Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Iwasn’t looking forward to our new plan. Sure, I agreed to it, and yes, I would try as best I could to see it through, but I was also grateful that I hadn’t seen Cade yet, and it was almost lunchtime.
Small wins!
I walked out of a frustrating math class, where again Karen laid it on thick for Shad.
I sat tall, however, and failed at completing my assignment with as much dignity as I could muster.
Yeah, there was no way I was going to pass that class.
However, I should have known that a Cade-free day was impossible and that I would see him before the day was over.
And there he was as I stood in the lunch line to get my Tuesday pizza slice. I loved pizza day.
“Why are you avoiding me?” his thick, cool voice whispered in my ear.
I knew it was him behind me before he even spoke because whenever he was near, a chill ran through me as if warning: Stay away!
Yeah, even my body knew that he was a predator.
If only my melody could get in line. I pulled my melody back as best I could, but I still felt some parts of it reaching for him.
“Hmmm, I wonder why I would avoid you? Maybe, so I don’t get locked up in jail for murdering you?” I answered as I plucked the last slice of pepperoni from the tray and placed it onto my plate. Sweet! I hated when I ended up with the cheese pizza.
He laughed, and I wanted to choke him. I was grateful that I had some soul-shielding training because I didn’t want him to know that his soul, actually, Shad’s soul, was beautiful when he laughed.
I tried to focus, make my soul obey. If I was with him too long, however, I knew that my soul would reveal all my secrets.
At that moment, only a small bit of my melody found his, everything else was shielded.
“You are funny, sweetheart.” His breath made the back of my neck tingle, and I wanted to smack him so hard as the monster rose up, clawing at her cage for a moment.
“Don’t call me that,” I ordered, growling at him. He put his hands up, and I stared into his brown eyes. They were not golden like Shad’s had been, but were closer to the real thing than the eyes that soulless Shad sported as of late.
“So, I guess we are going to play this cat-and-mouse game for a bit longer, eh?” he said as he slid his food tray behind mine, picking up a slice of cheese pizza on his way.
I smirked, glad he didn’t get the last slice of pepperoni and that I did.
Yes, I was being immature, but he killed my parents, he beat my best friend, and he stole the soul of the boy I loved.
He deserved no pizza ever for the rest of his days.
“What are you talking about?” I asked in a whisper, aware that students could hear us in line. Some were already watching us.
“I am talking about the fact that you cannot avoid me forever.”
“I think I can.” I paid for my food and made my way to my usual spot in the cafeteria. Cade was at my heels.
“Sweetheart,” he crooned, coming up beside me, “I know you can’t get me out of your head forever, and I will wait.”
I looked at him with a glare.
He laughed.
I reached out to hit him, but before I could, he was already walking away. I hated him so much.
“I see the Cade-befriending thing is going well?” Ryker asked as I sat down. Ash was looking at me with pained eyes.
“I know, I said I would do this, and I will for Shad, but I mean, this is just not going to work.” I took a bite out of my pizza slice and looked around the table, not spotting Shad.
Where was he? Before I could ask, loud giggling from the table across the room caught my attention.
There, sitting right beside Shad was Karen.
She played with the collar of his shirt. I hated that he didn’t push her away.
“I think I just lost my appetite.”
“Karen is such a loser,” Ash said, shaking her head.
“It’s fine. I just don’t know how much longer I can take all this.” I put my head on the table and started banging it.
“Em,” Ryker started, then he paused, “He was really different this morning; be prepared.”
“Different? Different how?” I asked, picking up my head from off the table as I took another bite of the pizza. I stared at the blue table top and focused, waiting for his words. He was silent during math, so I had not noticed anything too unusual.
“His personality is gone. He isn’t the Prince at all, anymore—it seems the corruption has started to overcome him.”
I wouldn’t lie and say that it didn’t hurt like the dickens, but I also knew it was going to happen, right?
I mean, isn’t that what the meeting was just about?
Yes, so why was I curling my fist and trying not to cry?
How can I stop this corruption from taking him away from me forever before I can figure out how to save him?
