Layla is moving towards where Raph is kneeling in front of me, a look of deadly heat in her eyes. Not a trace of the earlier helpless fear. Professor Roman is holding her back as he tells her to get off the field.
Raph doesn’t turn to look at them. His eyes are still intent on my face. I expect him to get up but he doesn’t pull away. His arms are still around me and something akin to fear spreads through me like wildfire.
“Are you okay?” Raph asks, his voice raw and thick with some emotion that I don’t understand.
“I’m fine.” I force myself to reply and at the same time force myself to let go of him.
Professor Roman dismisses the class early right then and everyone hurries away. I can see Dani and Keller waiting by the bleachers along with Lance and Baron.
“God, what the hell was that?” I ask as I stare up at Raph wide eyed and for a moment I forget how much I’m meant to hate him. That power, so raw, so potent. I’ve never felt anything like it. There was a seduction in that power, too, which made me feel like I was teetering on the edge of a knife blade. Goosebumps rise on my skin at the memory.
Raph’s eyes are as dark as midnight as he looks back at me.
“I don’t know, Jaz. I’ve never seen anything like that …”
Neither of us speaks, but we’re still standing there and it seems like neither of us wants to walk away either.
“It looks like you didn’t need all of that training after all,” he says finally, the ghost of his usual teasing smile playing on those sensuous lips. I can see that he’s still shaken, but I don’t know why because he’s made himself pretty clear about just how little he cares.
Except the way he’s looking at me just then, as if the shock of what just happened has stripped something away from him, leaving him raw and for a moment, it seems like whatever control he had been exercising all these months has finally dissipated.
Part of me is aware that we’re standing in a field with crowds of people around us, but it’s one of those moments between us when it feels like we’re the only two people in the vastness of time and space.
I feel like the entire universe is watching just then, waiting, and time seems to stop as I feel like I’m standing at the edge of that precipice again.
“Jaz, I—”
I wait for him as he seems to be battling with something in his mind. Something seems to win out and when he turns to me again, it’s with that face of stone that I saw that first day at the beach. His eyes are like glaciers, his gaze shuttered.
“I can’t do this,” he says, finally, as he turns and walks away.
I can do nothing but watch his retreating figure as the gaping hole that had opened up inside me that night of the bonfire, widens until it swallows everything in its path, leaving only the emptiness that resonates in the wake of loss.
Part of me thinks that I should be happy that it turns out I have powers worthy of a Dynasty heir after all. But I don’t feel that. I only feel fear at the danger that comes hand in hand with power and something else, something like fear as I watch Raph walk away.
“I’m not going to the Fall Ball,” I say for what must be the tenth time.
“Yes, you are,” Dani insists, for what must also be the tenth time.
Keller and Dani have dragged me to one of the shopping districts in Arcadia where they’re in the middle of dress shopping and ganging up on me about the Fall Ball.
They’ve become fast friends and I’m glad because, having never had even a single friend before, I don’t actually know how I ever got through the week without these two.
“You are,” Keller adds as she steps out of the boutique dressing room in a silver ball gown which suits her coloring and frame perfectly.
“I don’t even have a date,” I remind them.
“That’s not true—is it, Dani?” Keller says, with a smirk.
“Nope, Devon Waldorf asked her to go.”
“He didn’t ask me to go,” I correct. “He just said that if I didn’t already have a date, then he would go with me.”
Dani and Keller exchange incredulous looks.
“That sounds like he asked you to go,” Keller replies flatly.
“Urgh. It was weeks ago now and I haven’t spoken to him since. So he’s probably found himself another date by now.”
“Nope. Not true,” Keller says, as she unzips the silver dress and reaches for another one from the plush velvet couch next to me.
I realize then that this is my first dress shopping trip. Ever. Buying clothes was always a luxury I couldn’t afford. Now, it feels so strange not even having to think about how much any of these clothes cost. All I have to do is present the Evenstar card that Magnus has given me.
“I know for a fact that Ivy asked Devon to go, but he turned her down. He said he didn’t have a date yet, though, because he was waiting for a certain someone to accept.” Keller looks at me pointedly.
Something occurs to me.
“Wait, what? Isn’t Ivy going with Lance?”
At the mention of Lance’s name, Dani suddenly looks uncomfortable and suspicion knifes through me.
“You never told me who your date was Dan—you mentioned it was some guy, but I don’t think we got to the part where you told me his name.”
Dani clears her throat and acts all nonchalant, but her words are like a bomb.
“Oh, it’s Lance.”
Keller’s eyes look like they’re about to pop out of her head. As do mine, probably.
Had I been so caught up in my own spiral of self-pity, that I hadn’t even noticed what was going on around me? I mean it’s not like I track the comings and goings of Lance and Ivy. But I had no idea they had broken up and how in the hell didn’t I know about Lance and Dani going to the Fall Ball together?
“Whoa. Okay. Can you say that again and explain how the hell all this happened right under my nose without me even noticing?”
“Well, Lance and I have been in the same music class since like freshman year. But it’s not like we run with the same circle—well until now, sort of. I had no idea that he and Ivy had even broken up until he asked me to go to the Fall Ball with him last week. I think I almost died with shock.
“I didn’t tell anyone it was him, because I don’t want it to be a big thing and I have a feeling Ivy is going to blow her top when she finds out.”
“She will,” Keller replies honestly. “But it’s fine. Ivy isn’t Layla—her bark is worse than her bite.”
“Although, there’s no way you’re going to be able to keep it under wraps for long. You showing up to the Fall Ball on Lance’s arm is going to be pretty hard to ignore.”
“Especially because, you know …” Keller trails off.
“I’m not of noble blood or whatever. I get it. But Lance asked me and he doesn’t seem to care, so I’m not saying we’re going to run off together and make babies. But it’ll be a fun night, I guess.” Dani shrugs casually, as she slips on an electric blue number.
I admire her level headed and cool approach. I wish I could adopt the same approach when it comes to a certain someone who shall not be named.