Chapter Twelve
CHAPTER
TWELVE
Achill breeze and the sounds of crickets surrounded them as they climbed up the precarious wooden staircase to a full-sized tree house nestled in the branches of an enormous tree.
Scarlett gripped the smooth wooden banister, but the steps were steep.
A fall from any point would be disastrous.
She wished she’d worn something warmer. Brayden and James were both dressed in trousers with hooded sweatshirts, so at least she wasn’t underdressed.
Finally, they emerged onto a circular wooden platform.
Minnie’s door stood before them, and an adjacent wooden bridge went off toward the neighboring homes.
The view was gorgeous, with the flickering lights in most of the homes cheery and welcoming amidst the night-drenched forest. Scarlett inhaled the earthy, fresh scent of the lush plant life.
Everything around her was so gorgeous and so different from home.
It felt like she’d come to another planet instead of the country next door.
James opened the front door without knocking and stepped into a cozy living room. Bookcases lined the walls, and plants grew in all corners. It was a surprisingly normal living room for a tree house, and Scarlett sighed in relief, her tension easing in the warmth of the room.
A pretty, raven-haired woman with piercing blue eyes stood at the end of a long, thin table, surrounded by several onlookers.
She glanced over as they entered but kept her attention on the table.
“You three had better be my new good-luck charms,” she muttered.
“I’m on the verge of disgrace or glory here.
” She held a little golden ball and was focusing on two cups at the other end of the wooden table, where a lanky redhead with her hair in double buns stood with her arms crossed.
“Woo! Go, Minnie, go!” shouted Brayden. There were some hoots and claps from the rest of the observers.
Minnie bounced the ball off one cup and into another. Scarlett grinned as she whooped and did a high kick into the air. The redhead picked up both the cups the ball had touched and downed one of them. It wasn’t a game Scarlett was familiar with, but it looked simple enough. And fun.
Minnie approached them. “Good evening, friends!” She gave James, who was closest to her, a side-hug.
“Who is this fair creature?” She cocked her head toward Scarlett.
Her purple feathered earrings exaggerated the movement.
“You have the most elegant bone structure I’ve ever seen.
I’m Minnie, and this is Keeley.” Minnie held out a hand.
The redhead gave Scarlett a friendly wave.
“I’m Scarlett. Nice shot, by the way,” she said with her friendliest smile as she took Minnie’s hand in hers. She glanced toward Brayden, who was hugging Keeley. She wanted to finish their valor discussion, but they could do that later. After the party, maybe.
“Where are you from?” asked Keeley, her eyes lighting with interest.
“Soleil,” said Scarlett.
“Scar’s grandmother is from Clair de Lune,” Brayden said.
“Oh, Scar—I love the nickname,” said Minnie.
James took a couple of steps toward the hallway. “Minnie, I’m heading outside, if that’s all right?”
Minnie waved him on.
James locked eyes with Brayden, a wicked smirk on his face before he disappeared.
The room emptied as the rest of the people who’d been watching the game followed him.
Before Scarlett could guess at what James’s deal was, Minnie asked, “Keeley, can you please give this woman a drink?”
“Thanks,” Scarlett said as Keeley handed her one of the cups from their game.
Scarlett studied Minnie. Her short white dress showed off a large tattoo of a cluster of leaves and flowers covering most of her outer right thigh.
Scarlett envied her—the girl looked like her life was her own and she had no cares in the world.
She’d probably been drinking for a while, judging by the look of the room, which had random cups and bottles sitting on many of the available surfaces.
Scarlett glanced inside the cup Keeley had handed her.
It looked like beer, so she took a sip. Lukewarm.
Yuck. She set it down, hoping Minnie wouldn’t notice.
“Scar, how’d you meet the Maddox brothers?” Keeley’s white T-shirt was covered in cartoon mushrooms and tucked into a hot-pink miniskirt. She also wore white fishnet tights. These girls were possibly the coolest people Scarlett had ever met.
Brayden put his arm around Scarlett. “What you should be asking is, how did she meet me?”
Scarlett fought to contain her grin as she leaned into him. He was just trying to cheer her up after the awkwardness earlier, but she was grateful things weren’t weird.
“Ooh, she’s mine, he says.” Minnie arranged the cups back into a triangle formation. Then she froze. “Wait, is this the girl you’ve been talking to for years? The one you’d never actually met?”
Brayden’s arm tightened around her. “Yep. This is her.”
Scarlett felt the rumble of his answer in his rib cage and thrilled at the closeness.
