Page 52 of Creatures of Chaos

Becks flinches like I hit him, and my heart pricks, but I force myself to stay hard.

“I won’t allow this guy around you.”

“It’s not your choice,” I snap back.

“Locklyn,” he says, reaching for me, but I jerk away, and since I’m looking him straight in the eyes I can see exactly how much that hurts him.

“You’re making a mistake,” he says, his face hardening once again.

“Maybe, but it’s my mistake to make.”

Becks regards me silently, his gaze skipping over my face, and I’m not sure what he reads there.

“Fine,” he finally bites out, and with a final glare at Talon he spins and stalks in the other direction, taking the scent of fire and ash with him.

“Well, Freckles, I thought saving me was a one-off?” Talon jokes from behind me, but I don’t turn to look at him. Instead I watch my best friend stomp down the hall, feeling like a little part of my heart is being torn from my chest with every step he takes away from me.

I know that needed to happen, but it still hurts.

“I’ll try not to make it a habit,” I say absentmindedly, only barely noticing the small crowd that had gathered starting to disperse.

Talon sighs. “I know that wasn’t easy for you, but he’ll come around. He can’t stay mad at you. He just needs some time to cool off.”

The words feel hollow. Like something you tell someone to make them feel better in a situation like this, but I nod anyway, hoping he’s right.

Seventeen

“My brother is an idiot,”Ensley says as we lie side-by-side on her bed Saturday evening, staring up at the glow-in-the-dark stars we stuck on her ceiling when we were eight that she never bothered to take down. We put stars on Becks’ ceiling as well, but he took them down ages ago.

“If you’re expecting me to disagree with you, you’re going to be waiting a long time,” I say.

I haven’t spoken to Becks since our public disagreement in the halls of Nightlark the day before, so I’m firmly in the Becks-is-an-idiot club as well, but as I turn my head to look at her I wonder what pushed her to become a member.

Ensley huffs out a frustrated breath. “He’s an overbearing boar who’s too stubborn to see he’s ruining his life. Talking to him is like talking to a brick wall lately.”

I don’t disagree with that, but old habits die hard so I can’t stop myself from defending him. “He has a lot going on right now. Especially with the dragon heir and council stuff.”

I was hopeful when Becks finally told his sister about the arranged life-mating that she’d be able to help, but according to her she’d gotten nowhere with her parents, and Becks refusesto talk about it with her. So as of now, Shadow Striker isn’t my fallback plan, it’s the only plan. But things have been so up and down with Becks lately, I’m no longer confident that he’d even want to be paired with me rather than some random girl.

Flipping over on her stomach, Ensley stares at me, her green eyes probing. “Can we be honest with each other for a minute?”

My stomach drops. “What do you mean? I’m always honest with you.”

The look Ensley shoots me says she doesn’t believe that’s true, but besides my feelings for her brother, I’ve never been anything but completely truthful with her, so I don’t know why she’s looking at me like that.

When she says, “What about the fact that you have the hots for my brother?” I’m so surprised that I jackknife to a sitting position.

“What are you talking about?” I say, my heart already beating double-time.

“Come on, Locklyn, it’s been obvious for ages. I haven’t brought it up because I’ve been waiting for you to talk to me about it. But since you haven’t . . .” She splays her hands as if to say, “Here we are.”

“I don’t know why you would think—” I start, feeling my face reddening.

“He likes you too,” she says, cutting me off and stunning me into silence.

We stare at each other for a few bloated moments. Me processing. Her waiting for me to finally spill my guts.

“Why do you think that?” I tentatively ask, and a grin spreads across her face.

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