Chapter 36. Grayson
Grayson
Eloise’s outfit is going to be my undoing. I can barely look at her and remember how to form thoughts, which is just—
I don’t get flustered over women. I don’t get flustered over anyone.
“Is this Adrien’s house?” Eloise asks, looking at a moderately sized tree house with a bunch of Uni students drinking on its wraparound balcony.
As we move from the street onto the grass we pop through a noise-canceling spell that bubbles around the property. Which is when it gets loud—music playing and people talking.
I reach out and add some of my magic to the spell.
Eloise stares at me. “Are you kidding me? A group noise-canceling spell? That’s so smart.”
“You’ve never seen one of these?”
“I’ve never been to a party,” she says.
The thought makes me angry all over again. How could someone so excited about life not get to experience it?
“What?” she asks, and I shake my head.
“Nothing. Let’s just go have some fun,” I say, because that’s what I’m now bent on doing, helping her have a good time.
We take the spiral stairs to the large deck packed with our schoolmates, and I slip my hand into hers, lacing our fingers together and specifically ignoring Adrien’s ridiculous ring. She turns to me, momentarily shocked, but then she does something surprising—she laughs.
“Something funny I should know about?” I ask.
“I’m just happy,” she says, and she’s not lying. The scent is pluming around her in a cloud that’s impossible to ignore. In fact, it’s making me feel a little drunk.
“Even though you have to fake date me?” I ask with a raised eyebrow.
She shrugs, and damn if it isn’t adorable. “You’re not so bad, actually. You’re kind of growing on me.”
“Moi?” I say, touching my chest in shock.
She shakes her head, but her smile never wavers. “Yes, you. And also, thanks,” she says.
“For what?”
We make our way through the crowd toward the outdoor bar.
“For all of this,” she says. “For agreeing to go to the party even though I know it meant nothing to you. For that closet and my outfit. For helping me with Maggie and bearing the brunt of it so I don’t have to.”
The heat of her slender palm presses into my own and when she looks up at me with those lioness eyes, I know I’m cooked. Why did I suggest this fake dating thing again?
I smile. “So now you like my lies? How the tables have turned.”
She laughs as we stop near a bar lined with cups of peach wine and spiced beer. People around us are definitely staring at our linked hands.
“You’re ridiculous, you know that?” she says, only she’s in such a good mood that she doesn’t seem annoyed at my existence.
“It’s not my fault you enjoy ridiculous people,” I reply.
“Wow. Two days of dating and you’re already cocky about it?” She sizes me up. “We’ll see about that.” Which is when she slides her fingers out of mine and laces both hands behind my neck.
My heart nearly stops in my chest. “What happened to your rules, Claws?” I say, my voice catching in my throat and coming out a little raw. But I couldn’t move if I wanted to, my body is no longer listening to me.
“Oh, those are firmly in place,” she says under her breath, and it’s becoming increasingly hard to think.
“Well, I hate to break it to you, but I can’t stand here with my arms at my sides. It doesn’t look natural. And you specified only casual touches,” I say.
Mischief flashes in her eyes and I enjoy it. “You can put your arms around my waist if it’ll make you more comfortable,” she says, repeating my words from earlier.
“Comfortable is a relative term,” I say, now repeating hers, but I don’t hesitate. I move to hold her, my hands fitting around her hips.
She grins. “Your hands are weirdly warm,” she says, and scrunches her nose. “I can feel them through my clothes.”
And while I’m happy for her that she can remain so focused on the details, I’m struggling to remember my own name. In fact, the feel of her in my arms has my fingers tightening of their own accord. But when her fresh spring scent wafts my way, I panic and pull back.
The moment her arms drop from my neck I grab a cup of spiced beer, downing it in one go. “Wine?” I ask her, but she’s already reaching for it and staring at me.
“What?” I say as I grab another drink.
She shrugs with one shoulder. “Oh, nothing,” she says, rubbing her finger along the outside of the glass. “I just didn’t realize you flustered so easily.”
“I do not fluster,” I reply, because I don’t.
“Uh-huh,” she says.
And for some unfathomable reason, I tell her the truth: “I didn’t pull back because I was flustered. I pulled back because I was going to kiss you. And you told me you didn’t want that.”
She chokes on her wine.
But before she gets to reply, Maggie’s suddenly there, bowling Eloise over with a hug.
“There you are! I can’t believe you fecked off on getting ready with me,” Maggie says indignantly. “I thought you might not show up at all.”
“My fault,” I say quickly, and I scent Eloise’s gratitude. “She was thinking about going back to Uni when I offered her clothes from my family’s closet.”
