Page 5 of Shadow Weaver
I took several steps into the room, eating away at the distance between us. “I doubt Master Vince will be able to answer the questions I have.”
He looked down his nose at me. “Go on.”
My stomach quivered beneath his unaffected stare. “Why are you being so distant and cold toward me? I know shit happened last term. I remember what we agreed, but I don’t recall that you being an ass was part of the agreement.”
His mouth thinned. “I’m just doing my job.”
“And does your job include ignoring and dodging students?”
His throat bobbed, the first sign that my presence was affecting him. “Justice, I—”
I held up my hand. “I may be younger than you, but I am not some weak-kneed adolescent. I am perfectly capable of taking a hint. You don’t have to keep shoving it down my throat with the frosty treatment.” I took another step into his orbit. “Stop treating me like I’m invisible.”
His gaze tracked my features, flicking down to my mouth and then quickly back up again.
“Let’s just go back to the way things were before …” I ducked my head. “Just let’s move on.”
“Yes. Move on. I see you’re doing that well.” Was that bitterness in his tone?
My head whipped up and our gazes locked. “What?”
“You and Harmon.” His smile was tight. “You’re well matched.”
Me and … “No. Harmon and I are friends. He’s in love with Thomas and … Wait … Are you jealous?”
His stony façade cracked as he tucked in his chin and closed his eyes. “Just go back to the lounge, Indigo.” The hard edge to his tone was frayed now.
Indigo … not Justice. “Hyde … Look at me.”
He opened his eyes, and a tornado of emotion stared back at me. My chest tightened, and my breath twisted in my throat. I reached for him on instinct. His eyelids fluttered closed, and then he sucked in a sharp breath and took a deliberate step away from me before turning his back on me.
His action was like a punch to the gut and the resulting question an explosion of pained air. “Why? Can’t we just wait until I graduate?”
His shoulders tensed, and when he turned my way, his expression was fierce and filled with a torment I struggled to understand.
“Because I don’t want you, Indigo.” The clipped tone cut at my senses. “Don’t you get it? I don’t want to feel anything for you. I don’t want to be with you. Ever.”
He slammed his palm against the release button, and as the door began to trundle open, my cracked heart shattered into a kazillion pieces.
He strode out into the night without a second glance, taking my tenuous hope with him.
Two
The pit was buzzing with excitement as I stepped out of the ring, fists still throbbing from all the action. Adrenaline, my familiar friend, thumped its way through my system.
“Got a pressie for ya,” Ned called after me.
Déjà vu assaulted me as I wove my way through the crowd, my feet taking me inexorably in the direction of the crimson booths on the opposite side of the floor.
No. I didn’t want to go there.
Something bad would happen there.
I should just leave and go home to my tiny one-bedroom flat above the local seven-eleven.
But my body had other ideas, and there he was, dark-haired and wide-eyed, looking up at me in awe. Oh, God. It was him, the human. My victim.
This was a dream.Thedream. But it had been weeks since I’d had it. Why now? I needed to wake up.
