CRYSTALLUM (The Primordial Principles Book 1) (8 page)

"I'm okay." His eyes darkened, and there was something familiar she couldn't place. "Thanks...for asking."

She nodded and wanted to say more:
Did you shatter the Shadows?
Shifting her gaze away from him, she faced forward again.
Maybe she'd imagined that part. She had dropped her crystal. For all she knew it flew up and hit the Shadow when she crashed into Cole. It
was possible. It wasn't like she could ever ask him anything,
anyway. Rule number seven of her dad's,
Don't expose what you are. Ever.

Kade had gotten very good at pretending she was like everyone else. She peeked over her shoulder, and Cole's gaze lifted under thick lashes.

How do you know about the Devil's Children?
She wanted to ask,
knowing at the very least she'd heard him say the words in Latin. Which was just as crazy as the possibility of him shattering the
Shadows. His gaze intensified, and she glanced away, but his stare continued. She felt it heating her back, warming her entire body.

***

"Are you asking for a death wish or something?" Giselle rounded on Kade after class as they searched for their lockers in the packed hallway.

"What?"

"I told you the other night; Cole is trouble, and I get it. I see it—hell, everyone sees it. We aren’t blind. Cole is...hot. I know. Everyone
knows that, but fire will burn you. You can't flirt with him."

Kade put her new combination lock on her empty locker,
wondering
when her teachers would issue textbooks. "I wasn't flirting with
him." The back of her neck was still tingling, though.

Giselle balked. "He stared at you through all of History. The
entire
class."

"No, he didn't." Kade's cheeks warmed at the thought. “That's just—"

"True?" Giselle's green eyes dared Kade to deny it.

Kade slung her backpack over her shoulder and pulled her hair up into a long pony tail. "I appreciate you looking out for me, but I'm good." Surprisingly, that was kind of true. She did feel good. Better than she'd felt in a long time. Maybe ever. She pointed toward the stairwell. "I go back downstairs, right? Pre-Calculus."

Giselle nodded.

"See you at lunch?"

Skepticism showed in Giselle's expression, but she relented. "I'll be outside the cafeteria so you don’t get lost.” She walked down the hallway in the other direction.

“Hey, wait.” Kade ran over. “Do you know what happened to him? To Cole? Why he's all bandaged up?"

Giselle made a face. "Trust me, you don't want to know."

***

Kade stared at the white board covered in numbers and symbols she couldn't have deciphered if her life had depended on it. How Pre-Calculus snuck on to her schedule, she didn't know. It wasn't like she'd done well in Algebra or Geometry.
What a joke.
She half-laughed under her breath.
I'm going to fail.

The desk behind her squeaked. "Morning, Kadence."

Shifting her attention away from the alien language on the whiteboard, she glanced over her shoulder and her breath stuck in her throat. "Oh, my god."

"Oh, come on. It's not
that
bad." Jake leaned forward in his desk.

"Are you okay?" The words slipped from her mouth before she could stop them. The side of Jake's face appeared to have been mauled by a mountain lion's claw. Four long gashes spread from hairline to jawline, tinted red from obvious bleeding. His left hand was wrapped in thick bandages, only his fingers showing, like he was preparing to step into a boxing ring and fight one handed.

"Fine. It's nothing." Jake waved his uninjured hand in the air. "Got into a little altercation Saturday night."

Kade's suspicions of him fighting Cole were confirmed by that statement as far as she was concerned. She wondered how bad off Danny, Alex, and Kyle were.

"So, we never got a chance to talk before," he continued. "You moved here from Utah?"

Kade lost her train of thought, unable to tear her eyes away from the scratches on his really, if she was honest, gorgeous face. His dark blue eyes had a luring effect.

“So, Utah?" He lifted a brow.

"I...yeah."

"Good trails in Utah." He smiled.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Do you want to do something later? Get something to eat? There's an awesome ice cream shop downtown. Coffee?"

Nothing like being direct.

Jake smiled again, the same disarming smile he'd given her at Crystalline. It made his whole face light up.

