Darksoul (23 page)

He blinked once. “Well—” Realization dawned on him. “Oh.”

“Oh? Oh what?”

“I’m going to do a magic trick. Watch.” He ran his palm over the bird, and I watched, grudgingly awed, as silver light rippled across the feathers and turned them a translucent white. The bird, suddenly revived, flapped its wings. But it didn’t fly away, only cocked its head at Ash. “All right? Now you see it.” He brushed his hand over the bird again and pale wisps took its place, lingering there before fluttering out of sight. “And now you don’t.”

I frowned. “What the hell did you do
to it?”

“Sent him
to a place where he won’t get hurt again. Now.” Ice shards crackled down his arm, and the point of Syivhail tipped up my chin for the second time in ten minutes. “Shall I destroy you one more time?”

And because I was an idiot, I sparred him once again.

The knock on the front door was short and crisp. I took my time gathering my books and combing my hair into a presentable ponytail, trying to force myself into a calm—into absolute calmness. It was just a kiss. Right? No big deal. Besides, it’d be a peck on the lips, a quick, meaningless thing, and it’d be over in half a second. Hunter wouldn’t care about it afterwards. I wouldn’t, either. Right? No biggie. Totally. What the hell had he been thinking?

When I went downstairs, I was met with a horrendous sight.

Mom was at the door. From the line of her shoulders I could tell she was tense. And cold. The world was white outside, and visible shivers ran through her. Meanwhile, Hunter stood on the steps of our house, tattoos as dark as ever and a perfectly unreadable expression on his face. She was trying to make conversation. Yeah. Not happening. Not with him.

“Yes, g
ood morning!” I stepped past her before she could keep me. “Okay, Mom, see you,” I threw over my shoulder, then sped across the snow-covered lawn. “Hunter, walk,” I hissed at him.

“Hazel,” she
called. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

The corner of Hunt
er’s mouth gave a faint twitch, and I nearly flipped him off as I rounded back to her. He wordlessly continued toward the SUV. Io, who had been lounging on my shoulder, fluttered after him and settled on top of his hair.

Mom said exactly what I thought she’d say. Not letting you ride with him,
yadda yadda, the tattoos, yadda, he probably smokes three packs a day, yadda, and compared to him Asher looks like an angel. I almost laughed. If only she knew.

And then she stopped. She’d caught sight of the rings and bracelets that occupied my
hands, and her lips fell into a frown. “Who gave you those?”

“Uh—” B
efore I could hide them, she swooped in and brought them up to her face for inspection. I suddenly felt self-conscious about the way the jewelry’s silvery contours caught the light, sending hazy reflections over her cheeks. About the black gem on my left ring finger, which looked like it belonged in a bridal magazine.

Brow scrunched up, she turned my wrists over and ran her thumbs over the frozen feathers
. Then she locked gazes with me, her mouth tight.

“You have three seconds to tell me who invested so much in you, why, what
his name is, and how long you’ve been dating.”

“Uh—it was—” I yanked my hands out of hers and clenched them behind my back. “Don’t worry about it.
I bought it all at Claire’s. Cute, right?”

She could tell I was lying. Nodding her head
in the direction Hunter had gone, she said, “Was it him?”

“No! I told you, I bought it myself. Okay? So—”

“I can see you’re not ready to admit anything yet. Let’s return to the other problem we have here.” She arched an eyebrow. “Your choice of guy friends.”

And so started another rant of hers. E
ventually I convinced her that Hunter was fine and that, yes, he did go to school. By the time she was done lecturing me, I was going to be late. Giving one final disapproving glance at the SUV, she kissed me goodbye and ordered me to call her before first period.

Heaving out a sigh,
I slid into the passenger seat and shut the door behind me. Then I turned to Hunter and said, “Could you try to look less…” I made a vague gesture toward him. “You?”

Seemingly amuse
d, he pulled away from the curb. Io was tucked under his shirtsleeve, wriggling around and snuggling up to his skin. “Me?”

“The whole tattoo thing—really not soothing my mom’s nerves. And you’ve
gotta do something about your wardrobe. You can’t possibly have just black clothes.”

“I could’ve come shirtless.”

“How about no.” I dropped my bag between my feet, and then turned to him. “Anyway, I was thinking—”

He reached between us and held a paper bag toward me. “Eat.”

I took it. “Okay. Thanks. But—um—”

He stared straight ahead.

“I’ll eat now,” I said.

By the time we reached the school parking lot, my nerves were strung tight. I
hadn’t felt this anxious since—well—ever. It wasn’t that I’d never kissed a boy. I’d certainly had. But it was Hunter, for crying out loud.
Hunter
. And of course this would be crossing a line.

He turned off the car
, and I thought I saw something in the corner of my eye. Strobes of light. Black scales. Wound around a tall, lean figure. Raven hair, a pair of gauges, lip piercing glinting a sleek silver in the wan winter morning. But when I spared a quick side glance, there was no one there.

Finally,
I undid my seatbelt. The click was jarringly loud. I couldn’t read Hunter’s facial expression. I could only see his profile, all icy lines and impassive, chiseled edges. Io peeked out of the collar of his shirt, soft paws curled over the edge.

“Hazel,” he started.

“Hunter,” I said, trying to make my voice as deep as his.

He wasn’t amused.
Outside the windshield, a world away, latecomers milled around the lot, taking their time before making the final trek to first period. No one looked our way. A tree curved over us, bleak and bare and caked with snow. Slow, lazy drifts began to fall.

