Reign Fall (14 page)

“Okay with me, too,” Clara said.

They all looked at me, demon princess and potential destroyer of fun times.

I shrugged. “Sure. Why not? Brittany, it’s your idea so
you
get to go first. Truth or dare?” She twisted her index finger through her long red hair and shifted on the sofa. “Dare.”

“As if there was any other choice,” Larissa said under her breath.

I wracked my brain. Brittany was best friends with Larissa who’d made my life very uncomfortable since coming to Erin Heights High. She’d never done a thing to defend me. And now her immediate fate was in my hands. Very tempting. But what should I dare her to do?

Then I got a wicked idea. “I want you to call Peter Hollings and ask him out on a date.” She blanched and her excited grin disappeared from her face.

“Peter Hollings? As if Brittany’d ever look twice at that loser.” Larissa snorted. “Actually, now that I think about it, that’s pretty funny. Do it.” Unlike Larissa, I wasn’t quite cruel enough to pick a dare that would humiliate a guy from school, even one I didn’t know very well. Yeah, Peter was not a part of the Royal Party. He was a total genius. He wore glasses. He’d been assigned to tutor Brittany so she had half a chance at passing Algebra. Some might consider him a geek.

And I had a pretty good hunch, from the way Brittany watched him every lunch hour across the cafeteria, that she had a massive crush on him anyway.

Brittany looked directly at me as if begging me to take it back. I fixed her with a confident smile.

“Well?” I prompted.

Everybody had secrets. Some were just better at hiding them than others. And some secrets were only dangerous if we kept them to ourselves.

Slowly, the color returned to her face and a look of determination lit up her eyes. “Fine.” I nodded. “Good.”

She bit her bottom lip and pulled out her cell phone, hitting a few keys before she held it to her ear. Her knuckles were white as the rest of us watched.

“Peter?” she said, her voice a bit hoarse. “It—it’s Brittany. Uh, yeah. Hi.” She cleared her throat. The sound of his voice had already brightened her expression. “Listen, I have a question for you. Do you...want to go out with me? Tomorrow night?” A small smile softened her tense expression. “No, not for more lessons. For, like, dinner maybe?” There was a pause and a momentarily worried look slid through her eyes, but then she brightened again. “Great. I’ll see you then. Bye!”

She hung up and glanced at me with giddy expression. “There, I did it.” I smiled back at her. “Well done.”

Just call me a half-demon matchmaker.

Larissa yawned, obviously bored that something more dramatic didn’t happen. “Okay, Brittany, your turn to ask.”

She did. She asked Larissa, who also picked “dare.” Brittany got Larissa to eat two dill pickles—Larissa’s absolutely least favorite food.

The sour and disgusted look on her face made almost everything in my entire life worthwhile.

“Okay,” Larissa said, after downing a glass of water to get the taste out of her mouth and we returned to the game. “My turn. Nikki, truth or dare?”
Groan.
“Truth.”

“I’ve been wondering this for a while...do you like Rhys as more than just a friend?” She couldn’t keep the grin off her stupid face.

I sent a withering look her way. “Really, Larissa? Are you trying to cause trouble here or something?”

“That wasn’t a yes or no answer.”

Melinda watched me carefully. “You have to answer it, Nikki. It’s the rules.”
Rules, shmules.
“No, I don’t like Rhys as more than a friend.”

“Truth means you can’t lie,” Larissa said.

“I’m not lying.”

Or maybe I was.

Crap. Didn’t matter. Even if I was lying a little about my ridiculously confusing and complicated feelings toward Rhys, demons—or half-demons—were very good at it. Therefore, Larissa could kiss my butt.

“My turn,” I said. “Larissa, truth or dare?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Truth.”

“Do you really hate my guts so much that you want to ruin my friendship with Melinda?” What could I say? She’d decided to move this game into a less fun area. I was just keeping up the pace.

“Come on, guys.” Melinda grabbed her can of Diet Coke off the coffee table and took a sip from it. “Let’s try to keep things friendly here.”

I gave her an innocent look. “I’m asking in a friendly way.” Larissa leaned back in her seat and sent a pensive look toward me. “Do I hate your guts? No.

Do I want to ruin your friendship with Melinda? Sometimes.”

“Why?”

