It was Rhys, of course. Melinda had obviously swooped in at her first opportunity and snagged him. For a moment I tried to look at him the way she probably did. He was inarguably good-looking and had an effortless confidence about him that helped him stand out in a crowd. However, the moment his gaze shifted to me I could see the gold flecks in his eyes appear to swirl, as if I bothered him on some deeper level he couldn’t hide—at least not from me.
“There she is,” Rhys said with a nod in my direction.
I tensed. Had he been talking about me? And saying what?
Instead of shock or horror at whatever they’d been discussing regarding yours truly, Melinda looked at me with confusion in her blue eyes.
“I thought you said you didn’t know Rhys,” she said.
Caught in a lie. Not good.
I cleared my throat. “I’d forgotten that we do kind of know each other already.”
“Kind of?”
Rhys smiled, but it looked forced. “It’s a family thing.”
“You two are related?” Brittany asked with interest, twisting a long piece of red hair around her manicured index finger. “That’s so cool!”
Rhys let out a genuine laugh at that, and his face shifted into something much more pleasant. It wasn’t hard to see why Melinda thought he was megahot. “Not even slightly related, trust me. No, our families … well, they’ve never really seen eye to eye on most things, have they, Nikki?”
I didn’t know much about faery-demon relations, but I imagined they weren’t particularly pleasant. After all, faeries wouldn’t need the Shadowlands’ barrier to protect them from the Underworld and Hell if everyone was good buddies with each other, would they?
But my father … well, he was a demon, but he also ruled the Shadowlands, which kept faeries and humans safe from the bad demons. And yet, Rhys wanted to lump him in with the others. Figures.
“You could say that,” I replied stiffly.
Rhys hadn’t taken his eyes off me for a moment since I’d approached the table. “No offense intended, of course, but I’d even go so far as to call Nikki’s family … demonic.”
He wasn’t pulling any punches today, was he?
Melinda’s eyebrows raised. “Wow, that’s harsh. I’ve met Nikki’s mom. She’s really nice.”
“Just my opinion, I guess.” Rhys shrugged.
Not sure why it hadn’t occurred to me yet, but I suddenly realized, crystal clear, that Rhys didn’t just dislike me, he completely hated my guts. Because I was half demon? Or just because I was me?
I cleared my throat, feeling the now-familiar irritation toward him bubbling up to replace my uncertainty. I wanted to hate him in return. It really was the least I could do.
He glowered at me, his irises swirling their strange mix of molten gold and chocolate brown. Was I the only one who could see that very inhuman trait of his? Melinda was looking right at him and wasn’t reacting as if anything was strange, so it had to be true. Maybe he didn’t currently have wings and pointy ears, but he was so not human that I could sense it from ten feet away.
Stress began to mix with frustration as we stared at each other and I clutched my sandwich a bit too tightly, my nails popping right through the plastic container. I looked down to see that my regularly short polished fingernails had turned long, red, and razor sharp. I dropped the sandwich in surprise and whipped my hands behind me to hide them.
Relax, Nikki, I told myself. Right now.
I really didn’t like the way Rhys was affecting me. I had everything totally under control until he arrived unannounced and messed up my concentration.
“Nikki … ,” Melinda began, uneasily eyeing both me and Rhys in turn. Luckily, I didn’t think she noticed my unwelcome demon talons make their first high school appearance. “Why don’t you sit down and have some lunch with us?”
I cleared my throat. “I … I have to do something first. I’ll be right back.”
Sidestepping my fallen egg-salad sandwich, I retreated from the cafeteria to the hallway, cursing myself. I was the one who was supposed to scare him away, not the other way around. So much for me being all in charge of the situation. I couldn’t even stay in charge of myself for more than five minutes.
I touched the bracelet my father had given me. It was a simple gold chain with a clear crystal charm in the shape of a teardrop. He’d told me it was an actual dragon’s tear.
Yes, a fire-breathing dragon. They existed—and, apparently, were quite emotional.
It was supposed to help keep my so-called Darkling powers under control. Since it didn’t come with an instruction manual, I kept my hand on it and just tried to concentrate really hard.
Slowly, with a small twinge of pain, my fingernails receded to their short pink-polished versions. I let out a shaky sigh of relief.
“Hey, Nikki, everything okay with you?” A voice made me turn around. Larissa leaned against the wall by the cafeteria entrance, her long dark hair swept over her right shoulder.
I was surprised to see her. Out of the entire Royal Party, she’d be the last person I’d expect to check on my well-being.
“I’m fine,” I said.
She thrust her chin in the general direction of the lunch table past the closed doors. “I think I know what happened in there.”
That was unlikely. I hoped. “Oh yeah?”
“You and Rhys used to date, right? Maybe at your last school?”
The thought was almost humorous. “No, we didn’t. Me and Rhys, we were … uh, acquaintances only. And it was so long ago that I’d practically forgotten about him.”
Her eyebrows went up. “How could you forget a hot guy like him?”
I shrugged. “I guess his hotness faded substantially in my memory. I barely remember him, actually.”
