I walked on without looking at her or anyone else and stalked through the human-stained halls to my locker. Closing it, I came face-to-face with Marnie once more.
Bloody hell. What was her deal? It was like she knew I’d stuck my tongue in Red’s cunt last Friday night. Remembering the way she’d moaned, shocked and damn near hysterical as she came on my mouth…
Marnie’s hand clasped mine. She stepped into me, chasing thoughts that never should’ve arrived away. “I don’t know if you’re able to give me what I need, but I do know I still love you.”
Breath whooshed out of me so fast that I swore it was the reason I swayed into her. I folded my hand around hers and nodded. “Where does that leave us?” Maybe all was not lost after all.
If I could still get her back, then she’d erase some of the darkness. I could already feel the shadows masking my soul begin to retreat at her tender touch.
Marnie’s smile was coy as she rose onto her toes, her lips aimed at mine.
My eyes closed, an exhale loaded with relief washing over her lips. I heard a whistle from some jackass, but I hardly noticed. My tablet clapped her in the back as my arms wound around her tiny waist, and my mouth opened to welcome her tongue.
Imminent sunshine was halted by a thunderous bout of laughter, and then a scream bloodcurdling enough to reach the marrow of my bones. Every hair on my body stood at attention as I reared back from Marnie and glanced down the hall to discover Fern sitting on the floor.
Her arms were tucked over her head, her knees to her chest, as a thousand black, red, and brown moths flew above her and swarmed the halls.
Cruel, most definitely, but fuck if I didn’t smirk with an immense sense of satisfaction.
Hey, it took twenty phone calls and a back-alley meetup with a reptile breeder in order to get what I needed. Who would’ve thought that would’ve been the easy part? Getting those dusty fucks inside her locker, on the other hand, was an entirely different matter of difficulty.
I’d tried to enlist Silas for help, but he’d laughed, giving me a resounding, “Fuck no,” before the line went dead. Of course, his girlfriend was BFFs with Red. I should’ve already guessed that, and if not for Silas’s still pure heart, that might have been an issue.
Every initiated member of Nightingale had a key to all facilities on the island, including the schools.
So, I’d trudged into school an hour before midnight with plans to empty the box of moths inside Fern’s locker. I’d stood in front of it, feeling like a right wanker for not foreseeing the fact I hadn’t a way to break inside the damn thing without ruining the lock.
I wasn’t sure what made me try it, but after two failed attempts, I entered my birth date.
The door had clicked and swung open a little, the sound like a sledgehammer meeting glass in the dark of night. All the while, I’d stood there staring at the books and cosmetic bag inside for God only knew how long.
I’d ended up fetching a grinder and welder from the metal shop in the basement to cut open and then fix the top of her locker. I’d welded exactly eight times before in my life. Each time during metalwork, of which I’d taken out of curiosity but quickly grew bored with when I realized it was just another thing I excelled at.
A bunch of moths escaped, and I’d spent at least thirty minutes chasing them through the halls, trying to capture them. A part of me could kind of see why Red hated them. They weren’t the nicest things to touch, that much was for sure.
I was no pro, but even I was proud as I’d stood on a ladder, leaning against the locker beside Fern’s to marvel at my handiwork. So what if a handful were still roaming the academy? I didn’t give a shit. Hopefully, one would find her later on—double win.
Cory raced down the hall, tugging her friend from the ground and clasping her cheeks. She said something. “Breathe,” by the looks of it.
Marnie was giggling, clinging to me as she whispered, “Did you do that?”
The smirk I was still wearing said it all, and when Fern finally lifted her head to look for me, I kissed my prize, then dragged her away from the shitshow I’d caused.
“Jude.”
I glanced up from my book to find my father standing in the doorway of my room.
Dressed in his usual suit pants and slate gray dress shirt, the top buttons undone for casual air, he gestured to the closed drapes that were blocking the only source of natural light. “Do you have some type of aversion to sunlight now?”
“Funny,” I said. “Not and no.” What I had was an aversion to the girl next door. I’d asked Rhiannon to wash the sheets yesterday after school on account of her scent still lingering upon my pillow. Strawberry yogurt and something toxic like floral shampoo.
Though I did sniff the place that had once been damp, courtesy of my fantastic tongue, before allowing her in.
I swore I could still smell her cunt, and it rushed to my head faster than any drug.
“It’s almost dinnertime,” I finally said when my father took it upon himself to enter my room and inspect my shelves.
He ran a finger over them, finding them dust-free, of course, and huffed. “I’m willing to bet that fact means nothing and that they’ve been shut for days. It’s stuffy as fuck in here.”
“Is there a point to this visit other than displaying your obvious envy of my den?”
He turned, lifting a brow. Like me, he had dark hair that was thicker at the top and slightly cropped on the sides. Unlike me, he combed his back. Unlike him, I preferred not to look like an obnoxious dick. My shining personality portrayed that just fine on its own.
His eyes were bright blue instead of green, just like Henry’s. I got my weapons from my mother. But I did have his dramatically square jaw and long straight nose.
“You’re getting more grays,” I said in explanation for staring at him too long, then returned my attention to my book.
“I thought I’d say hello, smart-ass. I just got in.”
“Hello,” I said, pretending to read. “Or should I say goodbye? Being that you’ll probably leave before sunrise.”
“Jude,” he clipped. “Cut it out. I have enough rubbish to deal with without adding your petulant attitude to the pile.”
I knew that was likely true. He was the mayor of Peridot Island, after all. Still, he’d managed to rule over our small rotund world just fine while still acknowledging his family before. There were other members to delegate tasks to, not to mention a legit building in town filled with secretaries, personal assistants, and the like.
“Petulant?” I said, bookmarking the page and swinging my legs over the chaise in the corner by the French doors. “I prefer to call it pissed off.” Yes, I might’ve peeked out the drapes a time or two. No, I didn’t care if she was crying her eyes out across the hedge. But she hadn’t been at school today. Disappointing, to say the least. I thought my Red had more mettle.
“You have everything you’ve ever wanted. You’re in. You can visit her anytime you please.” I heard him clicking away on his phone and glanced over to find him staring at it, one hand tucked in his pocket. “You simply choose not to.”
And I thought my heart was black.
It turned out that it was just gray in comparison. For if he opened his fucking eyes, he’d see why I couldn’t do that. “There’s nothing to see.”