Page 97 of Wings of Destiny

“You want to play that game, huh?” He grabbed his unwrapped straw, tore off the top, and blew through it, shooting the wrapper at me and hitting me right in the center of my forehead.

We’d landed on a local Italian place. I was craving pasta and breadsticks, and he had a hankering for anything Italian. Seth ordered two plates of Chicken Alfredo and I went with one of my favorites, Chicken Parmigiana; he alone choked down two breadbaskets, the third was all me. I felt like I was going to pop.

“Rude.” I scrunched it up, tossed it back at him, and missed. I blamed my poor aim on the overload of delicious food in my system.

“Psh, you shot first, Rin.”

“Only because you provoked me. I feign innocence.”

He snorted. “Yeah right. You’re as innocent as Derik.”

“Excuse me, how dare you.” My gaze narrowed.

Seth shrugged. “I dare because it’s fun,” he shot me a wink and I rolled my eyes. “Do you want dessert or anything? We have all night. The crew went to their places for the night,” he grabbed the small pocket menu off the table, scanning it. “I might get a beer or a Peach Bellini. You want one?”

I wiggled in the booth, testing my stomach to see if I could handle anything else without needing to shove tums down my throat. “Sure, I’ll take one. Since when do you like Peach Bellinis? You usually stick to the hard stuff or beer when we’ve gone out.” All the years we’d known each other, Seth would pick on me about my fruity drinks, switching between peach and strawberry—most of the time—with an occasional wild card.

“Actually, I’ll have you know they’re one of my favorites. I just don’t get them that often because I’ll wake up with a major hangover most of the time,” he waved our waitress over and put in an order for our drinks. “But I’ll make an exception.” He winked at me again.

“Of all the drinks out there though, why that one? I mean I absolutely love it, but I’d expect you to be more of a ‘on the rocks’ type of guy.”

Seth set his elbows on the table and leaned forward. “Rin, we might’ve been friends since we were toddlers, but there’s a decent amount youdon’tknow about me,” I narrowed my eyes at him, and his darkened. “Nothing you’d consider important, I promise. One of them being that peaches are not only one of my favorite fruits, but also a favorite scent, and flavoring of mine.”

His eyes held mine as I gulped. “Oh really? Since when?” I had to be reading too much into it.

There’s no way in hell, Snow. Calm yourself.

These ever-growing feelings towards your best friend? One-sided, remember? Always have been, always will be.

He caught my eye once more as our waitress brought our drinks to the table, setting one in front of each of us on a pale, cream napkin embossed with the restaurant’s name. He thanked her before turning his attention back to our conversation.

“So, how’d training go this morning? Heard you got a knife thrown at you.”

I blinked at the abrupt subject change. “What?”

“Your training? With the almighty Josh? How’d it go? Did you land any hits on the guy?” His eyes had returned to their typical glimmer and expression remained neutral, although he continued to lean forward.

“Are…Are you going to ignore the whole peachy thing? I want answers, Seth.”

“Eh, there’s not much to tell, Rin,” he pointed a finger at me. “Training. Speak.”

I harrumphed. “I’m not a damn dog”—I crossed my arms over my chest—“but it was fine. Josh wore me out and I was about ready to collapse afterward. My little nap I tried to take got interrupted by another dream. Apparently, according to whoever the dude is that continues to show up, my whole picking a weapon experience was a bit of an anomaly. So. Yay.” I added a flare of jazz, my hands waving in the air.

He quirked his brow. “What do you mean? What happened in the dream?”

I relayed the whole story, his brows furrowed. I finished with the whole sword and dagger trio situation as he waved the waitress down for another round.

We sat there staring at one another as we waited for our refills. His hands were clasped in front of his face, hiding his lips, his eyes trained on me. I stared back, gathering his reaction.

He thinks I’m some kind of nutcase. There has to be something wrong with me.

“Interesting.”

I craned my neck. “That’s it? ‘Interesting?’ You’re not high tailing it? Running to Derik or Libby to see what’s wrong with me?”

He gave me a dead stare. “Are you trying to be funny?”

“No. I’m serious.”

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