“Mostly because you coming here from nowhere and barging into our group annoyed me.

You hadn’t earned the right to be her friend. So you first met when you saved her life when she was choking. Does that mean you automatically get a free pass to friendship and popularity?” It was true, that was how we’d first met. I was very glad my mother had sent me on that first aid course instead of day camp.

“I very strongly vote yes,” Melinda said. “But that’s not why we’ve stayed friends. And that’s not why Nikki’s popular.”

“I sure don’t feel popular.” Other than being Melinda’s best friend, I still felt like an outsider at school. Stuff like that might have bugged me more in the past, but lately, I honestly couldn’t care less.

“Even Chris asked you out. You were his date to Winter Formal.” Larissa said it snidely, as if she still couldn’t believe it. “Do you know how many girls wanted to go out with him?”

“Past tense,” Brittany added.

“Well, yeah,” Larissa agreed. “Chris is a freak now. Totally off the market.”

“Don’t be mean to Chris,” I said sharply, immediately rising to his defense.

“You want all the boys to yourself. Chris, Rhys...”

“I don’t want Chris and I definitely don’t want Rhys. He’s dating Melinda.”

“He is.” Melinda held out her right hand. “He bought me this bracelet.” It was a nice bracelet. He hadn’t cheaped out on it, that was for sure. However, the bracelet wasn’t exactly a rare and immortal faery rose like he’d given me...

I really didn’t want to think about gifts from Rhys right now.

And I especially didn’t want to think about how much I liked that stupid rose.

“Yeah, he sees you at school. You hang out at lunch. But have you actually gone out with him otherwise?” Larissa studied Melinda. “Truth or dare, Melinda.” She took another gulp of her drink and cast a glance around at the rest of us. “This game sucks.”

Clara watched all of this with wide eyes. “What is going on here? This is starting to feel really uncomfortable.”

I looked at her. “This is conflict between friends in the form of a fun party game.”

“I thought that’s what it was.”

“Truth,” Melinda said finally.

Larissa looked thoughtful. “Oh, so many things I want to know the truth about. But let’s start with this—why have you been so weird lately? You’re all distracted and you’re nothing like you used to be. Is it Nikki? Does she have some sort of negative effect on people...first Chris and now you...to strip them of their previous awesomeness?”

“Those were a few questions,” she said thinly. “How about just one?”

“Okay, fine. What’s wrong with you lately?”

Melinda snorted. I half-expected her to throw Larissa out for being rude, but they’d been friends for a while. I figured Larissa’s behavior didn’t shock her anymore, not as much as it shocked the rest of us. Me and Clara, and even Brittany, sat on our sofa staring at the two of them on the other side of the coffee table. They glared at each other.

“What’s wrong with me?” Melinda said. “I quit my ballet lessons. They were taking over my life. And now everything is slowly getting back to normal even though my parents are furious with me over it. It’s no big deal, but there’s been a ton of drama.” Larissa studied her carefully for a moment before she leaned back in her seat. “Oh. Well, that makes total sense. Parents can be so annoying. Is it better now?” Melinda nodded. “It’s getting there.”

I let out the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. Crisis averted. For a moment there, I thought Melinda was going to pick this incredibly awkward time to confess everything.

“So,” Clara said, “This game of truth or dare seems to have turned into all truth and no dare.” Melinda looked at her with a smile. “Okay, you’re up next, Clara. Who’s the one guy at school you’d want to date if you had the chance?”

“Rhys,” she said immediately. Then she let out a nervous giggle. “Hey, you wanted the truth.” Melinda stared at her with shock for a moment before she started to laugh, too. “You have good taste. But hands off, he’s mine.”

Clara pulled her legs up so she could casually cross them yoga-style. “I don’t know about that. The way he looks at Nikki, you’d think they were planning their wedding.” The sip of Coke I’d just taken nearly shot right out of my nose.

“Excuse me?” Melinda said, icily.

“I—I mean, I haven’t even met him yet or anything. But I just noticed the other day in the halls that he was looking at Nikki like...well, I thought they were going out. But they’re not. He’s totally going out with you, of course. I know that now. Sorry.” I wiped the Coke off my face with a napkin as my previously eaten pizza did an unpleasant back flip in my stomach.
Planning their wedding?
What an unfortunate choice of words, especially considering the you-know-what. But what difference did Clara’s opinion make, really? This was a non-issue. Melinda even said herself on Monday that she wasn’t into Rhys like she’d been before Christmas break.