Maggie holds Eloise out by the shoulders and properly inspects her. “Great. Now I can’t even be mad. Yer the hottest thing I’ve seen this side of the ocean.”
I’m inclined to agree, except the thought doesn’t fully form before my gaze snags on someone in the distance. Over Maggie’s shoulder, stepping into the house, is a girl with silky black hair and light green eyes. And once again my pulse starts moving rapid-fire, only not in a good way.
I don’t know what Eloise says in response, because I quickly excuse myself and speed walk through the crowd.
I skirt around a group of second-years and through the door into the spacious living room. The couches have been pushed aside to create a dance floor, which is currently packed. I scan the room only to find Sage by the far wall.
I was really hoping I was wrong.
I stride across the room, but before I can reach her, she turns and saunters up the staircase to the second floor, leaving me no choice but to follow.
If I thought things couldn’t get worse, Adrien watches me with a smirk.
Thankfully Sage’s back is to him, but the dipshit clearly makes assumptions and gives me a salute as he turns toward the patio.
If he’s headed where I think he is, I’ll murder the bastard.
Sage opens a door to a small bedroom and I follow her inside. She locks it with an aggressive spell. Only when she turns around, it’s not Sage at all, but Naomi.
She laughs. “Wow,” she says. “This reaction is priceless.”
“The hell?” I say, my mind spinning because while Naomi’s Elemental magic is some of the strongest in the school, she’s not even quasi-capable of an illusion spell that complex.
“Oh, come on. It’s funny,” she says, grinning at me. “Who did you think I was? The spell was supposed to make me someone you were shocked to see. A girl, maybe? Someone I know?”
I groan. I can’t believe she illusion-tricked me. I pride myself on being better than that. “I’m leaving,” I say, more than a little pissed.
“Wait,” she says, reaching for my wrist.
I pull it from her grasp. “You want to talk to me, then just say so. You have no idea what—”
“It was a joke, Gray. Lighten up,” she says.
But I can’t because everything I do right now has consequences. I turn around to leave but she beats me to the door.
“Naomi, move,” I say, frustrated.
But the way her face falls has me hesitate. Her hurt is genuine. I can scent it. “Okay, fine. You win, Grayson. Will you talk to me? Please?”
“Now isn’t a good time,” I say.
“It’s never a good time,” Naomi huffs. “You hang out for two seconds, ask me the questions you’re interested in and then you leave.”
I wince because she’s right. “I can’t—”
“Can’t what?” she says, cutting me off. “Can’t leave Eloise for two seconds?
Someone you didn’t even know existed until a few days ago?
Damn it, Grayson. We’re friends. We understand each other in a way no one else does.
Yet since we showed up here you haven’t bothered to ask me literally anything.
And just in case you were wondering, everything’s been shit.
My mother lit into me after the exam. Told me my fire spell was an embarrassment, that she was thankful she has my younger brother to be better. ”
I hesitate. “You got Elemental Guild with one of the strongest showings.”
“You know that doesn’t matter,” she says. “Your uncle. My mother. They don’t care about anything other than being the best. I couldn’t shield my fire spell. I tried, but it didn’t—and then I drenched some of the students. My magic has been—” She exhales. “Temperamental.”
I pause, genuinely shocked. I thought she did those things on purpose. “I didn’t realize,” I say. If my magic was acting up like that, I’d be worried, too.
“Of course you didn’t,” she says. “You’ve been tied up with revenge issues.”
My eyebrows push together. “Revenge issues?”
She rolls her eyes. “You always act like everything’s a secret. But Adrien told me how you recruited him to get back at Labor girl for sabotaging your exam. And I have to say, reeling her in to shatter her heart is pretty dirty, but I respect it.”
For a second I stand there in stunned silence. Suddenly, Naomi’s illusion spell makes sense. She wouldn’t be capable of it, but Adrien might be. It also explains why Naomi wasn’t mad at me at breakfast—Adrien must have told her that I’m spending time with Eloise to destroy her.
“Look,” Naomi says before I can get my bearings.
“I won’t keep you. I don’t want to mess with your plan and all.
But I just wanted to say that I miss you.
Because there is no one in this school who makes more sense together than you and me.
Come find me soon. Anytime. Any night.” Then she pops up onto her tippy toes and plants a kiss on my cheek that is way too close to my lips and leaves the room.
And despite the fact that I usually have a good leash on my temper, I’m pissed beyond measure.
My hands clench and my magic surges, and I have to close my eyes and count my breaths like I used to when I was younger.
I make it well past thirty before I open the door and even then, I kinda want to punch something.