Starbound (11 page)

I had to hand it to her; that had been pretty impressive. But I couldn’t dwell on it for long, because the damn black spot in my head was nagging me and our next classes were about to begin.

“Don’t be late for practice today,” she warned, flipping her dark hair as she stood up from the table.

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever you say, warden.”

She walked backwards, grinning. “You know it. I am going to be on you like stink on shit.”

Lovely
.

***

I arrived at practice right on schedule, to Claudia’s delight, and thank God, because when Harper walked in five minutes later Claudia started busting her chops.

Jeesh
, and I thought I was having a heinous day.

“Listen up, bitches.” Claudia’s voice boomed through the gymnasium. “Our first game was a freaking debacle.” Her blue eyes found mine, and she gave me a pointed look that said it was entirely my fault.

I shrunk.

“We are not leaving tonight until we have performed this routine flawlessly. Got it?”

There were a bunch of grumbles and groans from the squad. I wanted to crawl under the bleachers. Cassandra bumped into me as we got into our points. “Nice job,” she mumbled under her breath.

Clearly everyone on the team was pissed at me. I stood there wide-eyed and red-cheeked, wishing this day would come to an end. I was ready to throw my pom poms in.

Claudia cued the music and counted down the first steps. Mindlessly, I fell into the moves, but my heart just wasn’t feeling it. Not ten minutes into our grueling practice and I already couldn’t stop thinking about Seth, seeing his devastatingly handsome face. God, I was Seth crazed. I needed to find a way to purge myself of him, or something. He was interfering in every aspect of my life without even trying.

Yet I couldn’t stop seeing his eyes, the color of dark pines, his lazy grin and how it transformed his face. He could go from harsh and cold to irresistible and charming in two seconds flat, with just a curve of his lips. Don’t even get me started on his mouth. Heaven help me.

Then like a cloud had been lifted from my vision, the memories of last night unfolded in my head, a tumbling of pictures. From the circle, to Elena’s contempt, to the magickal blue flames and how Seth’s face was revealed in the smoke after I dropped a piece of my hair into the spell—it all came back in a rush.

I stumbled.

Seth
.

Seth was mine.

He was the piece of me I was missing—my starsoul.

I jerked back to the present, standing still while the others kicked and clapped around me. My lungs hurt, and my body went numb.

Damn him
. It only took a heartbeat for me to figure out what Seth had done. He had messed with my memories. I could hear Zeke’s voice in my head, casting a spell to make me forget. It had Seth’s signature oozing all over it. Just like the pompous ass to think he had the right to take something so sacred from me. What gave him that right?

He was going to pay.

Bursting with uncontained rage, I stormed off, leaving a trail of murmurs behind me. Scooping my gym bag from the bleachers, I shoved through the double doors, letting them slam behind me.

“Katia!” Claudia yelled. “What the hell?”

But I was already gone. I was probably going to be booted from the team, but right now, I didn’t care.

Seth Nightingale was in for a shock if he thought he was going to get away with this. Well, his brilliant plan was about to backfire in his face.

The engine of my car revved to life, and the tires squealed as I slammed my foot on the gas. I swung into Eddy’s parking lot and double-parked. Marching, the door flew open and I glared at my target, spitting mad. He was writing up a receipt for a customer, but I was past the point of logic. The smile he had for the little lady faded when he caught sight of me. I tried to ignore how incredible he looked in faded, ripped jeans, and an oil stained T-shirt.

Yumotastic.

Focus
.

I had a purpose here, and it wasn’t to check out how fabulous Seth’s butt looked in jeans, but it was an extraordinary sight nonetheless. He handed the lady her receipt, and I barely bit my tongue long enough for her to walk through the exit when I pounced.

“How dare you?” I spat.

He cocked his head. “I’m not following. What exactly are you pissed at me for?”

“You had my memory wiped.” My voice was tight and flaming.

He didn’t deny it. “Kats, what the hell is wrong with you?”

“How could you, Seth?”

Nothing. He just stared at me, looking stunned.

His silence only fueled my fire. “I swear to God, I am going to rip out your tongue if you don’t say something.” My tone got louder, louder, and louder.