"Um...I rode to school with Giselle and Lindsey, so—" She felt like an ass saying no. He and Giselle were friends, so he was likely harmless. Except for the yelling match with Cole...and the probable fighting.

"I can take you home." Jake leaned back. "Talk to them and let me know. No pressure."

"Okay. Thanks for asking."

"You bet."

The calculus teacher cleared his throat. "Mr. Phillips," Mr. Thomas said.

Jake glanced up.

"Would you care to instruct the class today?"

"No, sir."

"Then please pay attention. Miss Sparrow, you as well."

Shocked that another teacher knew her name, Kade turned around. Facing the incoherent numbers on the board, she sighed in stupefied confusion, and prayed Mr. Thomas never called on her during class. Although, with math grades like hers, he had to have known better than to ask if she knew any of the answers.

By the time lunch rolled around, Kade was starving and cold. Mountains or not, Utah wasn't cold in August. It was even freezing inside the high school. Maybe the heater didn't work. She smiled at the sight of Giselle's familiar face outside the cafeteria.

"You're meeting Jake later?" she asked. "I heard him talking to Alex in the hallway."

"I'm not sure." They got behind the other kids waiting to eat.

"You should go," Giselle prodded.

"I don't even know him."

"You didn't know me a few weeks ago." She winked. "This is
how you meet people."

"I guess." Kade had stopped trying to meet anyone at her last two schools. There never seemed to be a point. She always ended up moving somewhere else. Not to mention she had to heed the
rules.

"Senior year," Giselle said. "Live a little."

Jake stood near the cafeteria doors, talking to someone Kade thought was Alex, but she wasn't sure. There were small cuts down the side of the guy's face, and a long brownish streak on his neck like he'd run full speed into the edge of a branding iron.

What is it with guys and fighting?

Jake waved with a smile.

"God, I wish someone would look at me that way..." Giselle did a weird shivering movement.

Lindsey gave her an odd glance.

"I don't know what you're on the fence about," Giselle said. "He's damn hot. And so... rugged with his face all scratched up like that."

"Rugged?" Lindsey said in a flat tone. "Really—"

Giselle shrugged.

"Maybe you should date him if you like the rugged type," Kade said.

"No, thanks. He's hot, but there's no chemistry." Giselle
shrugged again. "And no chemistry means no heat. No heat, and well, what's the point?"

Not sure how 'hot' and 'no chemistry' even managed to be in the same sentence, Kade said, "So, Jake and Alex...they got in a fight with Cole." It wasn't really a question.

"Probably. They all hate each other." She dug in her bright pink purse as usual.

Kade's eyes shifted toward the back wall of the lunchroom where posters were plastered all over announcing the Fall Dance, like they'd even had a fall. They'd gone directly from summer to winter. Little orange and yellow leaves were pasted into the corners of each poster and decorated with glitter. They reminded her of the third grade, not the twelfth.

Underneath the elementary display, Cole leaned against the
wall, straddling one of the lunch table benches, his eyes focused toward her. He smirked and a hum of electricity thrummed in
Kade's chest.

Giselle elbowed her in the side. "The line's moving. I thought you were hungry?"

Kade grabbed a water bottle, some soup, and walked across the cafeteria, sitting next to Lindsey. She glanced at Cole again. He remained in the same position, back against the wall, eyes cast toward the ceiling as if lost in thought. Her gaze tracked down his face, the faint bruises marking the strong line of his jaw, and to his arm, wrapped in white gauze. It was clean of blood and Kade was thankful for that.

"Will you stop?" Giselle snatched Kade's water bottle away. The label was peeled up everywhere. "What's wrong with you?"

Kade shrugged and checked for messages she knew she
wouldn't have on her phone.

"What's up over there, Kadence?" Lindsey asked.

Kade glanced toward Cole again as if her brain was hard-wired to his location. The wall was empty. "Just checking for messages." She held up her phone in a lame way as proof, and Jake sat down beside her.

"Hey, Kadence." His blue eyes took in her face.

