Cursed Hearts (A Crossroads Novel) (16 page)

Chapter 14

Nine times out of ten, people look at the world with blinders
on. They let themselves see what they want to, instead of what’s really in
front of
them
. Christian had always
thought he’d had a clear picture of what his life was and who his friends were.
It was difficult enough hearing Dallas say he liked him less than someone he
hated; but as he stood outside of Aria’s room, glaring
fire at Dallas, he realized one, incredibly terrifying thing. No one
had his
back
but him. And just like
that, that clear picture was quickly starting to fade.

“You
are such a dick,” he breathed.

Dallas
whirled around in surprise. “…Christian?”

“Yeah,”
he said indignantly. “You know, yay tall, brown hair, brown eyes—pissed off at
you.”

Dallas
sighed. “Come on, you know you’re like a brother to me, but that’s my sister in
there. My brother and my sister should not be dating.”

A
few passersby gave Dallas a strange look.

“I
may not know much about family, but I know enough to know
that
you
don’t talk about a brother the way you just talked about me in there
.
What if I really liked this girl?”

“You
don’t.”

“I
could,” Christian said defensively.

“But you don’t.” He sounded completely
exasperated. “I asked you to
stay away from her – I warned you. You don’t get to act surprised now. I would
have said the same thing to you if the roles were reversed, so don’t take it
personally.”

“And
which role is that? The one where I’m a player, or the one where I’m completely
full of myself?”

“Both,”
he decided, crossing his arms.

“I
wasn’t either of those things before I met you.”

Dallas
pursed his lips.

“Oh,
and for the record,” Christian said, “I wasn’t going to go after her anymore,
because you asked me not to. That’s what friends do. They don’t stab each other
in the back.” He wasn’t sure that was a true statement, but making Dallas feel
a little guiltier was worth the lie.

“So
what now, you’re going to punish her to get back at me?”

A
low, booming voice drifted through the door, startling them out of their
conversation. “Is there someone else in there with her?”

“Shit,”
Dallas whispered. “That’s Richard—her father.”

They
both pressed an ear to the door.

“This
is unexpected,” Ariahna said in a careful voice.

“Unexpected,
or unwanted?” Richard replied. “You don’t look particularly happy to see me.”

“The
feeling appears to be mutual,” she murmured.

“Don’t
backtalk me.”

“No
sir, I wasn’t. I’m sorry.”

“…Did
you have company just now?”

Ariahna
fell quiet. “Dallas came by,” she shrugged.

“You
know how I feel about the Hayes boy.”

The
dull tone of his voice conveyed his distaste perfectly.

“I know,” she breathed. “He was just checking in. He
wanted to
know why I
didn’t come to visit during the summer. He didn’t stay long.”

“And
what did you tell him?” he asked.

The
soft clack of expensive shoes filled the silence.

“Nothing,” Aria finally replied. “I didn’t say anything, other
than that I was busy. He didn’t question it.”

“Good.
And you’ll stay away from him from now on,” he ordered.

Christian
frowned at the door, listening to Aria fidget.

She
finally got up the courage to ask what was on her mind.

“…Why
are you here?”

A
dangerous energy ghosted through the air in reply.

“I’m
curious about that myself. Apparently after your little incident today, the
school thought I should drop everything and rush down here to coddle you. And
yet here you are, in one piece—well enough to make snide, discourteous remarks
at the least—and taking my precious time for granted. How regrettable that I do
not have a daughter resourceful enough to have prevented this from happening. I
expected more from my only progeny.”

Christian
glared at the brass doorknob, shaking his head in disgust.
“Jeez, what happened to a simple, are you alright?”
This guy definitely wasn’t winning any father of the year awards.
Dallas
pressed a finger to his lips insistently, and Christian wasn’t sure he’d ever
seen him so freaked out.

“I
apologize,” Aria whispered.

“So you do remember your manners.” Richard shifted the
conversation, startling her with
his next query. “Where were you last night?”

A
deafening silence rang out in reply.

“I
asked you a question.”

“I
was here, sleeping,” she said unevenly.

“Is
that so?”

Christian
could practically feel Richard’s jaw twitching.

“Don’t
lie to me,” he spat.

The
sound of a chain slinking against metal echoed loudly in Christian’s ears.
“What the fuck was that?” he breathed.

What?
Dallas mouthed back. He hadn’t
heard anything.

“Isn’t
this your necklace?” Richard asked.

The
piece of jewelry in question was a small,
heart-shaped
locket that
had been given to Ariahna by her mother. It was handcrafted
and engraved, and undeniably hers.