I thought I had at least a couple more days—honestly, I thought I had weeks, but it seemed that the situation was getting more dire, and it was happening more quickly than I had dared to imagine.
“Are you okay, Emma?” Ryker asked as I looked up. I wiped under my eyes and cleared my throat.
“I am fine, Ry, seriously peachy,” I mumbled.
When the bell rang for third period, we all stood, put our trays away, and shuffled to class. I couldn’t help but wonder if I was living within my own worst nightmare.
I bolted from my classroom as fast as my legs would carry me. I was done with Shad, with Cade, even with Ryker and Ash, trying to make me feel better. How could I feel better? My life was so not okay.
Just as the last hall stood between me and my peaceful walk home, I saw Cade.
He walked around me in a circle as I stopped.
When he was facing me, he moved closer and closer until I was backed up against the brick wall of the hallway, and I didn’t remember how I had gotten there.
His breath was on my face, and although I knew I couldn’t kill him because it would kill Shad’s melody, I wanted to—so bad.
I put that thought quickly into the box inside of myself that I had labeled: “Keep these things from Cade.” I was getting better at filing away specific things that I didn’t want him or anyone else to read from my melody.
“You cannot avoid me forever.”
“I can avoid you for all eternity if I have to.” I couldn’t make friends with my enemy; it was impossible. He looked at me like a lion would a lamb–as his prey.
“Our melodies are connected, sweetheart.”
“My melody is connected to Shad’s.”
He placed his hand above my head, locking me in, and I wondered how accurate I could be if I attempted to kick him in the groin.
His mouth was so close to my ear, and his melody was calling to mine to reveal itself, to dance around with each other.
I wanted that, too, so badly, but I knew that he wasn’t Shad; it wouldn't be the same.
I reminded my melody over and over again of the lie, of the imposter.
I begged the corrupted monster to unleash herself on him.
She was silent, and I wanted to scream. She could, at least, be useful if she was going to corrupt my soul.
Agh.
“My melody is Shad’s melody, so you see, you are also connected to me.”
I shook my head. I wouldn’t buy into his crap. I would not listen to his lies. I was not interested in what he had to say. “Get away from me before I make it so that you can never have children.”
“I can show you how we can make—” I kneed him in the groin, and he deserved it.
He was a human just like earthlings, so he crouched down like every other male would.
It seemed that even if you were a big, bad, evil, magical brother, the groin was a good area to attack.
I stepped away as he leaned in pain against the wall.
“Nicely played, sweetheart, but the only one you are hurting is yourself. I know how sad you would be if we could never have children in the future,” he said with a forced smile, and I glared at him.
“I would never ever want to have—ew, you are so gross.” I walked away, but his melody reached out to mine, and it was so strong that my melody let him in, and his message haunted me;
It is only a matter of time. I can wait.
“So how are things with you and Glasson?” I asked, trying to distract myself from Cade’s glance from across the room as well as from Karen flirting again with Shad, the next day at lunch.
At that moment, my day was going pretty well.
Cade had not yet taunted me, and Shad, well—I didn’t want to think about him, but for the time being, things were okay.
“Glass, gah, he will not leave me alone,” Ash started talking about Glasson, and try as I might to focus on her, Cade kept sending me messages and images in my head.
It seemed that he had access to all the memories of Shad and me, and he kept showing me how he could do everything that Shad could do, but better.
I mentally slapped him, and he laughed. I walked down the hall with Ash after lunch as she talked about homecoming.
“That’s right! Oh, man, I didn’t even get to talk to you about what happened at Homecoming, not that it even matters much because I think I am a goner for Aiden.”
“What happened? How was it?” I asked with a fake excitement as we reached my locker. The hall was mostly empty, and my locker was on the end. I spun the dial as she talked to me about the dance.
“Sam was the perfect gentleman, but then Glass showed up.” She leaned against the locker and puffed out air into her bangs, which I assumed were new because I had never noticed them before.
“Glass? I have been meaning to ask you, why do you call him that?” I questioned.
“It makes him so mad. He is a prince, so he likes to use his full name, but honestly, he reminds me of a shard of glass in my shoe, always poking me and ruining everything.” She scrunched her nose in annoyance.