Page 112 of Cruel Destinies

Relief washed through me. A silly feeling, but this girl was doing all sorts of crazy things to my emotions, so I wasn’t surprised.

I nodded. “And I thought…” I took it from her fingers and held it carefully between my thumb and finger. “You could put some of your light inside.”

“I love it!” Arya threw herself into my arms before I was ready, pinning one of my hands against my chest.

I breathed another sigh of relief. “I’m glad.”

“I have something for you, too!” she said after clasping the charms around her thin, porcelain wrist. It somehow looked even more beautiful against her skin. “But I don’t have it with me. Come back to my dorm?”

I couldn’t help but smile at that and nodded—after secretly praying I could slip in without being noticed by the families I’d avoided.

A few minutes later, we sat knee-to-knee on the edge of Arya’s bed. We had successfully snuck back in without issue since most of the families had migrated to the dining hall for lunch. Arya pursed her lips when she handed me a brightly wrapped gift with cartoonish green Christmas trees on a red background. It was the shape and size of a Blu-ray or DVD.

I wasn’t so careful about the unwrapping and blurted out the title before the paper hit the floor. “Flesh Eaters 4,theCollector’s Edition!”

I held in my hand the newly released zombie killing video game Brett had been going on and on about for the better part of the last six months. Though I hadn’t been as vocal about it, I, too, had been eagerly anticipating its release.

“How’d you get it?” I asked, embracing Arya so tightly I realized too late that I might crack some bones.

“The mall?” Arya croaked when I’d released her.

“But how? It’s been sold out for months!”

I couldn’t help the giddy, boyish grin I had on my face, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t remember the last time someone gave me a gift that was absolutely nonessential to my advancement in the shifter or dragon community.

“They had a bunch at that gaming store on Black Friday,” she said, looking a little fearful for her life suddenly.

I willed myself to calm down in order to wipe the look from her face. “They had them in?”

She nodded. “And not that it matters, but I got it on sale, too.”

“Do you have any idea just how much I lo—?” I choked on my words, but pulled her close and kissed her anyway.

A hard lump formed in my stomach as our kiss deepened, and almost as quickly as I’d reached for her, I broke the kiss and pulled backward.

“Thank you,” I said, touching my mouth and trying to hide the fact that I’d pushed her away so suddenly.

“You’re welcome,” she said, looking as though she was struggling just as much to decipher my reaction as I was to recover from it.

Something caught my eye just over Arya’s shoulder. A rose sitting on the nightstand. It hadn’t been there the last time I’d been here.

“Where’d you get that?” I asked, not realizing that it could be from another guy until the words left my mouth.

Great. Now, I sounded like a jealous boyfriend.

“Shea.”

I nodded and made a noise of approval. As much as I disliked Arya’s friendship with the witch, I was relieved.

“So...I hear the New Year’s Eve Ball is pretty fantastic,” she said, suddenly sounding nervous.

The ball was a yearly tradition at the Dome, and while a lot of the students made a big deal out of it, I never cared.

But this year was different.

“Yes.” I had been meaning to ask her, but between embarrassment over silver cranes and the excitement and anticipation of fighting brand new zombies, it had fled my mind. “And you’re coming as my date.”

She smiled, then laced her fingers through mine and squeezed before turning her chin upward to meet my lips in a gentle kiss.

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