Page 48 of Death
Chapter 11
Ari’s black car is parked by the cabin when we step outside. I start to question where it came from but I immediately swallow it off my tongue. It honestly doesn’t matter where it came from or how it got there.
It was just… Ari.
Ari made it happen.
He cracks a smile and makes even the most passive thoughts in my heart come true with the wave of his hand.
We ride back to my house in a comfortable silence. At some point on the journey, Ari reaches for my hand and I let him take it. I watch as our fingers entwine and I start to wonder when exactly it was when his hand started to lose its icy coldness. Is he warming up? Or am I getting colder?
What is Ari doing to me?
The car turns off into my driveway before I can think of an answer. Ari briefly releases my hand as he steps out and I follow close behind him. We walk together up the porch and we stop in front of the door with our eyes on each other.
“Until tomorrow, Tannis,” he says.
I nod and my cheeks hurt from smiling too much. “Until tomorrow,” I repeat.
We don’t move. He doesn’t leave. His thumb runs along the edge of my hand and I remember our original bargain.
Three dates. Three kisses.
As silly as that seems after today, I step forward and tilt my head up. Strange to think that last night, I stood here in a nervous tizzy about to kiss a boy for the first time, but now… as my lips part and Ari smirks… last night feels like a thousand ago.
I kiss him on the lips, firm and confident with closed eyes. All because he taught me how. Another bolt of warmth fires from him into me, this one stronger and more powerful than last night’s. I ease back a half-step, feeling a deep rumble in my chest but Ari’s hand rises to the small of my back.
I fall into it, submitting to the bewitching feeling taking hold of me.
The front door opens and I lurch backward, startled by the sudden sound.
“Oh!” My mother slaps a hand to her mouth. “Sorry— thought you were the take-out guy— I’ll just— yeah.”
She slams the door and I instantly crumble into myself.
“Ah, crap,” I murmur.
Ari laughs as he draws my face back up. “They’ll get over it,” he says before his lips find mine again.
I kiss him back. For a moment, I wonder if I’ll be able to stop at all with this feeling taking over my chest. “Ari…” I whisper.
He withdraws and rests his lips on my forehead. “I know,” he says, taking a breath. “I can feel you in me, too.”
There are forces in this world that even I don’t understand.
Something is pulling our strings, drawing us together like magnets.
It’s changing me, molding me, training me.
To be queen.
* * *
Thankfully, my mother never mentions the kiss over dinner.
In fact, Ari doesn’t come up much at all.
It’s just us; me, my mother, and my father. The way its always been, except there’s a noticeable tension in the air that was never there before.