Mirage Read Online Free Page B

“Sheesh, I was just trying to be friendly. Forget it,” I said, clambering to my feet.
    “My dad died,” he said quickly, rising to stand beside me. His steady green gaze met mine, all traces of humor gone now. “And my mom wanted to move back east, to Connecticut, where she has family. So … I came east too.”
    I swallowed hard. God, I felt terrible—such a careless question. If only I’d known, I never would have prodded him like that. I knew exactly how he felt. I wanted to tell him that my dad had died too. But I didn’t. I couldn’t. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled instead.
    He shook his head, looking contrite. “No, I’m sorry. I’m such an ass. It’s just … kinda … habit, I guess.”
    “What, being an ass?”
    He winced. “Yeah, pretty much.” He glanced up at the clock on the wall. “Anyway, I better go. I’m supposed to meet with the headmistress in a few minutes.”
    “Okay. I guess I’ll see you. You know, around,” I added lamely.
    “That you will,” he said with a salute, then slung his bag over his shoulder. He took several steps toward the door, then stopped and turned back to face me. “Oh, and McKenna? There’s one more thing you should know about me,” he said, the wicked gleam back in his eye now. “You know, since we’re on the accelerated ‘getting to know you’ track and all that.”
    Again, I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
    “Just this: I hate to lose.” With a wink, he turned and jogged out.
    I stood there staring at his back, shaking my head in amazement.
    Suzanne sidled up beside me. “Hey, were you two flirting?” she asked. “Because I thought you and Aidan—”
    “Trust me, we were not flirting.”
    “You sure? Because it looked an awful lot like flirting,” she insisted, her eyebrows raised quizzically.
    “Just some competitive banter. And yeah, me and Aidan …” I trailed off, glancing down at my watch.
    He was waiting.
     
    As soon as I stepped inside the chapel, my heart sank. I heard voices—we weren’t alone. I hadn’t expected that. This had always been our special place—mine and Aidan’s—the place we’d come to be alone, away from prying eyes. Until I’d brought my friends here to train to fight Julius, that is. Then it had become our meeting place, our group training ground.
    I loved the chapel, loved the cozy loft with the window to the sky. So many memories had been made there. But they were my memories. Our memories. Call me selfish, but I didn’t want to share the space, not even with my best friends. Julius was gone, the imminent threat of danger gone with him. I wanted things back the way they used to be—was that too much to ask?
    Taking a deep breath, I hurried through the vestibule and made my way into the chapel itself, anxious to see who was there, invading our space.
    Turned out it was only Jack. He and Aidan were leaning against the rearmost pew, near the wall. “I think I can work with the molecules some more, but you’re right, he’s definitely on to something,” Jack was saying.
    I took two steps toward them, my fatigued legs trembling.
    At once, they both looked over to where I stood. “Oh hey, Violet,” Jack called out, but it was Aidan’s face that my gaze sought.
    He didn’t say anything—he didn’t have to. It was there, written all over his face. If I thought my legs were weak before, they were now near total collapse. Oh, man.
    I swallowed hard, barely able to believe that he was finally there, just a few feet away from me. My gaze skimmed over him from head to toe, taking in all the details I’d pressed to memory—his face, as pale as always; his nose still slightly crooked; his golden hair tousled as if he’d just raked his fingers through it; his eyes, the one bright spot of color in his face, the same blue-gray as I remembered, not yet faded as a vampire’s were wont to do over time but darkly shadowed from ignoring his nocturnal instincts for far too long.
    He