Page 50 of Radiant Shadows

He stared at me with confusion for a few seconds, then he frowned as it finally sunk in. “Wait, seriously?”

I folded my arms around my ribcage. I’d never actually dumped someone before, so I didn’t really know the words to use. I didn’t exactly want to hurt his feelings.

“Yeah. We’re just too different, and I need to be single for a while,” I said, deciding to just be honest. No cliches, just the truth.

His brow puckered, giving him a distinctly sad, puppy-dog look. “But what about the other night?”

“That was…insane—and amazing,” I confessed. “But it was also justwaytoo much for me. I get that you’re into that sorta thing, but it’s just not for me. I’m more of a one-on-one type of girl, and right now, I’m a solo type of girl.”

“That’s hot,” he said, nodding his head in appreciation.

I shook my head. “That’s so not what I meant.”

He shrugged, his features returning to his default sultry smugness. “I get it. But you’ll be back. Once you go were, nothing else compares.”

I barked a laugh. I couldn’t help it, this guy was just too much. Apparently, nothing I could say or do would wound Jackson’s ego.

“Until then, have fun for me.” I gave him a pat on the shoulder before brushing past him and marching out of the sim room and toward the back door of the defense room.

Stepping out onto the lawn, I was electric with pride. I pulled out my phone and opened my music app to the new playlist I created full of songs by Sia, Demi, and Ava Max. As I pulled on my headphones and clickedRandom, I felt like I was on top of the world.

With one last look at my phone before I put it in my pocket, I could only smirk at the title. It ran across my screen, giving me goosebumps of self-confidence.

#GirlBoss

Chapter 19

Tobias

I tapped my pencil against my desk in English class Monday morning. Mrs. Sharp was reading a lengthy passage ofThe Great Gatsbyto prove a point, but my thoughts were trailing. I doubted Gatsby would have any importance in my life past my grade.

Instead, my thoughts kept circling back to the flight I’d had with Arya over the weekend. That day had been…magical. After I caught her during our little game of chase, I tackled her into the snow, bursting back to my human form and taking her right there. I had been so absorbed in the chase, my primal dragon urges taking hold, and I just couldn’t hold back anymore.

Sex in the snow had been incredible, our bodies heating so much that the blanket of powder beneath us had vanished into steam around us. And there was no one but the forest critters to hear her sweet cries of passion as I fucked her.

But what had me concerned about that rendezvous wasn’t just that I’d felt so connected to her, so intoxicated by her. It was her smell. It was still the same overpowering, delicious scent that had always held me captive, but there was something else mingled with it. Something distinctly darker, muskier.

Was that what rejection smelled like? Was this some precursor to the curse being triggered? I was so dizzied and jaded by my feelings for her that I couldn’t be sure just how deep they were. Was this the beginning of the end?

I’d spent the day with Arya yesterday and had seen her briefly this morning. Fortunately, she still smiled whenever she saw me, still welcomed my affection, so that told me one thing—I wasn’t in love with her yet, and therefore, the curse hadn’t been triggered. But I knew I was dangerously close.

“Tobias,” Mrs. Sharp called, snapping me back to the present moment. “Will you read the next few lines?”

A naga sitting next to me pointed at the place in the book, and I quickly flipped to it without missing a beat.

I cleared my throat and began reading the lines where Gatsby was insisting to Nick Carroway that he could change the past.

“‘I wouldn’t ask too much of her,’ I ventured.

“‘I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before,’ he said, nodding determinedly. ‘She’ll see.’”

“Thank you, Tobias,” Mrs. Sharp said. “This passage is probably Gatsby’s most famous quote. Why do you think that’s so?”

Adina raised her hand and was called on.

“Well, it shows the contrast between Nick’s worldview and Gatsby’s,” she said.

Mrs. Sharp smiled the way she always did whenever a student seemed toget it. I was the usual recipient, but my daydreaming wasn’t conducive to literature dissection.

---