Bookishly Ever After (Ever After #1)(85)
Why was he always staring at me in that weird, but toecurling way? Something rose to the surface of my thoughts, like the lighter pieces of pulp, and I didn’t push it away.
Maybe those looks of his were like when Aedan was always watching Maeve, while he was trying to figure out if they could actually be together. Maybe he really was about to kiss me at the bridge, and I’d never know. Maybe I really was pushing him away without knowing it, like Maeve pushed away Aedan or Kaylie avoided Evan.
“I’m not an ice princess,” I said to myself, earning a weird look from the boy at my elbow.
What if Dev’s comments at lunch were him projecting, too?
I had a crazy, scary, maybe-awesome-maybe-awful idea. Was I really strong enough, like Maeve, to put everything on the line?
The friction between us was still thick through orienteering the next morning. Dev didn’t joke around like he usually did and we seemed to move in concentric circles around each other—passing but insanely careful not to touch. Afterwards, as I was packing up all of the compasses and maps, I took a deep breath and tried to sound light as I kept my back to him and said,
“I just need to weed through all of the bows and arrows for this afternoon, replace a few strings, put aside anything that’s too beaten up to use. You can handle lunch, right?”
“You’re not going to eat?” he asked as he reached around me for the small rake he used to cover up all of the fire pits.
“Not hungry. I had a big breakfast.” I turned to face him, but his back was to me. “So, can you? The equipment is really in too bad a shape to get through one more lesson and I don’t want anyone getting hurt.” I crossed my fingers and hoped he wouldn’t argue.
“I’ll bring you back a burger,” he said, tossing the rake onto the table and grabbing his clipboard. He started walking and added over his shoulder, “No extra pickles, since you don’t need the ammunition.”
I cracked a smile. “You’re the best.” As soon as he left, I jumped into action, grabbing my bag of supplies and hightailing it to the archery field.
I hadn’t lied about the condition of the bows and arrows. About a third of the arrows had chipped or damaged shafts, or destroyed fletching and some of the bows desperately needed new strings. I tore through the equipment and repairs faster than I’d ever done anything in my life. That didn’t mean I wasn’t nervous when I checked the time on the little clock on my clipboard. I really wanted to get this over with so I could enjoy what would potentially be my last afternoon of not feeling like an idiot.
I still had fifteen minutes before Dev was supposed to show up to help set up. Hands shaking, I spread my borrowed supplies on the ground and got to work sewing together the sheets of paper I had made the night before and writing. I was Marissa, figuring out the tussie-mussie. I was Maeve with the clover. I was Kaylie, planning out her song.
I was concentrating so deeply on my writing that I didn’t even notice Dev until he was nearly on top of me. With a squeak, I rolled up my work and shoved it in my quiver.
“One burger, ammunition-free.” Dev slid a napkinwrapped burger across the table and, without waiting for my “thanks,” headed over to my rack of repaired bows. He twanged a string. “Looks good.”
“Yeah.” The rest of our setup went the same way, him making one or two word comments and me unable to say anything longer back. By the time the campers arrived, the atmosphere around us was back to charged and tight, like we were engulfed in a ball of coarse Suffolk yarn.
“Do something cool,” one of the boys challenged me, like every group had, and I looked over at Dev.
“We’re here to teach you basic—” he started his usual spiel about safety and how tricks could wait. But as he was speaking, I nocked an arrow and, in an attempt to repeat what I’d done that day in the school field, whipped around and took a shot. The arrow zipped through the air and hit the blue circle. Not as impressive as a bullseye, but it still elicited a few gasps and “cool”s from the kids.
Dev joined them in staring at me. I shrugged, plucking another arrow out of my quiver—careful not to jostle my papers—and preparing for a proper demonstration. “I thought it might be good to change things up a little bit.” I felt the corners of my lips turn up before I turned my attention to the campers and launched into archery 101. His eyes never left me.
Golden series book 1: Golden PG: 443
A feeling, like the heavy shadow of a wrecking ball, pressed against her skin.
“It’s coming,” Maeve whispered, the warm wood of the harp practically melting into her palm as she squeezed it.
Aedan looked up, shock clear across his features. “Not yet. You’re not ready.”
She took a deep breath. Now that the time had arrived, instinct was taking over, telling her what to do. “I’m the Harper. It doesn’t matter if I’m ready24. I have to stand at the gates or they’ll fall. And then everything will be destroyed.”
“The Guard will stand at the gates. They can protect both our worlds.”
“Right. So they can get crushed first? Aedan, I need to do this. Alone. It’s my job.” The wind kicked up as she stood in the middle of rocks and gorse and moss. Her hair whipped around her like a wild thing, like she belonged in this place. The harp might have been symbolic of her power, but right now, she couldn’t imagine being there without it.