She didn’t look convinced. She slowly approached me and, without speaking, scanned me from top to bottom.
“What?” I prompted after a moment, concerned that some other demon appendage had appeared without my knowledge.
“Nothing.” She pressed her lips together. “I’m just trying to figure it out, that’s all.”
“Figure what out?”
“Why you feel like you have to lie so much.”
This time my eyebrows went up in surprise. “Excuse me?”
“It’s the only way you could have wedged yourself into Melinda’s life so quickly and easily—by lying about everything. You think you can have whatever you want, whenever you want. But I’ve waited a long time for her and me to be best friends, and just when we were getting closer, boom, you show up and ruin everything.”
I thought I could have anything I wanted? She was so wrong.
“You and Melinda are friends,” I reasoned.
“It’s not the same as best friends.” She shook her head. “I can’t figure out why she even wants to be your friend. I mean, you’re a total nobody.”
“Luckily, I don’t care what you think.” Even though I said it, my throat felt thick and my eyes now stung with gathering tears. It was one thing to get a generic evil glare from Larissa, but another thing to hear exactly how she felt about me. Sharp words cut deep. I wasn’t invulnerable.
“Now Melinda’s always with you. Or she’s going to her stupid ballet lessons. She never has time to hang out with me.”
I wasn’t going to let her see she had any effect on me. “Sorry to hear you’re so needy, Larissa. But that doesn’t have anything to do with me.”
“And now with this Rhys thing—”
“What Rhys thing?”
“Melinda really likes him. I’ve never seen her like any guy so fast. You told her that you didn’t know him, but you lied. You do know him. It’s obvious you want to steal him away.”
Oh, this was just getting better and better. But now I was more angry than hurt. “You don’t know how wrong you are. And frankly, I think Melinda could do a lot better.”
Yeah. Human would be good for starters. No faery kings need apply.
I wa
sn’t winning Larissa over. She thought I was a big liar who believed I could get whatever I wanted. Then again, she wasn’t the smartest girl at school.
Her expression soured further. “Good thing Melinda has me around to watch her back. It won’t be long before she realizes once and for all who her true friends are and who’s just trying to weasel themselves in.”
“Weasel?” I repeated.
“Yeah. Weasel.” Her eyes narrowed into little eye-shadowed slits.
So did mine. I tried very hard not to let the annoyance prickling at my skin spread any further. “Gee, Larissa. I think you have a way higher opinion of yourself than you should have. Normally your opinion would mean nothing to me, but since I’m having a bad day already, it means less than nothing. If that’s even mathematically possible.”
“You don’t fit in here and you never will. It’s only a matter of time before Melinda figures that out.”
Okay, that one stung. I winced, as if she’d slapped me.
“Why don’t you go back to Melinda and keep kissing her butt?” I suggested. “Maybe you can date her next ex-boyfriend if you’re lucky.”
“Go to hell.”
“I’ll send you a postcard.” Irritation swelled inside me, pushing through my hurt feelings. “You said that I always get what I want. You know what I want right now?”
“What?”
“For you to get out of my face.”
“Gladly.” She turned and went back into the cafeteria.
I was now seething—my anger had built gradually until it was nearly overwhelming. My temples started to itch, a warning that my demon horns were planning to appear. That would be bad. It would be harder to hide a set of horns at the moment than a handful of talons.
“I’m seriously going to lose it,” I said to myself. “Right here, right now.”
::No, you’re not. Don’t let her get to you, Princess. Just breathe.::
Yeah, breathe. I’d breathe fire out of my nostrils, just like the dragon who sobbed out the tear on my bracelet. And then I’d sneeze all over Larissa and her stupid opinions about friendship and loyalty and Rhys and …
Wait a minute. I stopped thinking about revenge for a moment.
Did I just hear what I thought I did?
A breath caught in my throat.
I scanned the hallway until I stopped on a tall, very good-looking guy watching me intently while leaning against the lockers about twenty feet away. He had dark hair that was a bit too long and shaggy—it nearly touched his shoulders and partially covered his vivid green eyes and high cheekbones. A dark blue hooded sweatshirt and baggy faded jeans hid the fact he had a leanly muscled athletic frame that any jock at school would envy.
Michael.
My heart leaped. All anger forgotten, including any potential fire-breathing directed at stupid girls named Larissa, I made a beeline toward him.
I couldn’t believe it had been less than a week since Michael had first been sent here with the instruction to bring me back to the Shadowlands so I could meet my father for the first time. To say I’d resisted everything Michael told me would be putting it mildly. At the time, how was I supposed to know he was telling the truth?
Yeah, Michael and I had started off a bit shakily, but he’d more than made up for it since then.
We weren’t alone in the hallway. Other students moved past us steadily, heading in and out of the swinging cafeteria doors, which was the only factor that made me refrain from throwing my arms around him. I couldn’t remember being happier to see anyone before. I couldn’t keep the grin off my face, my troubles with Larissa (almost) forgotten.
“You were fighting with your friend.” Michael’s voice was very serious and filled with concern.
“I wouldn’t exactly call her my friend. And it was more of a loud disagreement than an outright fight.”