I should have been prepared for him to do something extreme. The next thing I knew, he was in front of me and I was being hoisted in the air. With a whoosh of air, I was slung over his shoulder. “Seth,” I rumbled. “Put. Me. Down.”

He ignored me.

Time for phase two. I made a scene. We hadn’t yet left the shop, so I pounded my fists on his back, wiggling in his hold, making it difficult for him to keep his grasp. He was a lot stronger than I’d bargained for. The muscles in his arms bunched, and I made no headway. He just barreled through the office and out the back door like I was a sack of sugar, not to mention I was still in uniform, which meant the whole shop got a nice view of my red spankies.

So I bit his arm.

This time I got a reaction. He jerked and dropped me to my feet. I wasn’t prepared for the jarring impact. “Why you little hellcat…” His jaw clenched.

I radiated anger. “What right do you have to be mad at me? You are the one who stole something from me.”

He leaned against the building and folded his arms in that I-don’t-give-a-rat-ass stance. “Technically, it was Zeke.”

I was seconds away from screaming in frustration. “You can shove your technicalities up your ass. You were the one who ordered him to do it.” I poked him in the chest.

He shrugged. “And...”

“And you tried to make me forget that you and I are…are…” I couldn’t even say the words.

“Starbound,” he supplied, and I hated him for it. How could he be so calm when I was losing my shit?

“Why would you do that? I mean, I get you don’t want me—”

His whole demeanor changed. Gone was the offhanded I-don’t-give-two-shits and in its place was something dark and scary. “You don’t know jack about what I want, Kats.”

He circled me, and I was forced to take a step back. “I know that you are the world’s biggest A-hole.”

“That isn’t breaking news, honey,” he said with a wicked grin.

I narrowed my eyes. “Don’t call me that.”

His brow arched. “What do you want me to call you? According to the fates, you’re mine.” The way he spoke sounded possessive, which only confused me more.

He wanted me. He didn’t want me. I wished he would just make up his mind.

My heart started hammering in my chest. “The fates have a seriously sick sense of humor.”

There was liquid fire in his green eyes to match mine. “You’re telling me.”

“And last I saw, Elena was draping herself all over you. Isn’t that just peachy?” I added sarcastically.

Deep bottle-green eyes held mine. “Jealous?”

No
.

Hell yes
.

Fine. My whole body was laced with dark jealousy. “Not in this life.”

“Since when did you become a liar? His voice had lowered into a zone I recognized as dangerous. “Anyway, it’s none of your business.” He stepped toward me.

None of my business
? Okay, so we weren’t a couple, we hadn’t even ever been on a date, but in reality, we were a hell of a lot more than that. He was, in a better sense, my soul mate—the one chosen for me by the fates. That made it my business. Our lives, our futures were intertwined whether he liked it or not. “Since you took it upon yourself to use magick on me. What do you want from me, Seth? If you don’t want me, then why go to the trouble to make me forget?”

He had somehow managed to box me against the side of the brick building with his body. Tingles radiated through me at his close proximity. With a gleam of defiance and danger, he ran the back of his hand down my cheek. “It doesn’t really matter what I want.”

My chest rose and fell in heavy breathing. “I hate you.” Even as the words left my mouth, they felt weak.

The air surrounding us was electrifying. “That’s just it, Kats. You and I both know that hate isn’t what you feel for me.”

I shoved at his chest, nowhere else to go. “Screw off, Seth.”

“The crap that comes out of your pretty mouth never fails to amaze me.” His eyes shifted to my lips.

I tried not to melt into a puddle at his feet. “Bite me.”

“With pleasure.” He gave me another wicked grin, a slow curving of lips that erased some of the harshness from his face and replaced it with a devastating hotness.

Holy crap
.

I didn’t know whether to slap him across the cheek or kiss his mouth. “Stay away from me,” I warned, afraid I was going to do both.

His eyes snapped back to mine. “Easier said than done.”