"Hey."

"I like your hair up like that."

"Oh. Thanks." She tucked the strays behind her ears.

"So, did you decide about after school?"

She hesitated.

"Come on. It'll be fun. Promise."

All she could think about was what her dad would say if he
found out. That and the fight with Cole. The way Jake and his friends acted toward him at Crystalline...not that Cole wasn't an arrogant ass, too, but still, something didn't sit right, and she wished
she could place what it was. She glanced at Giselle, hoping for some help to get out of going, but got nothing.

"How about tomorrow?" Kade would just pray her dad never
found out, and Jake wasn't as big a douche as Alex and Kyle seemed to me. "My dad will be expecting me home after school. First day and all."

"Tomorrow's awesome." He hopped up and walked back to his table.

***

"We already checked it out. You're being paranoid." Danny slid the book he was holding onto the shelf, and motioned for Cole to hand him another stack off the round wooden table. "I'm not going up there with you again. The first day of school is over and I have stuff to do."

Cole held a stack of books above his head so Danny could reach
them from the library's ladder he was standing on. "I don't
remember asking you to come."

"You don't ever ask, you expect." Danny slid a few more books onto the higher shelves. The common house's library was perfectly circular in shape, book shelves lining the walls from the floor to the ceiling.

"What stuff do you have to do?" Cole flicked through
Beginners Guide to Astronomy.
The books Plumb made the younger Primori read were mind numbing. She reminded Cole of his dad sometimes. Always handing him another book to read. He'd read so many books, he could be writing them.

Danny held a hand out for another stack. "Things."

Cole held the books up and walked across the room to the
theology section. "Things?"

"Yeah, things. After I finish putting all the books away for Plumb, I have
things
to do."

"Whatever." Cole scanned the shelf and tapped the spine of the book he was looking for. "You do your
things
, and I'll do mine." Flipping through the pages, he landed on the photograph he was searching for. The Mortal Coil. He'd read the passage before, so he knew the meaning of the serpent wrapping the egg.

Universal control.

From the corner of his eye, Cole saw Danny hold his hand out for the last stack of books sitting on the table below.

"You should leave this alone," Danny said. "The Kadence thing. We have more important things to do than to follow some fledgling around."

"And you should come up with a better word than thing. I remember a time when you were some random fledgling." Cole
flashed a grin, and
shoved the book under his arm, making his way toward the door. "After you finish all your things, tell Plumb I'll try to be home for
dinner."

Danny huffed down the ladder and grabbed the remaining stack of books.

Cole smirked. "Exercise is good for you."

AFTER THE FIRST DAY
at another new school, all Kade wanted to do was crawl into bed and pass out. Her dad didn't question her when she made her way upstairs right after dinner. It always took a while for her to become accustomed to a new school. New schedule. New everything. Sleep came quick.

Kade stared down the face of the cliff, jutting out over the deep, waterless gorge.

"It is too far down, my Fledgling." The demon took a step forward.
"Please, do not attempt to flee. Let us talk. I want only your understanding. You mustn't be frightened by what you truly are. It is a gift unparalleled." He beckoned her, black hoofs sinking into the moist ground. "Let me help you."

She jumped.

Kade's eyes opened on a deep intake of breath. She took in her new room, her desk, closet doors, and exhaled. Nightmare. The one she kept trying to forget, telling herself it was only a bad dream. Something that never could have happened, but that was a lie.

She had jumped off the cliff when she was six years old, pursued by the Shadows, and what happened afterward was something she refused to let herself think about. She forced herself to think good thoughts. Happy thoughts. Even if she had to invent every single one of them.

***

It was completely dark before Cole made the short run up the
mountain to Kadence's house. Rather than cutting through the woods like he'd done the first time, and dodging trees at mach-speed, he traveled up a rarely used dirt road. It would have been easier, and faster, to scan the area with Danny's help, but the likely expression he would've had on his face if Cole had asked him to come shoved that idea right out of Cole's head. So, he'd gone alone.