“I…
lost it.”

“And
I suppose you’re puzzled as to how it ended up at a crime scene?” he said, his
voice dark.

The
tension was audible.

Christian didn’t understand what was happening, or when
he’d
started
shaking, but he was. A bead of sweat was glistening against his brow, and his
heart was pounding in his ears. It felt like the beginnings of a panic attack. The
odd thing was, he’d never had a panic attack before. A loud clattering sound
startled him, and then Richard was talking in a voice so low he
couldn’t
make out the words. Christian panicked,
banging loudly on the door.

“Aria,
we still studying together or what?”

“What
are you doing?” Dallas breathed.

There
was a lengthy pause.

“Yes,”
she called. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

“…We
will
finish this later,” Richard said.

Several more moments of silence followed, and then she
was
opening
the door. Christian and Dallas stood
up straight, pretending they hadn’t just been eavesdropping on their
conversation.

It
still felt like his heart was in his stomach.

“Did
we make plans I don’t remember?” she asked playfully, trying to disguise just
how shaken she was. Christian’s eyes were riddled with questions, and even if
she knew what they were, she was sure she didn’t have the answers. She tugged
down the sleeve of her blazer self-consciously.

He
had barely caught the movement.

“Do
you want to get out of here?” he asked.

“No,” Dallas said sharply, answering for her. “What the
hell was that? Did your dad
really tell you to stay away from me? I know I’m not his favorite person, but
that’s ten kinds of cruel.”

“Exactly,”
Christian muttered.

Dallas
looked at him with just a twinge of guilt in his eyes.

“You
were listening?” she exclaimed, crossing her arms.

“What’s
the real reason I didn’t see you all summer?”

“Dallas—please,
don’t.”

“Don’t,
‘please don’t’ me,” he said.

Christian
backhanded him on the arm. “Just shut up. Can’t you tell you’re upsetting her?
God, you’re denser than me sometimes.”

Dallas
had the gall to look offended.

“…Did
you involve my car in a crime?”

“No,”
Christian scowled.

“Give
me back my keys,” he said.

“I
didn’t take your car.”

“I
don’t care. I want my keys back.”

“I
don’t have them on me,” he lied stubbornly.

“I
can see them in your pocket,” Dallas said.

“Fine,”
he breathed, fishing them out of his pants. Dallas looked entirely too smug for
his liking. “…I never did have a dog growing up.”

“What
the heck is that supposed to mean?”

Aria
stifled a laugh. Christian had hucked the small set of keys down the hall,
nearly clipping someone in the head. They slid across the hardwood floor like
it was a sheet of ice, stopping near the lounge.

“
Fetch
,”
he said.

Dallas
looked like he was going to burn a hole straight through Christian’s forehead.
“You’re dead,” he declared.

“Dallas,
do you remember the last time we had a disagreement?”

Dallas’s
face twisted bitterly.

“Oh
good, you do.”

“Christian,”
he said in warning.

“Just
go get your keys,” he sighed. “Then we can talk.”

Dallas
turned, grumbling the whole way down the hall.

Christian
waited until he was out of hearing distance before turning back to Aria with a
devious smile. “If I asked you out on a date,” he said suavely, “would you say
yes?”

Ariahna
bit her lip, unsure how to reply.

“Just
meet me on the roof at midnight.”

“Okay,”
she blushed. “But, tell me one thing.”

“What
would that be?”

“What
happened the last time you two had a disagreement?”

Christian
smirked. “…I won.”

Chapter 15

Ariahna stood at the top of the stairs, gazing down into
the inky blackness of the teacher’s lounge. It was just after midnight, and
Christian was probably waiting for her on the roof already. She pressed her
back
against the
metal door, unable to decide if she was having a social life or going back to
bed. She took a deep breath, closing a hand around the doorknob and
stepping
out
into the chill night air. The rooftop stretched out around her like a giant sea
of concrete, giving way to an endless, navy blue sky. Gentle gray clouds
drifted by overhead, and the smell of the ocean hung in the air.

Christian
was nowhere in sight.

Aria
wrapped her arms around herself, shivering softly and shuffling towards the
edge of the building. She was just starting to feel like she’d been stood up
when he jumped out from behind a large generator and grabbed her. She screamed
in surprise before smacking him on the chest.

“Christian!”

“Boo,”
he laughed.

“The
next time you scare me like that, you’re going to leave our date as a ghost.
Then you can say ‘boo’ professionally,” she sighed.

“That
might be the cutest death threat I’ve ever heard.”

“Keep
teasing me and it won’t just be a threat.”