I glanced at Larissa, who looked very amused by this exchange. Brittany was scarfing down another piece of pizza as if this was nothing to concern herself over.

“Forget it. It’s okay,” Melinda said after a few very silent and uncomfortable moments.

And that pretty much ended our short but rousing game of Truth or...
Truth
. Melinda seemed to brush off her annoyance over Clara’s statement and re-establish her previously cheery outlook.

She went to fetch a bowl of potato chips that she set on the table between us and put in the first movie of the night—
Avatar
. I had to agree, it was a good idea to end any further questions and start some entertainment that kept the talking to a minimum. And
Avatar
was good for three hours of reduced chat. Tall blue aliens were a great distraction.

“Nikki, can I talk to you for a minute?” Melinda asked. “In private?”
Uh-oh.

“Sure thing.” I stood from the sofa. Clara gave me a pained look that clearly said she was sorry for sticking her foot in her mouth and causing trouble. I forced a grin to let her know it was okay.

It wasn’t, but whatever. Now was the time for damage control.

Larissa just looked amused about the entire situation. My opinion on her had not changed so far this evening. Forget demons.
She
was evil incarnate.

“Follow me,” Melinda said.

She led me toward the dining room, clear on the other side of the house so we wouldn’t be within hearing distance of the others.

“I’m not interested in stealing Rhys away from you if that’s what you’re worried about,” I said immediately. I didn’t feel the need to mention that I’d promised to kiss him in exchange for his getting me something I wanted. “Clara seems nice, but I don’t think she’s too smart. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

“Sure she does. Rhys does look at you sometimes in a way that a girlfriend wouldn’t be too happy about.”

My throat tightened. “That’s not my fault.”

Or maybe it was. I wasn’t so sure anymore.

“I know. Which is why you shouldn’t worry about it. I have bigger issues right now than boy problems, Nikki.”

“Oh. Okay.” I frowned, the tension in my chest easing off a little. “Then what is this about?” She wrung her hands and paced back and forth. “That kind of sucked just now. All those questions. And it wasn’t very nice of Larissa to put you on the spot like that.”

“Larissa isn’t nice,” I said simply. That explained pretty much everything to do with the girl.

“It did make me realize how weird I’ve been acting lately. I honestly thought I’d hid it really well, but that Larissa noticed it—that you’ve noticed it—tells me I’m lousy at hiding my feelings. I’ve struggled with this, Nikki. For weeks. And I’m about to burst from keeping it inside. I don’t want to anymore. I know this is probably a bad time, but I just need to get this off my chest.”

I didn’t think I liked where this was headed. “Melinda...”

“You said at New Year’s that I could tell you anything, right? Did you really mean that? Can I tell you anything and you—you’ll believe me? Even if it sounds really crazy?”
Say no
, I commanded myself.
Tell her no!

“Of course I meant it,” I said instead. A cold line of perspiration slid down my spine. “Tell me anything you need to tell me. I’m your best friend. But maybe we should wait till the others are gone? Wouldn’t you feel more comfortable then?”

And give me a chance to make my excuses and escape?

“No, it needs to be now. I just feel like I’ve held this in for too long already. It’ll be better when I get it out, I know it.” She moved to the door and glanced outside, as if checking if anyone was eavesdropping. Then she let out a very long, shuddery sigh and turned to face me, her expression bleak.

“Just after my birthday in November, my parents sat me down and had a long talk about family history and duty and responsibility. It sucked. I didn’t understand any of it. But it changed my life whether I wanted it to or not.” She swallowed hard and ran a nervous hand through her long platinum blond hair. “Honestly, it’s like something out of a television show. But it’s not nearly as cool or glamorous.”

I stayed utterly silent, not wanting to hurry her. I didn’t want to hear what she was telling me.

This couldn’t really be happening.

“For centuries, there have been people who are trained to guard this world from...from other worlds that exist. I know it sounds bizarre, but that’s what I was told. So there are, like, dark worlds. With monsters and bad things in them. They’re blocked right now and can’t come here—