Shimmering Chaos (Enchanted Chaos 2)

“Sometimes,” I admit. “But I’m kind of afraid, too.”

His gaze flicks to my lips, his eyes burning with what I think is desire. The floor quivers and panic sets in. But when Foster takes my hand, the shaking slowly stops, along with the panic.

“Me, too … I’ve thought about it a lot. What it would be like to feel what I want … to have what I want …” He leans in, as if to kiss me. And part of me wants to let him. Wants to feel his lips against mine. Wants to let everything I’ve ever kept buried deep inside me out. But the other part of me questions if he’d even want to kiss me if I was the human girl who tried to hit on him that day in the parking lot.

My heart slams against my chest as I turn my head. “I’m sorry,” I mumble.

He takes a steadying breath. “It’s fine.” When I refuse to make eye contact with him, he sketches a path along the inside of my wrist. “Sky, I promise it’s fine. I probably shouldn’t have tried to kiss you anyway. Not here and not now and not when you don’t want to.”

Sucking in an inhale, I meet his gaze.

He offers me a small smile. “We should get to class. We’re already pretty late.”

I nod, grateful he isn’t making a big deal out of this, unlike my heart that seems super peeved at me right now.

“So, we have this class together, but not the next class, right?” I ask, desperate for a subject change.

“Yeah, my next class is History of the Water Element.” He pulls a face.

“Is it a boring class?” I wonder.

“No, it’s okay … but sometimes it sucks not being able to attend classes that actually pertain to my element.”

“So, there’s none at all for … well, what we are?”

He shakes his head. “As far as most know, our kind is extinct … It almost was,” he adds as an afterthought, glancing at me.

It starts to hit me then just how rare we are. Rare in even a magical world. And I can’t help wondering how much of my kind had to die for things to become this way.

As I enter the classroom with Foster, my thoughts shift as thirty sets of eyes glance at me. Curiosity sparkles in some of them, while others carry disdain. It makes me want to turn around and run. I’ll go to Nina’s and hide out, spend my days doing whatever I want, just like I used to. I wish I could do that, but knowing what I know now … everything’s changed.

I’ve changed.

When I went to the Everettsons’, it changed everything. It changed me. It changed the life I once knew.

But maybe that life never existed to begin with.

First period isn’t too awful, but mainly because Foster is in it with me. I’m a bit apprehensive about my second class, but when I walk in, relief washes over me as I spot Easton sitting at one of the desks. He smiles at me when I enter.

“Aw, look, it’s my favorite creature in all the worlds,” he teases as I drop my bag onto the desk beside his.

I lower my ass into the seat. “Do you ever let up?”

“Let up from what?” he asks innocently, but with a twinkle in his eyes.

“Hey, East.” A girl with long blonde hair waves at Easton as she walks into the classroom. But her smile falters when she notices me. “Who’s this?”

“This is Sky.” Easton gestures at me.

The girl’s forehead creases as she stops beside Easton’s desk. “Is she the girl that’s living with you?”

“Yeah. And FYI, you can ask her questions directly,” Easton tells her with a teasing grin. “She can totally hear and even knows how to speak. It’s seriously the most miraculous thing I’ve ever seen.” He winks at me.

I roll my eyes at him for probably the tenth time today.

“Oh… yeah… right.” The girl forces out a high-pitched laugh, then she sticks out her hand in my direction. “Hey, I’m Jane. It’s so nice to meet you.”

I shake her hand, highly aware that she grips the shit out of my fingers.