Sweet Peril (The Sweet Trilogy #2)(40)

He chuckled. “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

Very funny. But it sounded fair. Frightening, but fair.

“Okay,” I said. With a rush of apprehension I opened my mind.

Flynn blinked at me, becoming serious, and then showed his colors, too—a mix of gray distrust and orange excitement. Thoughts of Kaidan stayed far in the back of my mind, so I didn’t worry about any of those colors showing. My mind was fully on the task at hand.

“How ’bout you, mate?” Flynn asked Kope.

Kopano frowned but pushed out his gray worries as well.

To take it a step further, I curled my skirt up a few inches and removed the dagger from my thigh, placing it on the table between us. Flynn grinned.

“Know how to use that thing, do ya?”

“I do,” I assured him.

“I’ll bet.”

Kope grunted, causing Flynn’s grin to grow.

Riding a leap of faith, I told Flynn every single detail. The distrust faded bit by bit, dominated by a swirl of yellow and orange hues. The entire ordeal excited him. I waited for something dark and malicious to rise in his aura, but it never came. And when I was through, he crossed his arms over his chest and cocked his head.

“So what’s in it for me? I mean besides not having the old man breathing down my neck all the time?”

I looked at Kope, who kept an expressionless face, and then back at Flynn.

“What I mean is”—he leaned forward and draped his forearms across his knees—“the Dukes get a shot at heaven. What about us?”

Surprisingly, nobody else had brought up this detail. Even I hadn’t given much thought to the inequity. But I could only shake my head, because I didn’t have all the answers.

“We weren’t promised anything in the prophecy,” I said. “I wish I could say there was something in it for you, but I can’t guarantee it. Our main reward will be life on earth without the Dukes. But maybe that doesn’t appeal to you. Mammon treats you well. . . .”

It was my test for him, and he knew it. His lips pursed and his aura darkened into loathing.

“I’m nothing more to my father than a high-priced amusement. He has no idea what he’s stolen from me. I want him to rot.”

His words and matching aura hung between us, and I believed him.

“Are you willing to help us?” I asked.

Flynn held my eyes. Then he pulled the gun out from behind his back and laid it on the table in front of us, next to my knife.

“I’m not really heaven material anyway, chickie babe. Sign me up for your team.”

Next to me I sensed Kope’s light blue aura of relief just before he closed his eyes and hid his colors once again.

I took a deep breath and nodded. I wasn’t so sure about Flynn not being heaven material. When he gave me that knockout smile, I returned it in full.

Merry Christmas to us.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

SINGLES AWARENESS DAY

Before Kai, I’d thought Valentine’s Day was a sweet notion, even though I’d never had a boyfriend. But now I could see this day for the evil it was. Okay, maybe evil was too harsh. Cruel was more accurate.

I’d taken a jog that morning through the frosty grass, and then gone to school to face the saccharine hubbub. I still believed in love. I really did. But everything about this day felt so forced and pressurized. Girls were crying because they didn’t get flowergrams from the boys they liked. Veronica was pouting because Jay got her a giant bouquet of pink carnations and baby’s breath, instead of red roses. Two boys asked me out via flowergram and I had to politely turn them down. And then there were the happy couples. The hand holding and eye gazing. The stolen kisses when teachers weren’t looking.

Everywhere I looked was love alongside brokenness.

I was so tense when I got home that I decided to go for another jog to shake it off. Februaries in Georgia were always chilly, but it was brutal this year. My fingers, ears, and nose were freezing. Definitely not helping with the stress and tension factor. I turned for home just as flurries started falling.

We didn’t get much snow. Hardly any, actually. So when we did, it filled me with an almost childish feeling of excitement. I stopped jogging and walked home, grinning stupidly at the falling white flakes, holding out my icicle fingers to catch them.

I was so lost in the beauty of nature that I thought I’d imagined it when I heard a lovely, low, accented voice call my name. I stopped in front of my apartment building, still grinning, and turned. Then held my breath and let the grin fall from my face.

On the other side of the lot, standing next to a black car with the driver’s door open, was Kaidan. We stared without moving or speaking. I didn’t feel cold anymore.

He had on a knitted gray cap and his hair adorably stuck out of the edges and curled upward. His eyes were locked on mine, and even through the falling snow their blueness shone like a beacon to my heart. But I didn’t move toward him. The way he stood there with his hand on the door and a guarded expression—not angry or happy, just cautious—he reminded me of a wild animal. As if I’d stumbled into the path of a majestic stag in the woods. Any false move or sound could startle him away.

“Hi,” I whispered.

“Hi, yourself,” he said quietly.

This was really happening. I swallowed, and my chest shook a little when I breathed.