Page 21 of Creatures of Chaos

Shoot. Good point.

I run my tongue over my bottom lip, trying to think up another plausible excuse that might detour my pushy friend. The gleam in her eyes tells me that’s going to be hard. It looks like she’s already set her mind on attending, and once Ensley makes up her mind it’s near impossible to change it.

“Come on. Becks said he would go,” she says, a knowing half-smile curling the corners of her mouth.

That does the job and spikes my interest, but I play it off, not wanting to let Ensley know. “Well, whatever. Becks goes to parties all the time.”

“But he said he’d gowithus to this one.”

Okay, that’s new. Becks has never offered to go to a party with me before. Probably because I’ve always been really vocal about how I’d rather get a tooth pulled than be forced to hang out with our peers from Nightlark outside of school, but it’s always secretly bugged me he never at least asked.

“He did?” I say, nibbling a bit on the bait she dangled before me.

She nods. “This is too big to miss, and Becks knows you aren’t much for parties and would feel more comfortable attending if the both of us were close by.”

Translation: she guilted him into it by saying that I wouldn’t go unless he went with us.

My friend is a devious little she-devil sometimes.

A tiny voice whispers in my head that I might not get very many more opportunities to hang out with Becks, but I shake my head. No way am I going to put Becks out like that. I know he enjoys spending time with me, but a party is so not my scene. I’d just ruin it for him if he wants to go.

An image of Becks at a party, with Vesper or one of the other powerful females in our school pawing at him, rises in my mind, making my stomach sour.

“No. I don’t want to go.”

It doesn’t matter what Ensley says. I am not going to that party.

Six

“I can’t believeyou convinced me to do this,” I say, pulling down the hem of the borrowed skirt I’m wearing. If it’s this short on me, it has to barely cover Ensley’s butt. I wrap my arms around myself, trying to ignore how chilly the early spring night is. It would be unusual for this time of year, but I wouldn’t be overly surprised to see a flake or two of snow hovering in the air. At least the off-the-shoulder white shirt I’m wearing, also borrowed, covers my arms and stomach. It’s probably a crop top on Ensley.

Parking on the edge of Woodwinds Forest, we head into the woods and start tromping around trees and through soggy leaves to get to Deepseat Caverns. After ten minutes of walking, we still aren’t there. My foot sinks into the mud and makes a suction sound when I pull it free.Yuck. Thank the Creator Ensley let me wear my sturdy black combat boots. She said it made my outfit look edgy, but really I was just glad they were comfortable, made for walking, and laced up my calves.

Using her flashlight app, Ensley holds her phone up in front of her to light the way for us. We aren’t the only students sludging through the forest in search of a good time. Whispersand the occasional laugh ring out all around us as students converge on the party destination.

Ensley flashes me a toothy smile. “You’ll thank me someday. I’m sure of it.”

“Don’t count on it,” I grumble.

Ensley isn’t just a sneaky she-devil, she’s a manipulative little witch as well. She somehow talked me into coming to this party when I was dead set against it. I don’t even really know how she did it. I said no about a million times yet still found myself at her house getting ready for the event of the year I wanted nothing to do with. Maybe she’s part-vampire and used compulsion on me?

Okay, that couldn’t actually happen. Fae can’t use compulsion, but still, the way she mind-tricked me into coming still makes me wonder.

Deepseat Caverns is a network of underground caves and tunnels just outside Everton that’s filled with stalactites and stalagmites, mirror pools, columns, and flowstone. It’s a tourist attraction during the day but closes after dark. I came here once with my parents when I was ten, and I remember being entranced by the eerie beauty of the caverns.

Fellow partygoers, familiar and unfamiliar alike, materialize from the dense forest the closer we get to the cavern’s entrance.

“Yo, Ens, you made it,” someone calls to our left, and when I look over, Konan, one of Ensley’s bandmates, is jogging toward us.

Ensley and I are close, but just like Becks she has interests outside our friendship. I don’t have much interaction with her bandmates, but when it happens they’re never overly friendly, but always polite.

The news of this party has really spread like wildfire if Konan is here. He plays bass in Ensley’s punk rock band and is two years older than us and attends Everton Community College. When he reaches us he loops an arm over Ensley’s shoulder andtugs her into his side. Ensley punches him lightly in the stomach but doesn’t move out of his embrace.

Konan is tall with light brown skin and a trendy fro-hawk. Ensley looks equally edgy with the purple and blue strips weaved into the rows of braids on the side of her head. Both of them dressed in black biker jackets and chunky boots, they look good together, but according to her it will never happen between them. She said she views him like a brother, but from the fire in his eyes as he smiles down at her I’m not sure he’s on the same page. I don’t blame him though. Ensley is gorgeous, with an amazing personality and talented to boot. She’s a catch, and he won’t be the first to find her irresistible.

“So, what do you think?” he asks. “Just a regular rager, or is this really the start of Chaos?”

I scoff and Konan looks over at me for the first time.

---