difference?” She plops on my bed, folding her legs under her.
“He’s immortal, Niko. Age is irrelevant to him.”
At least I hope it is.
“Your birthday is in two weeks. Eighteen is better than seventeen for sure.”
I clutch the pillow tighter. “Ugh. I don’t want to talk about him with you.”
“Fine.” She jumps off the bed. “But can I give you a piece of advice? If you want more than friendship from him, you have to pounce. Don’t just wait around for him to make the first move. Take control.” She slams a closed fist against her palm.
“Okay, Love Doctor. I’ll definitely do that. As a matter of fact, I’m just going to head over to his place and attack his mouth.”
Ha, right. Wouldn’t that be something?
Niko’s lips break into a wide grin. “It seems you’ve been thinking about doing that quite a lot. Stop thinking and just do it. Carpe noctem.”
My phone decides to ping just then, making my heart somersault to the top of my throat. Niko is still watching me with a knowing smile when I flip my phone to see who texted me. It’s Rikkon. Boom. My heart soars. God, I have it bad.
“By the upturn of your lips, I guess that’s a message from him?”
I level a glower at her. “Why are you still here? Get out!” I toss my pillow in her direction.
“I’m leaving. Unlike you, I do have a social life. I’m going out with Troy. Don’t tell Mom.”
“Who is Troy?”
“A boy in my class. He works at the movie theater, which is pretty convenient.”
“And why can’t Mom know about him?” I raise an eyebrow.
“Because his dad runs the guild of rogue mages in Salem.” She flashes me a toothy grin, and then bails.
Of course. Niko couldn’t simply date someone from a regular family. Even a human would have been more preferable to Mom than rogues. I’d worry if her boyfriends lasted more than a month. Troy is the flavor of the week, hardly worth my concern.
I switch my attention to my phone, trembling as I swipe the screen to reveal Rikkon’s message. There are more than one, sent an hour ago. Somehow, there was a delay on his end. Maybe he didn’t have coverage where he was. The first messages are just a bunch of random characters typed in. My heart sinks. He must have butt-typed these. But as I keep scrolling, my disappointment turns into real concern. In one of them he asks me to join him at Tuck an’ Roll, a dive bar in a skeevy part of town.
Fuck. There’s only one reason he’d go there: to score drugs.
I should have known. With the way visions have plagued him lately, it was just a matter of time before he relapsed.
Propelled by a sense of urgency, I get dressed in warm clothes and bolt out of my room. It’s early in the evening and Mom won’t be home for another hour or so. I’m glad that I don’t have to explain to her where I’m going in such a hurry. She’s been more attentive lately, which is an improvement, but also a curse. Niko and I are too used to independence.
I open the front door with a jerky movement, not prepared for the body that falls into me. A yell escapes my lips, but then I recognize Rikkon’s long blond hair under his hoodie. I stagger back, straining with the weight of his body in my arms.
“What the hell, Rikkon?”
He straightens up, looking at me through glazed eyes. He reeks of cheap beer, too. Damn it.
“I’m sorry, Mir. I tried to resist. But I was hurting so much. It’s all good now.”
I pull him inside, and then shut the door. He leans against the wall, dropping his head into his hand.
“What did you take?”
“It was just pot and a lot of beer.” He hiccups.
I grab his hand and steer him to the kitchen. “Come on. We need to get you sobered up.”
“How about some food? I’m starved.”
“I bet you are.”
I pull up a chair and force him to sit down. But Rikkon grabs my hand again, pulling me onto his lap. My pulse quickens while my heart drums like a hummingbird trapped in my chest.
“You’re such a good friend, Mir.” His eyes become clearer somehow as he stares into mine. “And so damn gorgeous. Sometimes it’s hard to not let the lines blur.” His gaze drops to my lips, and I’m pretty sure I stop breathing at that point.
He leans in and brushes his lips against mine. Electric sparks crackle where we touch, but a sense of wrongness also comes with it, soiling the moment. I pull back, then jump off his lap.
“You’re drunk and high. Let’s keep the lines sharp.”
I turn around and get busy pulling stuff out of the fridge, but I’m screaming inside. I can’t believe I ran away from him. So what if he’s drunk? Doesn’t alcohol make people do what they’ve secretly being craving for a while?
“What do you feel like eating? I can make a grilled cheese if you like.”
The screeching noise of a chair rasping against the floor draws my attention. Rikkon is standing still, his body all of a sudden tense as he stares into the hallway.
I follow his line of vision, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. “What is it?”
“Is the Taluah Mirror here?” he asks without looking at me.
“Yes. My mother brought it home from Elena’s apartment. Why?”
“It’s calling to me.”
He leaves the kitchen, heading straight for my mother’s office where the mirror is. I follow Rikkon, feeling incredible unease now. That mirror turned into a portal to hell. Why is it calling him? My mother keeps it covered with a black sheet for that reason. She doesn’t dare to look at it, not even by accident. But Rikkon pulls the sheet off. Right now, it’s working as a mirror, not a portal—at least, the only thing I see reflected is Rikkon’s image.
I stay back, not daring to come any closer. Niko told me what she saw when Aurora and Saxon were trying to get back from hell. And Aurora saw something awful in it too. I don’t dare risk it.
“Is everything okay?” I ask.
He neither answers nor takes his eyes off the object. Worry gnaws at my insides. What if he’s trapped in a horrifying vision? I’m about to pull him back when he raises his arm and touches the surface. A bright flash of light illuminates the entire room, almost blinding me. I sling my arm over my face to protect my eyes. When it fades, Rikkon is sprawled on the floor, unmoving.
“Shit!” I run to him, and make sure I don’t look directly into the mirror when I hook my arms under his armpits and drag him a safe distance away. Then I cover the mirror with the sheet again.
He groans, slowly coming back to the world of the living. I drop into a crouch next to him and push his long hair off his face. He blinks his eyes open, but it’s another moment before he focuses on my face.
“Are you okay?”
He doesn’t answer right away, and I fear he has a concussion. His eyes become rounder suddenly, and at once, he sits up, grabbing me by the shoulders. “I saw Ellnesari, Mir. Through the mirror. I saw my mother’s court. I remember everything.”
To Be Continued…
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Also by Michelle Hercules
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Contemporary Romance:
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Reverse Harem Romance:
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Wolf’s Calling (Wolves of Crimson Hollow #2)
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About the Author
USA Today Bestselling Author Michelle Hercules always knew creative arts were her calling but not in a million years did she think she would become an author. With a background in fashion design she thought she would follow that path. But one day, out of the blue, she had an idea for a book. One page turned into ten pages, ten pages turned into a hundred, and before she knew, her first novel, The Prophecy of Arcadia, was born.
Michelle Hercules resides in The Netherlands with her husband and daughter. She is currently working on the Crimson Hollow series and the Oz in Space series.
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