Page 94 of Dark Embers

“Wait for it,” Niko said to Ashlyn.

I opened my mouth to speak, but the intro to “Johnny B Goode” sounded from the jukebox, and my question died in my throat.

I glared at Niko as I lowered my head in remembered embarrassment. “You asshole.”

Niko and Ashlyn erupted with laughter, Niko buckling over and slapping his hand on the table.

“What’s so funny?” Arya asked, looking up from her menu in confusion.

“Don’t—” I began to order Niko, but he cut me off.

“Well, Tobias and I went to the same human school before we emerged, and Tobias was going through a bit of a ‘Back to the Future’ phase,” Niko explained.

“Dude, seriously,” I warned, my dragon growling in protest.

“When we were thirteen, he decided he was going to perform the ‘Johnny B Goode’ scene at the school talent show. And he—and he—” He broke into more laughter before he could finish.

“I swear, I will strangle you,” I threatened, flexing my fingers with that very desire.

Arya began to chuckle in amused confusion, and my cheeks heated with mortification at the knowledge that it was too late to keep this from her.Fucking Niko.

“What happened?” she asked.

When Niko recovered enough to speak, he continued, and I contemplated dragging him out of the booth and pummeling him in the alley behind the diner.

“He got up on stage with a prop guitar and acted out the entire song!” Niko went on as I slunk into the leather bench. “And right as he was about to reenact the awesome guitar solo—you remember that part, right?”

He positioned his hands to play the air guitar and scrunched his face with gusto, making the girls giggle.

“He tripped over the chord of the electric guitar and stumbled off stage!” Niko finished with a high-pitched peal of laughter. “He didn’t even need to plug the guitar into anything! He wasn’t actually playing it!”

He pressed his face onto the table and slammed his fists on either side. I imagined grabbing the back of his head and slammingitonto the table.

Arya and Ashlyn gawked at me with surprised humor.

“Omigod, seriously?” Arya asked, trying not to laugh but failing.

Ashlyn threw her head back and cackled. “Yeah, Niko showed me the video.”

I bolted up in my seat and clutched Niko by the neck of his shirt, yanking him upright. “You still have the video?”

Niko sobered himself just a little, holding his hands up in submission. “Hey, dude, I deleted mine, but it wasn’t the only copy out there. I stumbled on this little trinket a few months ago, and come on, I had to save it to favorites.”

I was boiling over with mortified rage. That had been the most embarrassing moment of my entire life. My parents hadn’t known I entered the talent show. Arthur would have never tolerated such a thing. If he ever saw that video…

“Give me the phone,” I demanded, reaching for Niko’s pocket where he usually kept it.

But Niko jerked away from me before I could get my fingers through the slit of material and hopped out of the booth. Then, to my ever-climbing humiliation, he began singing along with the song and rocking out like Marty McFly.

Ashlyn slid out of the booth to join him, and I buried my face in my hands as they called the attention of every patron in the diner.

A hand suddenly landed on the bend of my arm, and I peered through my fingers to see Arya offering me a sympathetic smile.

“I’m sure it wasn’t that bad,” she indulged me.

“I broke my ankle,” I deadpanned. “I had to tell my father I got in a fight with a mugger during my evening run. He sent a search party out for the imaginary guy that lasted two weeks.”

She grimaced. “Sorry.”

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