That was it. I’d reached my boiling point. If I didn’t leave right then, I was going to do something utterly stupid and regrettable. My nails dug into my hands as I clenched them in frustration and desire. How the hell could he make me feel both at the same time?

I clung to my last thread of sanity and pivoted on my heel. My hair soared through the space between us, and my middle finger saluted him. It was
my
signature move.

How had that gone so horribly wrong? How had I gone from hating him to wanting him in a blink?

Damn Seth Nightingale.

Chapter 11

Seth

Shit. On. A. Brick.

Kat remembered.

Not only had she remembered, but she had me twisted in knots. Closing my eyes, I sunk against the brick building, needing all the support I could get. My body was craving her, exuding with the need for her presence.

Balling my fists, I was going to wipe Zeke’s face with the floor, and that was before I let him explain how the hell this had happened. If he had duped me, he was going to get a black eye. Forget that we were friends—this was Kat’s life at stake.

I ran an unsteady hand through my already ragged and tousled hair. Christ, she drove me bonkers in both maddening and needful ways.

Kat had not left mere minutes ago when I heard the bells from inside the shop chime. The last thing I wanted was to deal with people, not now, but my job had other ideas. So much for hiding outside, I still had a job to do, at least for another hour.

Pasting a false smile on my face, I pushed through the back door and glanced up.
Just freaking
g
reat
. Today was just my lucky day. Everyone wanted a piece of me. I groaned internally when I saw Kat’s mom waiting in the small lobby of the shop.

My smile fell. “Hello, Mrs. Montgomery. Can I help you with something?”

She was so refined, giving me a glimpse of the woman Kat would become. Her blue eyes, almost like her daughter’s, were warm and inviting. “Did I just see Katia?” she asked.

Busted
. “Yes. She successfully told me to jump off a bridge.”

Kat’s mom’s eyes twinkled, reminding me of Kat, spunky and full of fire. “That sounds like my Katia. Do you have a minute, Seth? I know you are at work…”

What a day this was turning out to be. Two Montgomery women in one day, this was surely going to be a trying experience. I had yet to pull myself together after going round one with Kat, and then her mom came waltzing in. “Sure. Is everything okay?”

She folded her hands on the counter, bracelets on her wrist jingling together. “I hope so. Katia seems to be going through some rough patches lately. I’ve noticed that she hasn’t been herself.”

“And you thought I might have something to do with it,” I responded, folding my arms.

“Do you, Seth?” Straight and direct like her daughter.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” I admitted softly. “Things have gotten…messy between us the last few weeks.” There really wasn’t a simple way to explain what was going on between Kat and me. And I was even less comfortable telling her mom. “I don’t know how it happened. I don’t know what changed this year.”

She tapped a finger on the counter, contemplating. “So you’ve noticed that she is different?”

I nodded. “I’ve noticed. She is starting to put the pieces together.”

“Is there something we should know about, Seth? Have you and Katia—”

I avoided her eyes. This was a nixie who could detect a lie a mile away. “No. Nothing like that. We had a small hiccup on All Hallows’ Eve, but I took care of it, though she is persistent and very resilient. I am not sure how much longer we can keep her in the dark.”

Pride crossed her expression. “That sounds like her. There isn’t a puzzle she can’t solve. It was naïve of us to think that we could protect her from this.”

I wasn’t going to argue with that. From the get go, I wanted to tell her and had almost spilled the beans at least a gazillion times over the years. Then someone would dangle her life in front of me and the idea no longer felt safe.

“I know how much you care about her, Seth, and I am so sorry that things couldn’t be different. I want my daughter to find happiness. It breaks my heart knowing that she will never have the kind of love she deserves.” Regret crinkled at the corner of her eyes.

She will never have me
, I thought to myself. I am the only one who could love Kat the way she was meant to be loved. Her mom knew it. I knew it. And now Kat knew it. It filled me with all-consuming jealousy thinking of her with someone who wasn’t me. But what choice did I have?

Knowing Kat, it was only a matter of time before she did something reckless now that she knew what Zeke and I had done. I needed to get to her first and fix this. For both our sakes. “Me too,” I whispered. Sorrow and remorse mirrored in both our faces.