He glanced warily toward the cafeteria doors. “If she’d made any attempt to harm you, I would have intervened immediately. If she had any idea who you are—”
“But she doesn’t and she won’t,” I said firmly. “Don’t worry. I can handle Larissa.”
He still looked troubled. “As long as you’re okay.”
“I’m fine now.” I decided I didn’t care about the potential audience of students. I went up on my tiptoes and kissed him quickly.
“Princess, you really shouldn’t do that here,” he said cautiously, but the glimmer of a smile was struggling to appear on his lips.
I glanced around to see a passing guy looking at us strangely and my face reddened. Michael called me “Princess.” I’d asked him repeatedly to call me Nikki, but he almost always refused, instead insisting on addressing me by my official royal title.
Grabbing Michael’s hand, I led him over to the doors at the end of the hallway, where we could talk more privately.
“You think we shouldn’t kiss in public?” I asked.
“Yes.” He swallowed and looked down at the ground. Then he raised his eyes and met mine. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. It’s fine with me. More than fine, really. But if anyone sees us …”
Right. The stupid, pointless rule that forbade demons and Shadows from openly dating. “Forget about that. I honestly don’t care what anyone thinks. I thought you already knew that.”
“I do.” His hands were now clasped behind his back, his amulet, a bright green stone that looked like a large flat emerald, visible on top of his zippered sweatshirt.
Because Michael was a Shadow, the magic amulet the exact color as his eyes helped him keep a solid form. Without it, he became as disembodied as a ghost—or an actual shadow—one that would quickly fade away to nothingness. A common punishment for Shadows who refused to do what they were told was to temporarily (or worse, permanently) take away their amulet.
Like I said before, Michael wasn’t exactly a normal boyfriend. Also, if I wasn’t mistaken, he was blushing a little bit from me kissing him in front of everybody. It only made me want to do it again as soon as possible.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Your father ordered me to bring you to the Shadowlands immediately. He wants to talk to you.”
I frowned at that. “He ordered you?”
“Yes.”
I would have preferred he use the word “asked” or “requested,” which would have fit much better with Michael’s new nonservant status. Unless …
“Hold on,” I said. “You spoke to me telepathically a moment ago. Can we still communicate that way even though you’re officially not my servant anymore?”
He met my eyes. “About that …”
I shook my head, a feeling of dread twisting in my stomach. “Don’t even try to tell me nothing’s changed. My father promised me.”
“Princess, please. It doesn’t matter.”
“I can’t believe this. Why would he lie to me?”
“King Desmond didn’t lie. I do believe he meant what he said at the time he said it.”
“So you’re still a … a servant?”
“I am what I’ve always been.” He held up a hand when I was about to say something, I didn’t know what. He must have seen the outrage on my face. “Please, don’t overreact, Princess. I didn’t expect things to change overnight. In fact, it’s very possible things will never change.”
Quite honestly, ever since my father had made the promise, I hadn’t given it much more thought. I’d just assumed things would change immediately.
“Why aren’t you fighting this?” I asked. “Why do you seem to accept this so easily?”
“Because it’s not the time. Your father has been very good to me over the years. You really have no idea.”
“How? By ordering you around?”
“He allows me to come here through the gateway and see you. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to at all.”
“Allows you,” I repeated, disliking the sound of those two words used together.
“Shadows are servants to demonkind. That’s how it’s always been. He
told you what you wanted to hear because he loves you and wants you to be happy. Please, Princess, don’t make a big deal over this.”
“I don’t know if that’s possible. It is a big deal.”
He hesitated. “Does it change anything … between us?”
“No, of course not.”
“Good.” He nodded, and that smile I found so completely devastating (in a good way, that is) touched his very kissable lips again.
I took his hand in mine. His skin was warm but coarse, as if he did manual labor. When we first met, Michael had kept his servant status from me because he’d been under the impression that I would think him less worthy. He’d been dead wrong. I didn’t care who he was—rich, poor, a servant, a Shadow, or whatever.
I set aside my annoyance for now, but my father and I would be having a talk about this issue very soon. “You said my father wants to see me? About what?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Didn’t he tell you?”
“No. He only said it was important that you come back with me immediately.”
“I wonder if it has to do with the prophecy,” I mused.
His dark brows drew together. “What prophecy?”
“Apparently there’s some prophecy about me that was just uncovered.” I shivered, thinking about it.
“Who would have told you something like that?”
I glanced over my shoulder and a distinct feeling of unease flowed through me when I saw the bearer of my prophecy news exit the cafeteria and scan his surroundings before spotting me.
“I really wish he’d just go away,” I grumbled, and let go of Michael’s hand.
“Who?”
I gestured in the direction of the approaching faery king. “Him.”
“Nikki,” Rhys said drily as he reached us, his eyes flicking to Michael for a moment. “There you are. Trying to avoid me doesn’t change anything, you know.”
“Who are you?” Michael asked.
Rhys stared at him. “Who are you?”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
I cleared my throat. “Rhys is the king of the faery realm.”
It took a moment for this to register with Michael. “What are you doing in the human world?”