Page 34 of Beta Lies and Cursed Lives
Our shadowy friend lets out apffftand rolls her eyes. “You two are so dull. Let’s get away from these dorks and find some privacy.”
I open my mouth to agree to this plan, but my voice is stolen as the world tilts on its axis and goes dark and hot, stifling, but only for a moment. Then, the darkness clears, and we’re in one of the training buildings, bright and quiet. But the world doesn’t stop spinning around me, and I feel myself rock right before my hands slam to my knees and my lunch lurches from my stomach to spill all over the floor, my gagging vaguely embarrassing, but I can’t bring myself to care.
“Ugh, Lowe!” Nyx puts her hand on my back and begins to rub. “You can’t transport us like that without warning! Mira hasn’t been through your torture before.”
Arlowe leans down beside me, her eyes apologetic, but nose scrunched in disgust. “Sorry, Mira. I forgot.”
I put my hand up in the universal sign of “I’m good,” but take a minute before standing up straight, nice and slow. The world has stopped rotating around me, so I take some cleansing breaths.
“I’ll clean this up.” Arlowe vanishes in a puff of darkness and returns in an instant with some cleaning supplies and hands me a bottle of cold water, which I accept gratefully.
Her curse is pretty handy, although you couldn’t pay me to go through that again.
After sipping the water, I tell her, “I can get that,” but she waves me off. I notice she has cleaning gloves on. Where the heck did she get all this stuff?
She’s finished, gone, and back again faster than my still fuzzy brain can process, the smell of cleaning chemicals the only evidence all that had just happened.
“Well now!” Arlowe smiles big, her cleaning scrubs gone, everything back to normal. “I guess I gave us a bit too much excitement to start, so want to take a little walk and get some fresh air?”
“Sure,” I say before Nyx can admonish our friend again. I can feel her desire to argue, and while I appreciate her protective nature, I don’t want our last day together for a while to be fraught with fighting.
We go back outside, this time to the outskirts of the property where the forest borders the well-kept grounds. Their breath puffs white as we walk, and I notice both my friends snuggling into their coats and scarves, shoving their hands into their pockets. The weather doesn’t bother me at all, yet I open my mouth to tell them we can go back inside where it’s warmer, but Arlowe interrupts me.
“How are your boy toys?”
My head shakes as a smile stretches across my face and turns to a smirk. I’m getting used to her teasing. “Oh, you know, they’re boys. And...toy-ful.”
Nyx snickers beside me while a loud laugh bursts from Arlowe. “Toy-ful? Does that mean they know what they’re doing when it comes to the female form?”
That wipes the smile from my face. “You know I can’t—”
“Sorry,” she mumbles. “I know.”
Now I’ve killed the vibe. “So, is there anyone you have your eye on, Lowe?”
Nyx chuckles. “Oh, she used to.”
My brows raise. “Really? What happened?”
“He’s not here anymore.” Arlowe’s tone is flat, which is not normal for her.
“Oh.” I turn my gaze to her and cock my head. “I’m sorry.”
She lets out a disgruntled sigh. “Yeah, well, that’s what happens when you’re here for a while, right? It’ll happen to us all eventually.”
“Kiyoshi was sold a couple of years ago. I think to the Pacific Asian Empire,” Nyx offers. “I believe they try to buy all those who are descendants of families from there.”
“Kiyoshi?” That name…
My spine straightens, and I stop walking, shock freezing my steps. “Kiyoshi Sato? Rai’s brother?”
They both stop walking as well, Arlowe turning to face me with a frown. “That’s him.”
I must look like a fish, my mouth opening and closing, words completely escaping me.
Arlowe smirks and starts walking again as she calls back, “Those Sato boys are hot as hell.”
As my brows rise higher, Nyx gets closer and whispers, “She’s downplaying it, like everything else. She loves him.” Her dark eyes pierce mine, and she bites her lip, the understanding there is overwhelming.
