Chapter Seventeen
Last summer – end of July
I was going to tell Orion that I liked him.
And it got me thinking. Silas always felt like a dream. A fantasy. Someone utterly perfect but entirely unachievable. But Orion had always been in my life, and maybe we’d both finally grown up enough to really notice one another.
And I couldn’t live not knowing if he felt the same, so I was going to find out. Unlike with Silas, I felt a sense of surety that Orion returned my feelings. He had to – I saw the way he softened around me, how he treated me differently from everyone else.
I was going to tell him after the party at Golden Shell Beach later. I’d ask him if we could take a little walk along the water’s edge, and I’d find the spot we met when the summer first began.
I expected to be nervous throughout the day, worrying about my outfit, about my words. But I felt oddly at peace. Orion and I felt like an inevitability that was finally happening.
The party was typical – a bonfire in the middle of the beach, laughter in the air, and someone had ordered pizzas to dish out. The only thing that was different was that when I entered the party, Orion caught sight of me and waved me over.
My heart was fluttering, like faerie wings in flight. I wondered if he liked that I’d come wearing his jacket, or if he found it too presumptuous. I guessed he liked it from the way his smile widened when I finally sidled up next to him, surrounded by a group of his friends.
I recognized most of them, but they only really knew me as the mayor’s daughter. Still, they were all nice enough to include me in their conversation.
‘So, Orion,’ Terry, a tall werewolf from the Star pack, started. ‘Your sister goes off on vacation, and you swap her out for another little sister?’
I bristled, indignation hot on my tongue. I wasn’t Orion’s little sister – not in any regard. But before I could say anything, he spoke up.
‘Maya’s her own person,’ Orion replied, his tone not exactly sharp, but something close to it. I felt myself warm at the sign of his protective streak. ‘She’s a really good friend of mine.’
Good friend.
I wanted to wince but refused to let anyone see how those two words affected me, so I just pasted on a smile.
‘All right, all right.’ Terry raised his hands up in surrender. ‘I know when to shut up. Tell me guys, what’re the post-summer plans?’
As everyone launched into a conversation about their plans, I felt Orion stiffen beside me.
I nudged the cup of faerie punch I was drinking against his, and his silvered gaze flicked away from his friends to me. The hard planes of his face softened, and my heartbeat ricocheted again.
This was the moment I was going to ask him to take a walk with me. I was sure he’d only called us friends because he wasn’t one for public declarations. He was private, protective, not the type who stood outside your house and shouted about his feelings for you.
‘Could we –’ I began quietly, when a voice interrupted me.
‘Orion Hawthorne!’
My attention snapped, along with his, to the right, where I saw Celine Pearl emerging from the water of the beach and gliding across the sand, looking like a model from a magazine. She had the natural allure a siren exuded, and it wasn’t surprising that everyone’s attention landed on her.
Including Orion’s.
I watched as he got up and met the siren, with the biggest smile I’d ever seen on his face.
‘Celine, I thought you might have drowned down there,’ Orion teased, and something ugly flared in my stomach.
Something hot and angry. Jealousy.
‘As if,’ Celine scoffed, with a roll of her eyes. ‘I finally got free from visiting my extended family – just in time to enjoy the last weeks of summer on land. In fact, I’ve come back right on time to make sure we get to attend a few parties together before we both go off to MAC.’
Her use of ‘we’ made me want to choke something, but I kept my composure.
‘Sounds good, Cel,’ Orion replied, with a smile.
Sounds good?
In horror, I watched them drift closer together as they walked back towards the group and sat opposite me.
I watched them – like a creep – from my periphery.
I didn’t have to cast a love spell to know Celine had feelings for Orion. I could recognize it, because it was the same way I looked at him. What terrified me was not knowing how Orion felt about her. I knew he wasn’t with anyone – Raven would’ve told me. But what if Celine was Orion’s Silas?
What did that make me?
Suddenly, I felt entirely alone – despite being surrounded by people. All I could think about was being called his fill-in little sister. Was that all I was to him? Raven’s best friend?
No. I knew Orion felt something for me. I just needed him to see it.
To see me in a different light.