last name. It feels icky, like he was staking a claim on me and I didn’t even know it.
I don’t hesitate. I pull the ring off my finger and place it on the railing.
A smile appears on Grayson’s lips, one that grows by the second. But when his gaze flits to my mouth, I feel the heat of it in my pulse.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I insist.
“Don’t smell like that,” he replies, and even though I’m not sure what he means, damn it if that doesn’t make me feel some kind of way. Suddenly my temperature is way too high and my breath is coming quickly.
I want to kill him. I want to kiss him. I just don’t know which one I want more.
“I’m sorry, Claws. You don’t know how much. I hope I haven’t completely lost your trust.”
Maybe it’s the unexpectedness of the apology, or the fact that me trusting him seems to matter, but the barrier I was so fiercely defending cracks.
And I drop the dagger, magically merging it back into the deck as he steps closer.
It vaguely registers that the magic I use feels different, more alive and charged.
But everything feels that way right now.
He holds his hand out. “Dance with me?”
“Here?” I say quickly. “On the deck?”
“Anywhere. I’d dance with you anywhere,” he says, and it’s so unexpected that I nod.
A smile breaks out on his face that’s so genuine I almost groan in dismay. How am I supposed to not feel something? He flicks his wrist once, changing the music to full orchestral. He flicks it a second time, and pinpricks of light appear all around us like a thousand floating fireflies.
I slip my hand into his and his fingers tighten around my palm. He places his other hand on my lower back, pulling my body into his.
He twirls me outward with one arm and a couple people look our way. I laugh.
“That sound might be the end of me,” he says, and my heart starts beating at an unreasonable pace.
He pulls me close until there is no room between us, our bodies pressed together and our hands entwined. I stare up at him as we turn.
“How attached are you to those rules, Claws?” he asks, and leans closer. I know in my gut he’s going to kiss me. Not a fake dating kiss, the real kind. And I also know I’m going to let him.
“What rules?” I ask with a small smile. “I don’t recall making any.”
His gaze intensifies and my heart stutters as he dips me low, one hand behind my back and the other supporting my head. But instead of pulling me upright, Grayson Stone, the most beautiful and infuriating man I’ve ever met, presses his lips to mine. My body turns to fire and my resolve is gone.
I wrap my arms around his neck, deepening the kiss, and I swear he makes a noise like a growl, one that rumbles through my body all the way to my toes.
I laugh against his lips and he pulls me back to standing just as the air next to us shimmers.
For a second I think Grayson might be creating another illusion spell, but then suddenly the Key appears, floating in the air. The Archive Key, unfurling its leaves like a cat stretching after a nap in the sun.