After what seemed like the longest second, Hunter
turned to me. “Look,” he said, his voice even, “I know I supposedly told you—”

But I was already hurtling across the console and pressing my lips against his. Nothing romantic—it was quick and impersonal and it was over as soon as it began, wi
th me pulling away and scrambling back against the door.

He blinked
. Then, ever so softly, his lips parted.

“I owed you a kiss,” I said, trying not to panic at the hazy look on his face. “And I’m a woman of my word, Slade. So there you have it. Nice mouth, by the way.” I curled my fingertips toward
its sinful rosiness, as if to grab it. “Very soft, like a marshmallow. Kissable as hell. Fuckable as hell too, you know, but I’d better stop before my mind goes down the gutter. So…” He still hadn’t responded, and I trailed off. “Con…congratulations? Um.”

He stared at me.

“I literally gave you the biggest compliment on the planet,” I said. “A fuckable mouth? Come on. Not many can boast a fuckable mouth.”

“Did you just…”
He looked as if he’d been thrown in a foreign country—shit, a foreign dimension—without one hint of a map. His lips hesitated before falling shut. But I already knew what he was going to ask.

“I, uh—” I
flinched. “Y-Yeah?”

“Oh.” His voice was startlingly soft.

And then a thousand Io lookalikes exploded inside the car.

They flurried
around us, playing with the tips of my hair and dancing against the ceiling, laughing as they patted their paws together. Some tugged on my fingertips until they touched his. Flustered, I resisted. He too was swallowed up by them, a silver cloud flashing around him, nuzzling his jaw, the curve of his neck, his cheeks. The way his tattoos were lit by their haloes looked vaguely familiar. I glanced at his arms, and then at him.

He was
unaffected by the commotion. He stared at me.

“You do realize I’m drowning here?” I said, gently push
ing away the silver tufts that wriggled around me, bumping against my lips, tugging at my hair and kissing my fingertips. They engulfed my face, soft and warm, and I tried to resurface. “How many of these do you have, anyway? Ash told me you created a ton, but damn.”

S
lowly, he reached into his back pocket.

“Are you ever going to…
” I trailed off when he lifted a green-and-white box to his mouth, nudged a cigarette out and put it between his lips. “…talk?”

He
turned and opened the door and stepped outside, slamming it shut. Right away, he ducked his head to light up. I stayed frozen inside the SUV. The Io lookalikes whirred to a stop and blinked after him, as confused as I was. Some had made it out. They nuzzled his arms and curled up against his neck, as if to soothe him.

Finally, my mouth moved. “W
ait, Hunter—” Shit. I scrambled out, grabbing my bag and heaving it over my shoulder. The other angelic little creatures followed, staying close to me. The parking lot was almost empty and no one, of course, noticed them.

Worrying my bottom lip,
I went over to the other side, where he was leaning against the driver’s side door and was taking the longest drag I’d ever seen him take. Half the cigarette sizzled into ash and crumbled to the slick ground. Snowy drifts fell and dusted across his hair, making him look like an icy prince from underneath. For some reason, it suited him, the coldness, the snow.

“Hey,” I said, “
you know you can get in trouble for smoking on campus, right? So—”

He
stared straight ahead, letting out a long stream of smoke and immediately bringing the cigarette to his lips. There was a slight crease between his brows.

Oh, no. “W-What is it? Did you not—like it? Did you want tongue?” I reached out as if to touch him, and then pulled
back. “Here, let me try again—”

“I need to
calm down,” he said, his voice quiet and even.

At the sound of that, I froze.
“You,” I repeated. “Calm down.”

No response.

“For crying out loud, Hunter—” I let out one incredulous laugh. “If you calmed down more than you already are, you’d be asleep.”

Nothing.

“Let me hug you. Please?” I opened my arms. “Come ‘ere, Hun-Hun. Come to mama.”

“I’m not going to move.” When
I stepped toward him, he lashed out and pressed two fingers against my forehead, keeping me at arm’s length. “And neither are you.”

I stretched my hands out
. “Come on, you asshole. Let me hug you.”

“No.”

“Pleeease. Hazel just wants to make you feel nice and warm.”

“No.”

I fought his hold. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t move. “Let—me—hug—you.”

He took one last, lingering drag of his cigarette and dropped it on the ground,
snuffing it out under his boot. “I need to not see you for a good two hours,” he muttered, turning on his heel. A slew of his little creatures tugged at his fingertips and blinked up at him. After a stricken pause, I hurried after his retreating back and stepped in front of him, putting a hand on his chest.

My palm met thin air. He’d already taken a step back, so fast I could barely see it, and my fingers curled against the em
ptiness before dropping all together. Hunter stared down at me, facial expression as even as it’d ever been.

“I don’t…understand,” I said
. “You told me I owed you a kiss, and I kissed you. It wasn’t a big deal, Hun-Hun, it was just a little peck.” I took a hesitant step forward. He didn’t move. “Didn’t you want it? Or—”

Nothing. As always.

“I thought…” My voice faltered. An Io lookalike wriggled up to his neck and lingered where his heartbeat, I assumed, thrummed. The others were doing the same thing, nuzzling his inked wrist and the inside bend of his elbow, purring like content cats. “What…” I said, meeting his eyes. “Are they checking your pulse?”