“Before you decide whether or not you’re going to kill
me, how
about we
actually have our date?” he said. “But first, you have to give me a kiss.” Aria
raised her eyebrows at him. “Just on the cheek.”

“Isn’t
the kiss supposed to come at the end of the night?”

“It’s
good luck to start and end a date with a kiss,” he said.

She squinted at him skeptically, trying not to return his
smile.
“Fine,”
she said, leaning in to give him a peck on the
cheek. He turned at the last second, capturing her lips and stealing the kiss. “Christian,”
she said, pulling back.

“Try
saying it a little breathier,” he laughed.

Aria’s
face turned bright red as she backed away.

“No,
no, no,” he smiled. “I was kidding. Don’t leave.” He gently took her hand,
leading her around the side of the building.

Aria
stilled when she spotted the chairs and table hidden away on a corner of the
rooftop. “Are those… did you take those from the pool?”

Christian
grinned back at her, shrugging innocently.

“Technically,
Adam took them,” he said. “We stashed them up here last year so we’d have a
place to come hang out when we skipped. Strictly speaking, girls are not
allowed.” He blinked down at her. “Are you laughing? This is a sacred place.
Don’t mock the pool chairs.”

“You’re
taking me on a date to your secret clubhouse.”

“Just
for that, you get to sit in the broken chair.”

Ariahna
looked back, noticing that one of them was lopsided. “Or I could just fix it,
and neither of us has to sit in a broken chair,” she said, raising her hand.

“No!”
Christian exclaimed. “You can’t fix the chair.”

“Why
not?”

“
Adam broke it and he’s going to fix it. If I fix
it, it’s like I’m
admitting I did it. And we both know that it was him.”

“So
instead of having two functional chairs, one of you has to sit in a broken one?
That seems a little silly.” Aria stopped herself just shy of calling the
argument childish.

Christian shrugged. “It’s kind of better this way. Half
the fun of
going up
to the roof is fighting over who gets the good chair.”

“Do
you expect
me
to fight you for it?”

He
paused, trying to read her body language. “Would you think that was a fun date
activity?” he asked cautiously. Aria bolted for the chair and Christian stared
at her slack-jawed for a moment before scrambling after her. By the time he
reached the lounge chair, she was sprawled across it, grinning up at him.
“Cheap,” he said. “I can respect that.” He glanced out over the rooftop at the
dense trees. “I just realized something,” he said, keeping his voice somber.

“What?”

“You’ll
be cold without me sitting beside you.” He grinned, cuddling up to her side.
“Just don’t notice the blankets on the ground.”

Aria
looked like she didn’t know what to do.

“Do
you want to pick up where we left off?” he said.

“Where
we left off,” she mumbled, frowning down at her hands. “Christian… what
happened last night—the kissing I mean—I’ve never… really done anything like
that. And if you just asked me up here to make out, I’m not interested in that.
I just wanted to spend time with you.”

Aria
lifted her gaze, staring him straight in the eye.

“Do
you really like me, or is this just… something else?”

Christian
felt his mouth go dry. “I… like you,” he said. “But that question doesn’t
really protect you from ‘guys like me’. Someone who really
liked you would tell you as much, and someone who
just wanted…
something else, well, they would say the same. There’s not
exactly a real answer to that question. Not one you can trust.”

She
smiled, looking out at the sky.

“I
think that was an answer I could trust,” she said.

“…Maybe,”
he mumbled, furrowing his brow.

A
moment of silence passed between them.

“So,
what now?” Aria asked.

“I
don’t know…”

“Well
what do you usually do when you come up here?”

He
thought about it.

“Usually
I just watch Adam eat chips and try and talk at the same time. It’s much more
entertaining than it sounds. I thought I saw Abraham Lincoln on his tongue
once.” Christian stopped talking when he noticed Aria’s disgust. He didn’t
really have anything planned, he realized. Making out
had
been the plan,
and that plan had hit a snag.

“Oh,
I know,” he said. “How about a little stargazing?”

“It’s
kind of cloudy.”

“We
can fix that easily enough.”

Christian
swept his hand through the air, sending the fluffy gray
clouds floating away on a high wind. The stars smiled down at them like
gems sparkling in a dark, beautiful sea.

“I
think there’s even a meteor shower tonight.”

“Really?”

“No,”
he smiled. “But I’ll make one for you.”

Ariahna
turned to look at the stars, nestling her head close to his shoulder. Tiny
streams of light started shooting across the sky – slow and few at first, and
then more rapidly and repeatedly until they covered the school and stretched
out across the woods.

