Chapter 38. Grayson
Grayson
The world is punking me. It’s the only explanation. I’m still reeling from a kiss that stole my calm. And now I’m questioning my vision because I can’t be staring at the Key. Here. At a party filled with half our school.
Eloise’s lioness eyes go wide and she reaches for it.
But just like exam day, it disappears. Which is a damn good thing, because a handful of people on the deck are gaping at us.
I can’t hear what they’re saying over the music, but I can guess.
Calling the Key in public is the last thing I ever wanted to do.
I know I need to do something immediately, manage the fallout before it all goes to hell.
Quick as lightning, I cast a giant illusion of a firework.
It bursts in the air above us in bright blue sparks.
And as it rains down, I pull from the garden using my Botany to transform it into blue hydrangea petals.
There are gasps and delighted laughs. I just hope people question if the Key was real or if it was part of the show.
“Grayson, did you just see…,” Eloise says in wonder, her gaze still soft from our kiss.
“I did,” I say.
She tilts her head. “Then why do you look upset?” she asks, and even if I could think of a way to explain how dangerous my uncle is, it’s not a conversation I can have in public.
But before I can reply, there’s a tug on my arm. One that’s strong enough to slide me back a step. A wind spell? I immediately look around for the caster.
“Grayson?” Eloise says, her eyebrows knit in confusion.
There is a glint of steel by the tree in the front yard and my gaze whips past the railing. Sure enough, there’s Damien. The prick has the nerve to grin.
“Eloise!” I hear Maggie yell from across the deck and I know we have seconds before she reaches us.
“We gotta go now,” I say.
“Wait,” Eloise says as I reach for her hand. “I promised Maggie—”
“Damien is in the yard. We have no time.”
Eloise looks at her friend, currently pushing through the crowd to get to her, and hesitates.
“We just called the Key in public. You don’t want Maggie involved in this, believe me. Definitely not in front of Damien,” I say, and even though I can smell her deep conflict, she trusts me enough to follow.
We race down the steps of the deck and I spellwork a rough illusion behind us to camouflage our exit with the lawn. It’s not done with finesse, but it’ll work in the dark.
The moment we cross Adrien’s yard a deep male voice says, “Headed to campus?”
Eloise frowns. “You’re the Guardian who came to my house.”
Damien gives her a crooked smile. “And now I’m the Guardian escorting you to the Chancellor.”
Yup. There it is. We’re screwed.
The walk back to University is silent. And I spend the whole of it trying to come up with a plan. That kiss threw me off my game and we somehow accidentally called the Key.
We follow Damien to the Chancellor’s Wing, and he raps his knuckles on my uncle’s office door.
“Give me a minute alone with my uncle,” I say to Eloise.
“Excuse me?” she replies with a slight edge to her voice.
But as the office door swings open I can’t take a chance, so I walk in and cast a locking spell just as she says, “Wait—”
I can scent her frustration through the wood. But I have no choice, I can’t have her revealing the things I’ve purposefully omitted—like the fact that I have to be touching her to call the Key.
My uncle sits behind his desk with a stony facade.
“I know you know,” I say without sitting down. I don’t plan on staying long.
“You have no idea what I know,” he says calmly.
“You have eyes everywhere,” I say, repeating back his favorite threat.
I can scent his satisfaction—either Damien had been following us without me noticing, which is unlikely, or someone at that party told him about the Key.
“You called the Key in public, Grayson,” he says. “Sloppy. Very sloppy.”
“Eloise’s emotions are unpredictable,” I reply like a statement of fact.
“And?” he says.
“And I’m working on it.”
His eyes narrow slightly. “How did you call it? I want details. Facts, Grayson.”
What he wants is something he can replicate. So, I tell him the one thing he can’t. “I did what you said. I seduced her,” I say, hating every word. “I just didn’t expect it to work that quickly.”
“Hmmm,” he says, his eyes sparkling with interest.
“Which is also why I didn’t let her in here. She can’t be a part of these conversations or I can’t play the game,” I say, which is true but not for the reasons he thinks.
“You don’t make those decisions,” he tells me plainly.
“No, but she spooks easily. I need more time with her,” I say.
My uncle picks a piece of lint off his pristine shirt. “Time. Yes. Funny concept coming from someone who clearly has room in his schedule for not one but two parties.”
“Like I said—”
He doesn’t let me finish. “You have approximately nine days remaining, but given your leisurely attitude and inability to follow my rules, I figure you have time to kill. So, let’s make it seven.”
“You can’t—”
“I can. Figure it out. Get it done. Or I’ll happily take over. Are we understood?” he says, and I have no choice but to close my mouth.
“Understood, Sir,” I say, and turn.
I don’t make eye contact with Damien as I walk out, but I can feel him smirking.
Eloise, on the other hand, has traded frustration for indignance. She side-eyes me as we walk back to our suite.
When the door closes behind us, she doesn’t hold back. “You better have a damn good explanation for—”
“My uncle told me to seduce you,” I say, playing the only card I have.
She stops dead in her tracks. “What did you just say?”
I push back my hair, exhaling. “When my uncle pulled me out of class today, he asked me about our progress. I told him I was right that the two of us need to be together for it to appear. And he told me to seduce you to speed things along.”
“That’s—that’s disgusting,” she says, but then her eyebrows furrow and I don’t need my magical ability to recognize the look of betrayal on her face. “Wait, he told you to seduce me, and then you—”
“No,” I say forcefully. “That is not what happened here tonight. I didn’t kiss you because he told me to.”
“Then why did you kiss me, Grayson?” she asks, and the question throws me just like the kiss did. She’s searching my face, searching for something I’ll never be able to give her. “Was it some game or strategy? Was it about the Key?”
I know I should downplay it and tell her it was just a simple kiss. I should lie.
But she looks up at me with those lioness eyes full of vulnerability, and even though I know I’ll regret it later, I say, “I kissed you for me. I kissed you because I wanted to.”
Her fresh spring scent drifts my way and I know I have to call it quits before this goes any further.
“But I was wrong to do it. I should never have complicated things. I won’t do it again,” I say to myself as well as her.
She opens her mouth and closes it, her hurt obvious. But if I don’t draw the line now, she’ll hurt more later. She turns around and goes into her room, throwing up a shielding spell on her door to keep me out.