Chapter 29 #2
The smirk slid from my lips at once. Not wanting anyone else, particularly Gwen, to discover the runic brand on my arm, I’d put on one of my mother’s ugliest silver bracelets to conceal the worst of it.
I twisted the thick band around my arm, allowing the cool metal to soothe the burning irritation.
“Nothing to tell,” I lied smoothly. “We were studying for a…special project.” At the look on Gwen’s face, I acquiesced. “Well…we did sneak into the Labyrinth after closing,” I admitted.
Gwen rolled her eyes in exasperation. “You snuck into the library to study? Gods, Arden…I swear.” She rubbed her temples in frustration. “You are aware that Ouverham is not a religious institution, right? You’re not in training to take your vows.”
I glowered at the implication that I was a nun.
“Come on,” she whined, plopping herself on the foot of my bed and clasping her hands over my feet, as though determined to make me see reason.
“My love life is drier than the Sahara, at least until the ball on Friday.” She made a face.
“Can’t you give me just a teeny morsel of salaciousness?
Tell me you at least made out during all those hours of studying… ”
“I—Well,” I began, my cheeks going hot. Gwen understood the implications of my embarrassment at once.
“No fucking way!” She squealed so loudly that our neighbors banged against our wall in irritation.
“Where!? When!? How did it happen?” Gwen demanded, practically bouncing off the bed with excitement.
In the face of Gwen’s unbridled joy, I allowed myself one small smile before launching into my explanation. “Okay, okay,” I said, and Gwen squeezed my feet tighter. “If you stop cutting off my circulation, I’ll tell you about it. Christ, you’re like a wound-up gerbil sometimes.”
Gwen grinned at the mild insult and released my toes, savoring her victory.
As I stumbled over the details of the kiss in the Labyrinth, something cold hardened in my chest. Gwen didn’t know about the dark machinations happening inside the school, nor that I was entangled with mythic, vengeful Daemons capable of torture and worse.
Knowing any of these things would’ve wiped the grin off her gleeful face, but I had vowed never to reveal these secrets to anyone.
I needed Gwen to believe that the worst of my crimes was having a casual college fling with a mysterious boy I liked.
“So?” she pressed, her hazel eyes wide as saucers. “How was it?”
My face grew hot. “It was…” I couldn’t find words to describe it. How could I explain that I was utterly bewitched by him?
How could I explain that a single glance into his amber eyes was enough to drown me, how the barest touch could set my skin ablaze?
It wasn’t normal to be affected so much by another person.
It wasn’t rational. And it scared me that I felt this way while I couldn’t taste his lies, because how could I ever truly know him?
I began in earnest. “Being with him feels like… like leaping off a cliff without knowing what’s at the bottom,” I said as my gaze collided with hers. “It’s the most terrifying thing, Gwen, but I’ve never felt more alive than when I’m with him.”
Gwen stared at me, and I instantly regretted the vulnerability in my confession.
Her expression was suddenly serious. “Arden, I think you might be falling for him. Like, for real, falling. I just…” She hesitated.
“I hope you’re being careful with your heart.
It’s been through a lot recently.” A hollow laugh escaped my throat.
Yes, my poor, withered heart had been through a lot, but she was more resilient than perhaps I gave her credit for.
“You were over the moon about the possibility of my being with Casimir, and now you’re trying to talk me out of it?”
Gwen shrugged, smiling in spite of herself. “I’m your best friend, I get to be protective of you.”
I snorted. “Fine. But yes, to answer your question…” I went red again, “The kissing is quite good. And as for being careful…” I grimaced. How much could I tell her? I didn’t want her to think I was some love-crazed fool. “I’m keeping my guard up.”
“Okay, just not too high up,” she said.
I flattened her with a look. “Which is it, Gwen? One minute you’re telling me to be careful, and the next—”
“It’s a balance!” Gwen exclaimed, tugging on her pink locks in exasperation. “I just want you to be okay! And if he hurts you, I’ll kick his ass.”
I snorted with laughter at the deathly serious expression on her face.
“I mean it!” she huffed. “Now,” she began, sitting up straighter, “what are you going to wear to the ball? Do you have a dress in mind? You’re welcome to borrow one of mine, maybe this black one—”
I smiled as she continued to babble on about dress options.
For someone so clever and bookish, Gwen had an amazing capacity to lose her head when it came to glitz and romance.
I’d once witnessed her recite the Fourier transform formula by heart, bringing our mathematics professor nearly to tears.
And yet, here she was, concerned by something as trivial as which dress I would wear to a ball. At least she had excellent taste.
Slyly, she suggested, “Maybe Casimir will send you another dress?”
“Absolutely not!” I said. “I explicitly forbade him from doing anything of the sort.”
Gwen sighed and rose off the bed, shaking her head as though I were a particularly obstinate child. Just before we went to sleep, I could’ve sworn she muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “impossible girl” under her breath.