Lock and Key (Nocturne Academy 1)

“Um…” I hung back, uncertain. “Look, I don’t like to sound like a girly-girl, but…aren’t there poisonous snakes here in Florida? And alligators too?” I added. Who knew how close we might come to some hidden pond where the carnivorous creatures were hanging around, hoping for a midnight snack?

I didn’t want to be on the menu.

Griffin gave me one of his rare smiles.

“So you’ll willingly put yourself in the power of a Nocturne of very questionable character but you’re afraid of a few snakes?”

“And gators,” I reminded him. “Don’t forget those. This is Florida, after all.” As the humid night air could attest to.

“Animals of those kinds avoid me,” he said simply. “Predators sense that I could control them and they stay away—my scent repels them.”

“What—all predators?” I asked, rather dismayed. I liked animals, especially cats and dogs, which—even though they were cuddly pets—had to be classed as predators.

He shrugged. “As you see. You might have noticed that since I have taken your hand, not even a mosquito has tried to bite you. That is because you’re within my radius of influence.”

He was right, I realized. Florida nights were always humid and buggy. But since I had taken his hand, I hadn’t had to slap at a single mosquito. Well, that was nice, anyway.

“Where are we going?” I asked as we picked our way through the thick underbrush. There was a kind of narrow tunnel leading through it but there were still a lot of vines and branches to contend with. I was sure I would be lost in half a minute if Griffin wasn’t there to guide me, but he led the way and never let go of my hand once.

He looked back, giving me a humorless smile that was impossible to interpret.

“My place.”

“Avery told me your family lives in that big white Victorian over on Kings Street,” I said. “Um, are you taking me to meet your parents?” And would he want to be introduced to Aunt Dellie in turn?

But Griffin shook his head.

“That is where my family lives, but I am no longer in residence,” he remarked. “I make my home someplace…much more modest now that my parents have disowned me.”

“Because of you being Censured?” I asked, hoping it wasn’t too touchy of a subject.

“In part,” Griffin said neutrally. “Though I think it was the crime I was Censured for in the first place that really caused the rift.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask what that crime had been, but again I stopped myself. We needed to get to our destination before we talked. I wanted to sit with him and look him in the eyes when he answered the questions I had been burning to ask him, rather than talking to his back while he led me through the forest.

It seemed like the vines and trees went on forever but at last, we came to an opening in the broad, tropical leaves and suddenly we were out in the open again.

Well, if by open you meant a big, overgrown field full of knee-high weeds.

I took a step forward and stumbled over something on the ground.

“Be careful, little witch.” Griffin’s grip on my arm saved me from going ass over teakettle, as Aunt Dellie would have said. “Watch out for the tracks,” he added.

“Tracks?” I frowned, peering down at the darkness around my feet.

“This used to be an old train yard—back when the farmers used trains to send their produce to market instead of trucks, which they mostly use now. This whole field is full of tracks,” he told me. “In fact…here.”

“Oh!” I gasped, for he had swung me up into his arms as though I weighed nothing at all and was carrying me easily across the field. “You…you don’t have to do that,” I said, my voice sounding breathy in my own ears. Being so close to him made my heart beat like a drum.

“Yes, I do—you’ll just keep tripping otherwise,” he said looking down into my eyes. “Besides, I like carrying you,” he added, his voice dropping to a low purr. “I like your warmth and being so close to your sweet scent.”

“You smell pretty amazing to me too,” I admitted. Since we were telling the truth, I might as well let it all out.

“Then if you’re enjoying being close to me as much as I’m enjoying being close to you, there’s no reason to let you walk,” Griffin pointed out. “In fact, I can’t think of a single reason to put you down.”

“I…I guess not,” I whispered, feeling lost in his eyes. How he could walk in the dark without stumbling when he wasn’t even looking where he was putting his feet was beyond me, but I didn’t care as long as he was near.

It occurred to me that I’d had a few crushes before—who hasn’t by the time they get at least halfway through high school? But I had never, ever been so completely enamored of a boy before and have him be just as interested in me as I was in him. All I wanted to do was be close to Griffin—to never leave him. And from the way he was looking at me, he felt the same way.