Page 106 of Shadows of Nightshade
I know, it sounded so vain, but it was true. I nodded.
Damen groaned and pressed his hands over his eyes. “You realize we’ve had the same fears about you?”
“What?” I asked, trying to sit up. However, Titus’s hold around me remained solid, and I could not escape. I wanted to glare at him, at all of them, but couldn’t. So Damen remained the sole object of my furious attention.
“That’s not true!” I told him. How dare he question my integrity. “I didn’t even know anything about you when we became friends!”
Damen pressed his lips together and inclined his head in my direction. His meaning was clear, the answer was written plain as day on his expectant expression:Same to you.
“But it’s not the same!” I argued. What was that smug look? “I like you four because you’re good, kind people. If you weren’t the Xing, or if you had no abilities at all, it wouldn’t change how I feel.”
It wasn’t the same because I wasn’t nearly as cool as they were.
“So, you’d still be my friend even if I wasn’t an onmyoji?” Damen asked.
I still had no idea what the heck that even was, so, “Yeah!”
Titus finally released me, and I moved to stand in front of Damen. His stupid smirk was really starting to annoy me. How dare he be so infuriating during such a grievous time?
“I don’t care what everyone else thinks,” I said, pointing at him. “Just don’t let it get to your head. The only thing that matters to me is your heart.”
He uncrossed his arms as he stepped closer, drawing my attention to the tattoo on his arm. Dark rick-colored flames curled over his left bicep, stretching across his pectorals toward his heart. Considering everything, the design was obviously meant to showcase the mark on his chest.
Damen clearly took pride in his position.
“And now you know,” he said, pushing his finger to my forehead. “Why we like you.”
“Oh. Okay.” A quiet followed as his words sunk in, and I stepped back until the back of my knees touched the bed and sat as I pressed my hand to the place he’d touched. I’d expected him to respond with some embarrassing language or another lecture.
Not by using my own words against me. How infuriating.
“Are you feeling better?” Damen’s words tumbled through my strangely hollow thoughts, and I nodded.
How dare he out-maneuver me. Again.
“Are you ready to hear about today’s plan?” he asked.
“Sure.” I remained shell-shocked by this sudden change in pace and the fact that he had a plan.
This was strangely disconcerting.
“Julian,” he said, pointing to him. Julian, in turn, glanced up. He’d retreated across the room and was studying the familiar orange bottle with a furious expression. “Is going to be lookinginto your medication. When we have a definitive answer about what’s going on, we’ll tell you.”
I suppose it made sense to leave the medical matters to the doctor-in-training, but this wasn’t a groundbreaking plan.
“You and Miles have class this morning.” And for an instant, he sounded stern. “It’s important that you go.” Yet, instead of me, his focus was on Miles. There was the tail edge of a pout upon the witch’s face.
Did Miles frequently skip classes?
“And Titus and I have to get back to our jobs,” he concluded. “We’ll start looking into some things today, including, but not limited to, the spirit that escaped us yesterday.”
“What if it attacks her at school?” Miles asked. “Maybe we should stay here.”
Damen frowned at him. “You know it wouldn’t be able to launch an attack at the school. Plus, it ran away. I have a feeling that the next confrontation will go quite differently.”
“But…” I began, unsure. He was forgetting something. I would hate to disrupt their daily schedule, but wasn’t this supposed to be a big deal? “What about…” I wasn’t sure how to explain—it wasn’t like I felt any differently—and gestured at my chest.
“We don’t tell anyone,” Damen answered instantly. “At least not yet,” he added after a short pause. “We need some answers, and we need to know who to trust. Right now, we need to continue with our daily lives as if nothing has changed.”
