Page 71 of Soul of Shadow
When she reached the bottom of the staircase, Elias seemed to snap out of a trance. He blinked twice, shaking himself lightly before pasting his usual relaxed smile onto his lips. He lifted an arm, offering it to Charlie. Down at her feet, the vätte ran into her ankles and squawked.
Charlie pretended not to notice Elias’s arm, instead turning to face her mom.
“Mom,” she said.
“Oh, honey.” Her mom clutched the boutonniere that Charlie had purchased from the local grocery store to her breast. “You lookstunning.”
“Let’s not downplay things, Mrs. Hudson,” said Elias. “Charlotte looks magnificent.”
“No need for the formalities, dear,” said her mom. “You can call me Trish.”
Elias beamed. “Trish it is.”
“Glad to see you two are bonding,” said Charlie, since she had no idea what else to say. She grabbed the boutonniere fromher mom and shook its plastic case in front of Elias. “Ready for me to pin you, date?”
“I would love to be pinned by you, Charlotte,” Elias said in a way that nearly crossed the line between innocent and entirely indecent.
She did her best to avoid his gaze as she pressed the boutonniere’s stem to his jacket. The warmth of Elias’s skin, buried beneath a shirt and jacket, still seeped into her fingers as she slipped the pin through the black fabric, securing its place above his pocket.
A pair of hands clapped Charlie’s shoulders, startling her and making her fingers fumble. Luckily, the pin was already in place, and the flowers held fast.
“Well.” Mason squeezed Charlie’s shoulders. “Now that all the dull chitchat is out of the way, shall we get this show on the road?”
“Not yet!” Their mom waved her iPhone in the air. “We need a few pictures before you all head out.”
They all groaned but obediently filed out the front door, onto the porch. The parents trekked down the stairs to take their positions on the grass below, phones held aloft. All the kids lined up on the porch, standing diagonally with their backs to their dates—girls in front, boys in back. Except Abigail, who maneuvered to the back so that Bex could stand in front.
Charlie stood with a good inch between her back and Elias’s front.
“What’s the matter?” Elias whispered in her ear, low enough that no one else could hear. “You feeling shy?”
“I don’t need to be pressed right up to you for the picture to be good.”
“You had no problem with touching me last night.”
Charlie shivered, trying to squash the memory before it could do away with her good sense. “One lapse in judgment doesn’t mean I’ve done away with my sanity entirely.”
“Are you saying that I mess with your sanity?” His breath blew cool through the hair hanging beside her neck. “I’ll take that as a compliment, Charlotte.”
She sighed. Then, just to prove a point, she inched backward until her backside rested against his pelvis, pointedly ignoring the shocks that whizzed up into her stomach as she did so. “There,” she whispered. “Happy?”
Elias brought his arms around her sides, resting his palms on her hips. He squeezed once, and she had to hold back a startled gasp.
“Thrilled,” he whispered back.
“Look down here!” yelled Charlie’s mom, waving her hand as if there were some way they could possibly miss her.
Charlie leaned into Elias, feeling the heat of his body through his clothes—he must have been regulating again, because he wasn’t so hot that she needed to jump away—and gritted her teeth, pasting a smile onto her face, even as a deep sense of dread began to simmer just below her belly.
31
The gym was all done up in stars and twinkling lights. Black paper covered the walls, as if to hide that they were inside the room where they usually played dodgeball. Speakers had been set up on a makeshift stage, playing loud pop music spun by a DJ that Charlie thought she recognized as a cashier at the local supermarket. Tables covered in sparkling cloths were scattered throughout the edges of the space. The center of the room was wide open and already filled with a crowd of dancing couples.
“Let’s go, date,” said Lou, grabbing Mason’s hand and leading him toward the dance floor. “I’m ready to let my hair down.”
Despite being dragged, Mason appeared perfectly happy to be holding Lou’s hand.
“Should we get some punch?” Abigail asked Bex. “I’m parched.”
