Lexan's Pledge (Starbright Novellas) (7 page)

But that doesn’t make me feel bad for her. Whatever charm I brought with me tonight is summarily gone.

“What exactly are you doing?” I bite out the words.

I see the rage pass over her face, but then she masters it and answers me calmly. Which only makes me more furious.

“I didn’t expect you to be jealous of my dancing. After all, you-”

“I’m not talking about Pallis, you idiot!”

She stops dancing, and I see her hands trembling slightly. “Excuse me?”

I put on my asshole half-smile and force her back into the rhythm of the music. The crowd is loud tonight, but I lean closer to her ear so no-one can hear us.

“Why would you ever challenge Keirna? Has Brenn taught you nothing?”

“I just asked her a question. People do that.” Her tone is flippant.

“Not with Keirna. Aitan says nobody questions her. Ever. She’ll ruin your life, Astrea.”

“No, Lexan,
you
will ruin my life,” she says then, and I’m not sure what hurts more: the jagged edge of her voice or her soft, rough hands pushing my body away from hers.

I stand alone on the dance floor, watching her take Pallis’s hand and try to pull him into a dance. He laughs and says something I can’t hear. My body feels abruptly drained and wilted. I don’t even feel like I could make it home right now without leaning on someone.

Then Trea glances back at me. “Pallis, I would love to go to the pool with you,” she says - too loudly, almost yelling for my benefit. She links her arm through his and stares at me like she could cut me in two. And I realize that she has. Here on the dance floor, she sliced me right open, cutting past my charming Libran shell and into the white anger that festers in my heart.

Trea and her attitude can go to Hades.

I glance around and soon spot Tella laughing with a few friends. I wave to her and she raises an eyebrow.

“Hot pool?” I mouth, beckoning with one finger. Her cheeks flush a little and I almost feel bad, until I remember who else is heading down to the pool. Pallis. With Trea.

I loop my arm around Tella’s waist and lead her to the pool, smiling my halfway smile the whole way.

We sit next to Anan and his new girl, and I swallow a few mouthfuls from a wine bottle he’s brought along. The liquid warms my belly, but it doesn’t even touch the cold place that’s opened up in my chest.

I run my fingers through Tella’s hair as she talks, and she snuggles closer and closer until she’s basically sitting on my lap.

I can see Pallis and a group of his friends sitting in a circle. They have wine too, and I notice Trea drinks more often than they do. I can’t see her eyes, but her movements grow slower with the alcohol.

I notice Isa and Dalen sitting apart from everyone, near the water. They too are flushed with wine, and they look like they might be rolling on top of each other any minute. The hot pool has a way of breaking down inhibitions, with its private corners, dark shadows, and don’t-tell habits.

Tella asks me a question and I bend my head closer so she can repeat it. I laugh, still not understanding her jumbled words. Her lips brush against my cheek. When I look up, Trea and Pallis are gone.

My eyes scan the room as irritation starts to penetrate my loose, hazy mood. I’m just not ready to protect her from her own decisions tonight. Then I see them, heading towards what I think is a fairly secluded alcove.

Asshole. I tighten my fingers into a fist and Tella cries out and pushes at my arm.

“I’m so sorry!” I say, releasing her hair. I hadn’t even realized where my hand was. Trea has me that mixed up. I smooth Tella’s dark brown hair back down, whispering a few words in her ear until she starts to smile again.

She turns her head and her lips meet mine again. This time, I don’t even think. I just feel.

February 8, 2067

I’ve been reading some of Charles’s astrology books lately to pass the time until our new safe house is ready. I found an old silly story about how the sun and moon used to be lovers and share the same sky at the same time. But the sun became jealous of the moon’s stars. He was so jealous of her spring star and autumn star that he stole the spring star for himself. The moon was so angry that she refused to join him in the sky ever again, choosing instead to follow his golden trail each night, until she blotted it out with her thick black cloak. Evidently, this was how we came to have night and day.

I showed the story to Aisa, and she thought it was romantic. She’s a stupid girl.

There’s nothing romantic about lovers who remain separated forever.

The real sparks fly in the next story, when the moon returns to cover the sun in his own house, turning day into blackest night.

from First Leader Lakessa’s private journal

included in Firene’s secret papers

“Hypocrite,” I say under my breath. Our kiss is over and I’m back to thinking.

“What?” Tella asks, tossing her hair from her neck so I can see her cleavage better. Like I don’t know it’s there.

“Nothing. What were you saying about your sister?” I give her the cue and she launches back into some boring story, leaving me free to think about Trea. Which is not really the best idea. She’s already been gone several minutes. I’m starting to change my mind about protecting her from her own decisions: she makes really bad ones.

I hated seeing her walk away after that asshole. I was born to be her partner, but she won’t even glance at me. Instead, she goes off with the lousiest guy in our class, to the darkest spot in the cave. And she’s been drinking.

Tella glances at me, a frown on her pouty lips. “Are you okay? I think you’re growling.”

I shake my head and shift away from her, smiling a little wider to soften the coming blow.

“Do you mind if I take a few minutes to check on a friend? I saw him leave and he looked a little drunk.” It’s not exactly a lie. Just the friend part.

Tella smiles. “Of course not! That’s so sweet of you! I love that you love your friends so much!”

I can barely smile past the strange panic climbing my throat as I leave her. That girl needs to get a clue. And a partner - soon.

I take a roundabout way towards the area I saw Pallis and Trea last. I don’t want anyone to connect where I’m going, although it would probably be a long shot. Finally I hear voices, and an occasional giggle. Rounding a corner, I can see them, and I immediately duck backwards out of possible sight.

