Page 2 of Enchanted Kisses
Heat exploded inside me like a guided missile seeking out the cold, the dark, the death, devouring it.
With a flicker of sanity, I jerked away and caught sight of my changing skin.No! It was too late. I’d let my guard down, and now I had no choice but to leave her.
Her eyes shot open. Hurt and confusion filled them before her exquisite features fell into a frown that zeroed in on my increasingly warmer heart.
Light swirled around my arms, drawing her gaze. Her breath caught.
Instead of backing away in fear like I thought she would, she asked, “What’s happening to you?”
“I can’t tell you. I’m sorry. It wasn’t supposed to end this way.”
The words hit her like a blast of cold air, and her skin paled. But there was nothing I could do. All sentries were forbidden to speak the truth to humans. She wasn’t all human, but she didn’t know that half of her lineage yet. I would like to be the one to tell her about her mother and her true origins. My only hope was if I survived my new plan and returned, she would forgive me and allow me the chance.
Her features crinkled with worry as she struggled to understand what was happening. I knew her well enough to know what was going on in her head. She wondered if she was hallucinating like her father.
I reached for her, wanting to ease her fears, wishing I could tell her this was real and not a hallucination. I opened my mouth, desperate to explain. My throat enclosed the words before they could leave my lips, the spell preventing me from divulging anything.
I wanted to blast the room to pieces. Never had I been thisfrustrated in all my life.
She stepped farther away, her wide stare following the twister of silver and gold rays wrapping my body. Each color represented my dark and light halves—two opposites that encompassed my life now more than ever.
One last look into those hazel eyes and then she was gone. All of it was. The fake life. The lies. The light. The hope.
Death greeted me.
1
Lily And The Dark Stranger
Iparked my car in the crowded lot. The only spot available was in the back, far from the entrance to Olson’s Pool and Sports Bar.
I checked my phone for the hundredth time to make sure the text was real. For three months, I’d worried I had inherited my father’s hallucination disorder.
How could I not? I thought Caiden evaporated into a swirl of gold and silver light when I tried to kiss him. I told my best friend Raysa that was what had happened.
She assured me I wasn’t crazy and believed the stress of the moment—hearing Caiden was leaving when I realized I was falling for him—caused me to imagine his vanishing act.
It made sense. People didn’t just vanish. But I couldn’t remember any good-bye or any mention of him leaving, only the part where he wentka-poof.
Since then, I hadn’t heard a peep from him…until today.
On my way home from the nursery where my dad works, I got a text from Caiden that nearly sent me crashing into a tree.
Meet me at Olson’s. 10 p.m. Come alone. I’ll explain everything.
I’d never deleted Caiden’s name and number from my phone, but even if I had, I would have known the message was from him. He was the only person who took me to Olson’s and who liked the place.
I considered not coming, but I needed to see for myself that he was alive. I wanted to know where he was, and why he never contacted me or replied to the many texts and voice messages I had sent.
When I got the answers to those questions, I could leave him in the same way he left me. Well, not the way I remembered him disappearing, but I could walk away from himforever.
A weaker side of me feared I would strangle him in a bear hug and never let go. That side needed to stay hidden.
The clock on the dashboard showed I was five minutes early.
Can I be any more pathetic?
I turned off the engine and opened the door. A gust of cool air blew into my car. My long hair twisted about my face and something caught in my eye.
