Wings of the Wicked - By Courtney Allison Moulton Page 0,35
say that,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s not true.”
“I have never lied to you.”
I had to leave before I started crying again. I pulled away from him, and his hands slipped from around my waist and fell. “I’ve got to get back to school before lunch hour is over.”
“I know,” he said.
Without saying good-bye, I left Nathaniel’s house and drove back to school. The rest of the day went by in a blurred daze, and I made a point of avoiding meeting Kate, only texting her back to tell her that I had learned nothing at all.
11
I WROTE TWO PAPERS FOR SCHOOL THAT WEEK, AND by Thursday I needed some down time and to get out of my house. Will and I were still a little shaky after our fight-slash-discussion about his history with Ava. No one I knew would bother me at the library, and it sounded like the perfect escape. Snow began to fall, lightly enough that it would be safe to drive in the dark if I went slowly, but tomorrow I’d have to shovel the driveway for sure. Three hours before closing was the perfect amount of time for me to find a good book and curl up in one of the giant sofa chairs on the second floor.
After some searching through the stacks, I selected a book I’d first found on my mom’s shelf when I was in middle school. I remembered being sucked in by the romance, so I grabbed it off the shelf and padded up the creaky stairs to the second-floor lounge, where it was quieter. I settled into a squishy chair next to an end table and lamp and lost myself in the novel. I didn’t even notice the reaper in the room quietly suppressing his energy until he dipped his head over my shoulder and cast his shadow over the pages.
I jerked out of my seat to face him and dropped the book, startled by the sensation of the reaper’s energy crawling on my skin like feather-light spider legs. “Cadan!” I cried out in a hushed voice.
He wore a gentle smile edged with amusement. The warm light in the library made the gold color of his hair even richer. “That book must be pretty good. You didn’t even notice me until I was right next to you.”
“What do you want?” For some reason, I wasn’t afraid of him—though I really, really should have been. I couldn’t explain the feeling. He never made me feel threatened.
“To see you.”
I blinked. “Why?”
He didn’t seem bothered by my suspicion. “Why not?”
Was he serious? “Cadan, we’re enemies.”
“Who decided that?” he asked, sounding genuinely curious. He stepped around my chair to sit in the one across from me. “If we were enemies, then I would have tried to kill you already.”
“So far you haven’t.”
“But if you truly thought we were enemies, then wouldn’t you have tried to kill me by now? You hunt the demonic almost every night, so it’s not like you wait around to be attacked. You could have come after me, but you haven’t, though I can’t say I’m not disappointed.” He touched my hair the way he had the night we first met. I watched his fingers treat the lock as if it were delicate. The tips of his fingers brushed my neck and trailed across my collarbone, sending my heart pounding.
I wasn’t about to show any fear by backing away from him. “Don’t make me get violent.”
“Oh, baby,” he whispered, his voice husky and his smile darkening. “Please do.”
“You’re into that sort of thing, are you?”
“I’m into you.”
“This is extremely awkward,” I said, unsure of how to react to his blatant flirting.
“I disagree.” He let my hair fall, but he didn’t step away. “I very much like this.”
“It’s barely even nighttime,” I noted. “Shouldn’t you nocturnal types be sleeping at this hour?”
“What can I say? I’m an early riser.”
I was tired of being toyed with. “Why did you find me, Cadan? Besides to try to shower me with your charm. Last time I saw you, you came with a warning.”
His smile faded again. “I’m sorry to say that I have another. Bastian has a relic, the Constantina necklace.”
I frowned, thinking of Ava’s anguish over Zane’s death. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
“So you located the relic’s guardian,” he deduced.
“What was left of him, yes.”
His mouth tightened. “I suspected that he must have been killed in order to take the relic from him. The guardians never surrender.”