Page 96 of Alluring Darkness
Rage roars through me, and my hand moves as if to grab her by the throat and snap her fucking neck. But before I can so much as lift it off the table, Kaden reaches across me and grabs the salt from the other side of my plate. The move makes his arm slide over mine, keeping it down on the table.
He pulls back and then shakes some salt onto an empty part of his plate. I flick a glance at him. He just watches me with eyes that see too much. That understand too much. He probably knows who this girl is, since he is also a second-year, and has decided that it would create too much trouble for our family if I killed her in front of a cafeteria full of witnesses.
I dip my chin a fraction in acknowledgement.
“You will never win if you have someone like that on your team,” Shelley says, completely oblivious to the fact that she was one second away from dying just now. She flips her ponytail back over her shoulder and levels serious eyes on me. “My team is shit. I’m not. Kaden and Rico can attest to that.”
Both of them give me a shrug as if to admit that she is indeed pretty good.
“So, here’s my proposition,” she continues when neither of them contradicted her. “Swap me into your team. Everyone knows that you’ve got sway over the instructors. Make them pull Raina from your team and put her on mine, and then put me on your team instead.”
Ballsy. Very ballsy indeed.
I arch an eyebrow. “And how would that benefit me, exactly?”
“It would secure your win.” Sitting forward, she moves her hand towards me while locking eyes with me. “And I know that winning is as important to you as it is to me.”
Right as Shelley places her hand on my arm, Raina Smith strides across the threshold and into the canteen.
37
RAINA
Iscreech to a halt two steps inside the door. My stop is so sudden that the girl walking into the cafeteria behind me slams into my back. A huff escapes her throat at the impact.
“Sorry,” she mutters, even though it was my fault, as she slips past me.
But I don’t pay her any mind because my eyes are locked on the scene halfway across the room.
There is a girl with brown hair and tight-fitting black clothes sitting next to Eli at their usual table. She’s calm, athletic, and moves like a born assassin. In short, she’s everything I’m not. And she has her fucking hand on Eli’s arm.
Fury roars through me as I stalk towards them.
The girl is speaking to Eli, but his eyes are firmly locked on mine as I storm towards them. I shoot a pointed look down at the hand she still has on his arm. He makes no move to push it away. Instead, he just continues watching me.
“Leave,” I growl as I reach the table.
“Excuse me?” the girl says while turning towards me. When her brown eyes land on me, she flicks a dismissive glance up and down my body while contempt blows across her features. “Oh, it’s you.”
“You have five seconds to…” Pausing, I narrow my eyes at her and instead ask, “What’s your name?”
“Shelley,” she replies with a fake smile on her lips.
“Shelley, you have five seconds to take your fucking hand off his arm and get the hell out of my sight.”
She laughs. It’s a baffled and absolutely disbelieving sound that grates against my eardrums like iron nails. I squeeze my fingers into a fist as she flicks another dismissive glance up and down my body.
“Or what?” she retorts, clearly amused.
A vicious smile laced with utter insanity spreads across my mouth. “You really don’t want to find out.”
At the table, Jace is watching us with a wide grin on his face, looking like he just wishes he had brought popcorn for this show. Both Rico and Kaden glance between me and Eli. But the bastard himself only continues watching me while saying nothing.
Shelley’s chair grates against the concrete floor as she pushes it back and gets to her feet. She’s a good two inches taller than me, but she looks down her nose at me as if I was half her height.
“Are you threatening me?” she says, her voice cutting through the suddenly dead silent cafeteria like a blade.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that your ability to read between the lines was this far below the average level of the general population.” I give her a mocking smile. “Allow me to spell it out for you. Yes, that was me threatening you.”