Bookishly Ever After (Ever After #1)(49)
Em blinked at our reflection and reached over to pull at one of my curls so it bounced back like a spring. “We still look awesome. And you’re not Phoebe tonight, you’re— what’s that book character you’re probably going to try to imitate tonight?”
I laughed. “I don’t do that.”
“Right. You’ve never done anything like that.” She nodded at my nightstand and the giveaway sparkle of my notebook.
I smoothed down my skirt. “But this is Maeve’s dress from that book I told you about. The one set in Ireland. She’s pretty kick-ass.”
“So if I see you spouting stuff off in Gaelic?”
I blew a raspberry, like I was five again. “You’ll be too busy making out in German to even notice if I start speaking Elvish.”
“You know me so well.” She grabbed a sparkly hair tie and pulled her straightened hair into a low side-ponytail. “C’mon. Grace wants us there by eight-thirty.”
Golden series book 1: Golden PG 194
“Don’t feel obligated to be with me,” the ghost of his voice whispered through her memory and she shook my head to push it away. The part of her still stinging from their “discussion” that morning wanted to run back to the dorms and mope, but the rest of her kept moving forward on autopilot10. Aedan needed her to help protect his people.
Even though she was just a means to an end.
Maeve’s attention returned to the harp. It was beautiful, but no more so than any other artifact in these Archives. Still, something about it kept drawing her to it like a sailor to a siren. She crossed the room, reaching out towards its smooth wood surface.
“You’re beautiful,” Aedan’s voice came softly from behind her, making her fingers freeze millimeters from the harp’s surface. She didn’t turn to look at him. “White makes you glow. Like you’re all light.” He sounded serious, so unlike his usual self.
“Don’t,” She whispered, straightening her back and raising her chin. “Just…let’s get this over with. You don’t have to explain or apologize or compliment me.” Ignoring Aedan, she let the harp’s magnetic pull drag her in and her pointer finger touched the mahogany wood.
Everything changed.
30
It was getting too hot in Grace’s house, especially with my long sleeves. I pushed the French doors open and escaped onto the deck. I could still hear the faint bass of the music coming from the house as I stepped to the railing, wrapping my arms tight around my body to ward off the January in New Jersey chill.
I wiped the one surviving pile of snow from the wooden bench and sat down, taking a deep breath of ice-cold air and automatically dissolving into a coughing fit. How Maeve managed to do that, like, every other page was beyond me. As cold as it was out here, it was so much more uncomfortable in there. Avoiding Dev while trying to look like I was having fun was exhausting. Usually on New Year’s Eve, I hung out with the non-A-listers on the family room couch with Alec and all of Grace’s other geeky friends, watching a Lord of the Rings marathon or something, but this year Grace, Leia, and Em dragged me into the crowd of dancing and pool-playing people in the rec room.
Plus, Grace made me dance with one of the JV football guys who was a dead ringer for Cyril from Hidden. I had to get out before I did something silly, like ask him to start some shirtless sword fighting or creepily stare into his eyes to see if he had flecks of silver in the blue. Okay, maybe I did have a skewed sense of reality.
Music blasted through the night air and I looked up to see Dev stepping out onto the deck.
“Frak,” I said under my breath. Half of my brain wanted to reach up and fix the hair I knew had fallen out of Grace’s glittery clips, but the other, Maeve-like half kept my hands glued in place. I forced myself to gaze out over the lake, trying to look like I hadn’t noticed him. Maybe he wouldn’t see me, maybe he’d stepped outside for just a second—
“Hey, Phoebe.”
My heart dropped to my stomach, where acid started immediately devouring it. I turned my head, hoping my hair would brush my shoulder delicately and the clips would catch the moonlight reflecting off of the lake. Grace had put some sparkly powder on my cheeks and glitter on my eyes, so maybe they had that magical moonlight effect you always read about in books. Like Maeve in the Archives, the first time Aedan saw her power manifest in his POV story they had at the back of the book. I tried to let surprise flow onto my face. And tried not to shiver.
“What are you doing out here?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing. Aren’t you freezing?”
I forced myself to look warm and pointed at my sleeve. “Winter fashion to the rescue. It’s not too bad out here, really.”
He crossed his arms and joined me by the railing, but didn’t sit. “I guess Mumbai spoiled me. It feels freaking cold.” He visibly shivered and I grinned. Point for me. Maeve would totally be impressed.
His profile in the moonlight made my half-acid-eaten heart skip a beat. It didn’t feel cold at that moment. His skin was darker, tanned from India, and his hair had grown a bit longer and swooped over his forehead almost like the hero in an anime. I sucked in a sharp breath and turned my eyes to the lake and the shadow of a pine dipping into the water.
“How was your trip?”
After what felt like a lifetime of sensing his stare, he turned to stare out at the water, too.