“Bray, fancy a game?” Keeley was halfway through refilling the empty cups with beer.
Scarlett looked up at Brayden, hoping he’d stay with her.
But he kissed the top of her head and moved to stand opposite Keeley.
She felt the kiss like a brand as he walked away.
He was back to touching her every chance he got, even after rejecting her earlier.
What did it mean? She was eager to observe him with Minnie and Keeley to see if he touched them as much as he did her.
Minnie handed Scarlett another cup of beer. “Here—this one is actually cold.”
“Thanks.”
“So how’d you meet Brayden?”
“He scared the shit out of me through my grandma’s magic mirror.” Scarlett smiled fondly at Brayden, who was making his first shot.
Minnie choked on her drink. “Elaborate, please.”
Scarlett remembered the night as if it were yesterday.
“One night when I was eleven, I woke up from a nightmare and was scared, so I headed to my grandma’s room.
Her magic mirror is in the room that joins our bedrooms together.
The mirror is illegal in Soleil, obviously, but all my grandma did to hide it was cover it with a thin scarf. ”
“Hilarious.” Minnie’s eyes danced.
Scarlett’s mouth twitched, fighting back a grin.
“Yes. Anyway, I was walking past when I thought I saw something move in the mirror, beneath the scarf. I went a bit closer and wasn’t sure if it was my reflection, because it moved when I did.
As soon as I got close enough to touch the scarf, Brayden screamed, and I nearly pissed myself I was so scared. ”
Brayden flashed her a smile and then sank his ball into a cup. Keeley pulled the ball out and downed the cup of beer.
“I pulled the scarf off the mirror, and this weirdo was there, laughing his arse off.” Scarlett grinned at the memory.
“Then my grandma rushed in and explained who he was and that his father was her friend. That was the first time she’d really talked to me about magic.
She swore me to secrecy and told me I could use the mirror to talk to Brayden if I fancied it.
Which was really incredible, looking back, because she could’ve been sent to jail if I’d been caught.
Obviously, I took her up on the offer.” Her gaze locked with Brayden’s.
“After that, you were friends?” asked Minnie.
“I wouldn’t leave him alone after I found out where he was from,” said Scarlett. “My mother grew up in Clair de Lune. She died when I was nine, so meeting someone from her country was special to me. He was the first person from Clair I’d met outside of my family.”
Minnie gave her a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry about your mother. That sucks.”
“Thanks,” said Scarlett.
“Scarlett couldn’t get enough of my accent,” said Brayden between shots, lightening the mood immediately. He’d already sunk the ball into several cups, but Keeley hadn’t made any shots. “She used to always ask me to say ‘power’ and ‘film.’”
“I love the way you all say certain words,” admitted Scarlett.
“Aww, you like our accent!” said Keeley as she missed another shot.
“I do.” Scarlett laughed.
“Then, when we were thirteen, we started playing Verity or Gauntlet,” said Brayden. “That’s when I learned she has balls of steel. She always picked gauntlet.”
Minnie waggled her eyebrows. “Oh, do tell.”
Scarlett waved her hand dismissively. “Ah, it wasn’t that wild. Just teenager stuff. Once, Brayden dared me to run naked through my stepmother’s dinner party.”
Minnie’s eyes lit up. “And you did?”
Scarlett’s shoulders shook with laughter. “I convinced him to let me do it in a swimsuit and a devil mask. I’ve never seen my stepmother try so hard to keep from screaming at me in front of company. The Zaharan ambassador was there!”
Keeley snorted, and Minnie gasped.
Scarlett winced. “I was grounded for a month that summer—no phone, no computer.”
“Which was great, because you were around whenever I wanted to talk.” Brayden sank a game-winning shot.
Keeley happily downed her beer in one long gulp. Brayden returned to Scarlett’s side, and she handed him her half-empty cup. He raised it in her direction before finishing it.
“You made being grounded more fun.”
They’d talked late into the night so many times she’d often fallen asleep in the chair opposite the mirror and awoke to see him asleep on his father’s couch.
She’d definitely been crushing on him by the end of that summer.
He was the first boy she’d had feelings for, although she’d never admitted it out loud. She assumed he knew she adored him.
He definitely did now.
She needed to change the subject fast before her train of thought became obvious on her heating face. “How do you all know each other?”
“We all grew up together,” said Minnie, ruffling Keeley’s hair.
“Now Minnie and Keeley go to university in Evory.” Brayden’s arm brushed against hers.