Page 39 of The Heir

I nodded, unable to do anything else. The warning bell rang, and students started hurrying to class. Ryker let me go.

“I will see you at lunch?” he asked.

“Yes,” I answered as he stepped further away from me.

“Emma, I wish I could fix everything.”

I held up a hand. “It isn’t your fault, Ry. I will see you at lunch.” As he walked away slowly, down the opposite hall, I turned and headed for my class as well. I started to tremble with the built up cold and ice of winter, freezing back over inside of me. Ryker had caused me to melt into the heat of summer, but without him, I was cold again, and the creeping misery was all too real. I wished in that dark moment as I walked down the hall alone to the chime of the late bell, I wished that the snake would just bite me,already, and take me out of my misery because I wasn’t sure I could endure it all over again.

I sat down in my seat late with an apology to my teacher. She nodded, and I was grateful she didn’t make me go to the office to get a late slip. To be honest, I wasn’t certain I could have made it. But as I slipped into my seat, a song filled me, and the serpent within me hissed once, and then it disappeared. I looked up into two golden eyes, and I wanted to kiss the owner of those eyes for unwittingly fighting the darkness within me, and casting it away.

“Hey,” Shad said, looking at me with a soft smile. He touched my foot with his. “You okay?” he asked.

I nodded, because what could I say with Karen Manning to my right and the teacher to my left?

“Now, get with your partner and do some of the equations together,” our math teacher ordered. I realized at that moment I hadn't been paying attention. How could I while Shad’s foot was nudging mine under the table? I felt a little loopy, happiness blooming through me where misery had been only minutes before.

Shad moved his chair to my side of the table. He was close to me, so close that our shoulders were touching. I didn’t look at him because I didn’t feel fully like myself yet, and I didn’t know what to say. He slipped his hand under the table and found mine. When his skin touched mine, I thought that I had gone to heaven. The darkness, as it had the first time with Shad, wasthen completely gone, as if it had never even been there before. The snake also vanished with no sign that it had ever existed again, simply from his touch. I smiled at Shad, and he looked at me, and his eyes seemed sad. Or worried? I didn’t know. Somehow, he must have known that I couldn’t speak because he did not ask me anything; we were both silent as we sat side-by-side, holding hands, and working on math, and I was finally free of that face, from that person who haunted me, freed from the misery he brought, and freed from the winter serpent that had crept into me. With his touch, Shad healed me, took away my pain and my sorrow; I was set free.

As class ended and I gathered my notebook and pens into my backpack, I realized that Shad was waiting for me near the door. I slung my backpack onto my back and started walking out the door. He came up beside me and casually ran his hand down my arm, creating electric shockwaves through me until his fingers finally tangled through mine. I breathed in deeply, feeling the happiness he seemed to be funneling inside of me with just his touch. He was like some sort of energy to me.

Is this what it feels like for vampires after they feed? Or for a witch or fae after they procure more magic or something? Maybe this was his fey glamor. Stop it. This is real life for the thousandth time, and fiction does not rationally explain this.

I looked at him, then, really searched his eyes, realizing that onlymagiccould explain how I felt around him.

He smiled as I stared at him. “Hey, are youreallyokay? Do you want to talk?” he asked quietly.

I looked at his golden eyes, his effortlessly styled hair, and his collared shirt which was again unbuttoned and untucked. I looked at his pants and noticed he was wearing jeans, and I looked back at his face with surprise.

He gave me a knowing smirk. “I know, very surprising,” he chuckled, patting his leg.

“You're wearingjeans,” I said in a whisper.

“Yes, it would seem you make me rethink my outfit choices.”

“I like what you wear.”

“I know, and believe me, I appreciate it. Trying something new for once isn’t a bad thing; however, I really think I prefer slacks to jeans.”

I laughed, and suddenly I also wanted to cry for the pure elation the laugh brought to me. Only an hour earlier, I wanted life to be over, and there I was, standing in the hallway, laughing with a very casual Shad in blue jeans and a white, button-down shirt, that was untucked.

How can he look so effortlessly perfect no matter what he wears? I wish I could pull that off.

“Good,” I said with a smirk as I touched his collar, smoothing it down. “But this is, indeed, a drastic transformation.”

“My mother would be a little freaked out right now, I can tell you that. But she would be confused about how everything worked here, anyway, so I guess it’s time I adapted again.”

“Adapted? Public school is that different?”

“I mean, the lack of formal–I mean, uniforms are a big difference, and the parental involvement at my old school was insane. My father–he was very much involved.”

“I see, well, nice to meet you, Relaxed Shad. I like you both ways.”

“Now that we have my clothes figured out, which always seems to draw your attention—” He paused and pulled me closer with his hand that was still intertwined with mine. He was leaning against the brick wall, and I crashed into him, as his hand let go of mine to hold me closer, my hands rested on the hard planes of his chest, his hands at my waist. He smiled playfully. I loved that smile.

I gulped.

“That’s better. Now, tell me—what is bothering you?” he asked, while moving one hand from my waist to touch my cheek. The long outdoor hallways leading to the classrooms and lockers were so silent, making it feel as if we were secluded, even there in the open. It was silent, other than his song playing inside of me. His closeness and his touch were healing my insides, and it was hard to hear my own thoughts.

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