“…You probably shouldn’t have done that,” she murmured,
unable to tear her eyes away
from the gorgeous sight.

“What,
are you afraid I just brought Kal-El to earth?”

“Who?”

“Never
mind,” he chuckled.

“No, I was more thinking that an unnatural meteor shower
might make the news, and then The Witches Collective might open an
investigation, and
my father would be assigned to it—and he’s really thorough in his
investigations—and it would get back to him that it was you,” she said, sucking
in a breath, “and then you’d get in trouble and he’d find out we were together
and—”

“Okay,”
Christian said. “I’m going to stop you there.”

Aria
exhaled tightly. “Sorry.”

“Just
live for now. You can’t enjoy the moment if you’re constantly worried about the
consequences.”

“That
sounds like the philosophy of someone who’s heading to prison,” she said
offhandedly, biting her lip at the look he was giving her.

“…I
think you’re mistaking me with your other boyfriend.”

Her
face flamed to life with anger and embarrassment.

“What?
I heard about his little heroic stunt today. It all just sounds a bit
suspicious to me. What was he even doing there? And how did he get to you so fast?”

“How…
how would you know how quickly he got to me?”

Christian
sighed. “A friend of mine was there and saw the whole thing. Well, sort of. He
said that the back-up
generators
kicked on in a matter of seconds, and when they did… No one can move that fast,
not even with magic. It just makes me think—do you know that people say he
burned his own house down? The guy sounds… unstable.”

Aria
sat up, glaring down at Christian.

“That
guy you’re talking trash about probably saved your life last night, and he
definitely saved mine today. You should have a little more respect. He
did
almost take a bullet for you.”

“Are
you in love with him?” he asked, unable to stop the words from spilling out. The
thought alone left a foul taste in his mouth.

A
long silence followed his question. The pause had been great enough for Aria to
examine the aching sensation in her heart, that feeling of intense emotional
pain. She might love him. Or she could have, at least.

“Why
did you ask me up here tonight?” she whispered.

“Truthfully…” Christian leaned in slow, stopping
just inches from her lips. “I
don’t know,” he breathed. His hand came up to caress the side of her face. He
was searching for something in her eyes. Perhaps an explanation for why he was
acting so weird; or maybe a reason for why his chest hurt whenever he looked at
her. “Why did you come?”

By the time he whispered the last word his lips were moving
passionately against hers. A rush of heat was spreading through his limbs as he
cradled her head in his hand, laying her back. His fingers found the skin just
above her jeans, gripping at her hips in anticipation.

Ariahna shuddered under his touch. This hadn’t been what
she’d come here for, and now she was wondering why. His hands were hot enough
to melt away her inhibitions, and his lips were softer than she remembered.
He’d coaxed her tongue into his mouth and was now
sucking on it slowly
; and it was the single, most intimate sensation
she’d ever experienced.

A soft moan touched his ears as Christian’s mouth found the
delicate curve of her neck. He was sucking hotly on her skin, building her
pleasure and dragging it out with a few strokes of his tongue. He could feel
the air trapping itself in her lungs, leaving her to burn beneath the weight of
his body. He curled his fingers around the back of her thigh, pulling her leg
up against him as she tugged at his shirt.

“Christian…”

Aria was panting beneath him, trying to find the strength to
tell him to stop. His mouth closed over hers again, and she got swept away in
the seductive dance of lips and the darting of quick, eager tongues. His
fingers clawed gently over her stomach, filling her with hunger and warmth.

“Christian,” she breathed, “stop.”

“Relax,” he whispered, reaching up to
caress her face again as he pressed himself between her legs. He rolled his
hips into her subtly
, letting her feel his excitement. She whimpered softly, and
he felt a throbbing pulse straining beneath his jeans. What was subtle turned
heated as his hand smoothed up the fabric of her blouse, exposing her skin.

“You can touch me, if you want,” he said.

“No… I don’t want to do this.”

Aria slid his hands away, trying to pull her shirt back down.
He snatched her wrists, pinning them above her head. Christian was kissing her
so hard she couldn’t think. She was dizzy and lightheaded, and the touch of his
hands as they roamed down her arms felt so deliciously right. He was pressing
hot kisses over her neck as his fingers fumbled with the button of her jeans. It
took her back to that moment. To hands ripping at her clothes and holding her
down. To the panic building in her chest, that harsh sound of laughter and
jeers, and the slow, creeping pool of blood.

“Stop it!” she yelled. “Get off of me!”

Aria shoved him hard, sending him tumbling out of the chair.
Christian landed on the ground, ripping his jeans on the rough cement.