Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 34243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
Yes, it’s that kind of threat I’m talking about, and yes, Mom had such days, too, and threats like it still scares adult-me for real.
“I should get working, too,” Joy enthuses. “We’ll have to make proper introductions to the rest of the family this summer, of course. The Cannizzaros are hosting in June, and Evergreen’s Fourth of July ball—we need to get a ticket for Tiara...”
“Um—”
“I—”
“Err—”
Joy reaches past Icelle to pat my hand and gives me a warm smile. “Don’t you worry, dear. I have everything taken care of.”
And then she goes on listing all the events I’m supposed to attend as Arkane’s plus-one, and I—
I’m delighted.
I’m thrilled.
I’m absolutely appalled, and as soon as dinner’s over, and we’re all free to go, I turn to Icelle in panic. “What did you say to them?”
“You were right next to me the whole time.” Icelle goes on walking down the hallway while speaking, forcing me to keep up with her. “You heard everything I said—”
“But you gave them a look! Remember? Lucius said it was remarkable that Arkane introduced himself, and you looked at them, and nodded. I saw you do it, don’t deny it—”
“Oh. That.”
She pauses on the stairs, and she’s just so ridiculously beautiful and elegant that even though I know she doesn’t mean to do so, she really looks like she’s posing for a photograph that’s meant to grace the front cover of a society magazine.
“What did that ‘nod’ mean?”
“Don’t worry—” Icelle resumes moving, and so here we go again, and I’m running up the stairs to catch up to her. “I kept my promise.”
Argh. Who’s not answering the question now?
“They don’t know about your feelings for Arkane.”
I open my mouth to give her some flak when I hear what she’s just said, and for the love of ugh—
“I don’t have feelings for him!”
Icelle blinks. “So it’s lust then?”
Aaaargh!
I’d have strangled her right there in the hallway if she weren’t my only real friend in the world. But since she is that—
“This is not over,” I warn her darkly, as we reach the door of my room.
Icelle nods. “It won’t be until you two are mar—”
I clap a hand over her mouth and shoot her a glare. “Don’t you say that again.”
Icelle opens her mouth.
“Or anything that has to do with Arkane.”
She closes her mouth.
I look at her in exasperation. “Seriously?” She really has nothing to say if it’s not about her stepbrother?
Icelle shrugs, which I later translate to ‘good night’ since she’s already walking past me and heading back to her own room.
I close the door behind me and press my forehead against it.
Why is she like this?
Why is everyone like this?
Why am I the only normal person in a house full of people who communicate in eyebrow-raises and nods and family-wide psychic agreements?
And why, darn it?
Why is it already midnight, and here I am, still unable to sleep because I can’t stop thinking about all the things I’m not supposed to waste time thinking?
I’ve been staring at the ceiling for I don’t even know how long. The guest room they’ve given me is bigger than my entire dorm, and the sheets are the kind of soft that makes you realize your normal sheets have been lying to you all along.
I start counting sheep.
One sheep jumps the fence. Two sheep jumps the fence. Three sheep—
Hmm.
Is it sheep or sheeps?
Because sheep is plural-as-singular, but when you’re counting them one at a time is each one a sheep?
Grammatically this is a nightmare.
Four sheep jumps the fence. Five—
I’ve lost count.
I restart.
One sheep. Two sheep. Three—
Wait.
Was that a floorboard?
Are those footsteps?
Is someone—
Knock.
I’m out of bed before my brain has finished processing the sound, and I’m tripping over my own feet in my haste to reach the door, and when I finally get it open—
There he is.
Arkane.
His lips slowly curve.
“Missed me?”
Chapter Six
I DON’T EVEN THINK twice. I’m already slamming the door, and to heck to whoever hears this—or rather, I try to slam the door, and fail, because Arkane easily uses just one hand to keep it from hitting his face, and now it’s his strength against mine.
Grr.
I lose, of course, because he’s not even pushing. He’s just holding, and that’s enough. The door stops halfway, and I’m forced to back away as he steadily moves forward until he’s inside my room, and he’s quietly closing the door behind him.
“We don’t want to wake everyone, do we?”
I glare at him. “Don’t we?”
His expression turns thoughtful, and as he studies me, I’m studying him back, and my mind is back at it again.
No no no no no no no no.
Because I’ve just realized the most terrifying thing.
“What do you have against me, Tiara?”
And it’s not just how my skin still isn’t crawling—
“You don’t even know me, and yet I’ve seemed to earn your distrust.”
But how it’s so much worse.