Page 1 of Forbidden Obsession
ChapterOne
Rahz
I stalkinto the forest that surrounds our village, fists clenched so tightly my nails bite into my palms, but even the sting can’t take the edge off my bruised feelings. Jindal had no reason to side with the others against me. Just because he’s full fae and I’m only half doesn’t make him better. I don’t care what the rest of them think, but Jindalknowsme. And he should have had my back.
The dense underbrush—purple vines, sweet-smelling blue honeypods, and a thorny rope of dandyrose—slows me down. I plow over them like royalty over peasants, without care for what lies beneath me. The flowers have the nerve to waft their cloying aroma skyward, even as I stamp them under my boots.
“Stupid history lesson,” I mutter to myself, knowing I’m being childish and hating myself for it. I’m thirteen, nearly grown, but today’s teasing has gotten under my skin. “Stupid test. Stupid Jindal.” I don’t need any of them. My mother will believe me when I tell her I didn’t cheat.
“Hey, Rahz!” Jindal’s high-pitched voice flies through the trees, followed by the faerie himself. Stupid wings,I add to my list. I don’t have wings of my own, not even the stubby, flightless kind most mixlings possess, and especially not an impressive pair of working beauties like the ones Jindal sports on his slender back. “Wait up!”
I break into a run, crunching twigs and last season’s leaves beneath my slamming footsteps. Jindal is the last person I want to talk to right now. Traitor.
“Rahz, please.” If his voice holds a hint of remorse, I ignore it. “I’m sorry, okay?”
He can shove his worthless apology right up a nillyslug’s arse for all I care. If he was really sorry, he wouldn’t have betrayed me in the first place.
Jindal catches up easily enough. Even dodging brush and branch, he’ll always be faster than me. Flying is faster than running. He drops straight into my path, and I plow into him.
We crash to the ground with awhump, me on top. Jindal lies flat on his back, wings trapped uselessly underneath him. Serves him right. Not that he minds, if his grin is any indication.
Stupid grin.
“Sorry, sorry,” he chatters, seemingly unharmed. “Are you okay?”
I roll off him. My palms are scraped, and my wrists throb, having borne the brunt of the impact in an effort not to crush him beneath me in the fall. “Fine. No thanks to you.” On my back, I gaze at the bright afternoon sky in its cloudless lavender glory. My eyes have gone watery, but I refuse to cry.
“Don’t be mad.” Jindal flops over me, pinning me to the cool earth with half his body weight concentrated on the boney point of one elbow that digs into my gut painfully.
I groan and shove him off.
“How was I supposed to know you didn’t cheat?” He stares down at me, brows drawn, orange eyes glittering.
“Because you’re my friend.” I turn away, sit up, and brush the dirt off my clothes. The image of Jindal standing with the other faeries instead of me flickers through my mind. “Or youwere.”
“Iam. But what’s that got to do with cheating?”
I blink and drag my hands over my face. “I’m not that sort of person. I don’t lie.”
“Of course you don’t, but no one passed except you. The test wasn’t fair. There were questions we’d never discussed. How did you know the answers?”
Mother’s books, that’s how, but should I tell Jindal that? He’ll think I’m stuffy. Boring. Sitting at home reading while the others hang out without me. I hesitate long enough for Jindal to wave me off.
“Never mind. You’re smart. I know that. I’m sorry I doubted you, but I didn’t side with the others.”
“You did.”
“Rahz.” He says my name like an admonishment.
I scowl and match his tone. “Jindal.”
He grimaces. “Myassignedseat is on the opposite side of the room from yours. I can’t help if I’m in the middle of Vander’s goons.”
In my mind, I see him standing next to Vander and the others, and his argument doesn’t quite ring true. Maybe he can’t control where he sits, but he didn’t have to chuckle along, he didn’t have to nudge Vander in the ribs when he was goading me, and he didn’t have to stay silent when there was no one else on my side.
Whatever. I shuffle to my feet, and Jindal follows. He doesn’t stand close. A bit of lichen has lodged itself in his long plum curls, minty green against the dark purple hue. The urge to reach out and pluck it from the tangle rises and falls. Let him be messy. It’s his fault we ended up on the ground anyway.
His stare burns my cheeks. “You’re really upset about this, aren’t you?”