I wish I couldn’t see either, because the sight of Trea with him makes me literally sick. My throat constricts and I feel the burn of acid at the base of my tongue.

From my hidden spot in the shadows, I can only see Pallis’s back. He lifts his head and says something to her. His voice is low, but it sounds angry even from here.

Trea’s voice cuts above his. “I don’t want…”

And that’s when the bastard leans in to kiss her again.

And that’s when I lose my mind.

I lunge across the space separating us and haul Pallis backwards by his shoulders, pulling him in a full circle so that I’m safely between his grabby hands and the girl I can’t bear to look at.

She’ll never forgive me for this, but there’s no way I could just let it happen.

“Pallis, I clearly heard her say no. If you can’t respect that, you need to take it up with me,” I say, trying to keep my voice steady and failing completely.

Instead of answering like a normal person, he swings at me. Instinct says duck. Logic says take the punch, or Trea will.

So I take the punch. And it hurts, but the pain is eclipsed by the sudden, paralyzing heat that crawls over my skin as soon as my back comes into contact with Trea’s body. It’s like she is liquid fire, and she is smothering me, stealing all the oxygen from my body and locking my muscles.

She’s suddenly in front of me and I can’t even move to help her - her fingers on my chest feel like five licks of flame. Then I realize that even though the heat registers as pain, it isn’t actually painful. It seems instinctive, like stretching out a cramped muscle.

Pallis grunts and shakes his head. He seems to feel the same fire in the hand Trea has pushed against his chest, but then he manages to move and knock her hand away.

All I can do is wonder how he can move. Even my eyeballs seem locked in place, burning for air.

“Pallis, we’ve had some fun tonight, but we both know where this is going. Please just leave!” Trea says, her voice softening a little at the request.

Pallis glares at her, then at me. I can’t look away.

He makes a growling noise, then turns and stomps away without a word.

And then Trea turns on me, dropping her arms. Without the force of her tiny hand on my chest, I can breathe again, although my skin tingles everywhere we touched. I wipe the back of my hand across my mouth and taste a bit of blood from Pallis’s sloppy punch. Asshole.

“What in Hades was that?” She demands. Her feet stumble as they back away from me too quickly, and something in my heart grows a shade blacker.

“Just protecting my girl,” I say, grinning the half-smile that Pasia hates.

Trea must hate it too, because before I see what’s coming, her palm connects with my cheek, and I swear I know what the starry sky looks like.

I finally manage to refocus on her face, and her gray eyes are absolutely stunning. As in, I can’t move again because my brain is knocked out and my muscles are locked up. Again.

The pain from her hand on my cheek fades as I stare into her eyes, and I feel everything growing a little cooler. A little calmer. Like she’s expended just enough of her fiery temper to begin to notice what just happened in the air around our two bodies.

I begin to notice how close we still are. And how she hasn’t moved away, even though I can see the confusion in her smoky gray eyes. I’m getting lost in that smoke - it’s like the cooler version of a hypnotic fire, and it’s dancing in the air I’m breathing in and out.

I feel my own magnetic power rallying and opening to her. Then she starts to respond to it, and I nearly lose control.

Together, we could be everything.

She stops moving, but we still get closer. My hands circle her waist without my brain telling them to. Her hips line with my hips as though unseen currents pull us together.

And then I kiss her, and I can’t think of anything else but kissing her, until I can’t take it anymore. I break away from her lips, and it’s the hardest thing I can remember doing.

Her body feels limp in my arms, so I wait, ignoring my body screaming for more, until she stands straighter.

I blink, realizing my eyes have been open the whole time. My mind has been open. And I have definitely given away too many of my secrets with that single kiss.

She opens her mouth as if to say something, and the motion of her lips makes my hands shake as they let go of her completely.

“That’s how you should be kissed,” is all I can manage to say.

And then I have to walk away, leaving her sputtering for words and flickering for air. Because if I don’t walk away now, I will never walk away. And if I never walk away, Trea will never come to me on her own terms. I know her better than she knows herself sometimes, and I know with every bit of my soul that she will only come to me when she’s ready.

This is not the time, but with each step I pray that the time comes, one day.

And my body fights against our separation with every fiber. Now that I know what I’ve been missing, I’m ruined for any other girl.

Trea has me, and she will always have me.

I’ll pledge to protect her life with my life until the moment of sacrifice, but I can’t pledge to stop protecting her then. I’m the autumn star to her spring star, the moonshine to her sunfire, and the balance to her justice.

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Please enjoy this excerpt from

Starbright, Book Two

Chapter One

“This is never going to work,” I say, thudding to the ground and striking the grass with my fist.

Lexan bends his tall frame into a crouch before I can blink – his eyes are inches from my face, and they’re furious. “I’m so sick of your attitude. None of this is going to be easy, Trea, and it definitely won’t work if you keep acting like a spoiled princess.”

A flare of anger warms my chest and he glares, then nods at me – as though he can feel the heat of my temper rising. “That’s better. Now, get up.”

I scowl and push off the ground. “One more time, then. But I still think it’s all a bunch of Styx.”

We clasp hands again, fingers interwoven. I raise my eyes to meet his and open my mind to his power. His pupils grow larger with concentration until only a ring of deep-water blue remains. Now I can feel him in my mind, inserting his thoughts. It’s like listening to the quietest whisper, and I imagine for a second that his mouth rests against my ear, delivering this image of flames. Maybe if I can visualize the fire, I can figure out how to call it.

That’s his newest theory anyways.

But we’ve been at it for three hours, and all I’ve managed is to sweat through my thin shirt. And I’m pretty sure that has nothing to do with my internal fire.