First Thien’s mother ruins dinner, and then she ruins our night. She kept calling him incessantly, demanding that he come home. He turned his phone off so we could have a moment of peace, but even that didn’t stop her. She called my mom and demanded they send Thien home.
When he came back the next day, I could tell something was wrong, but he didn’t want to talk about it. He wasn’t his usual self.
Once Noah and Thien received our orders from the Magistrate we made the trip back to the human Galaxy. It took us right back to where we left off with Asher being taken. The party inside Desiree’s was still going on.
“What now?” Willow asks.
“Now we party and wait for further instruction.” Noah flashes us a wicked smile.
The others follow him inside, but I hang back. I want to talk to Thien whose barely spoken two words to me. Before he can go inside I step into his path. He sighs and takes a step back. “What’s going on with you?” I ask.
“Nothing.” He shrugs.
“Last night you were all charm and whit, but today you’re…distant.” I point out.
“My world doesn’t revolve around you Aria.” He pushes past me.
Ooooooookay….
I’m not sure what I did to piss him off, or why he has a problem with me all of a sudden, but I’m taken aback by his callousness. Did his mother say something to him? Did he get into it with the Bolton’s over Katnis? Whatever it is, I didn’t deserve to be talked to like that.
I storm into the house and find him surrounded by girls. I’m so confused right now. What the hell just happened?
“Humans are vile creatures.” Willow frowns. She’s staring at some teens gyrating on each other in the middle of the room.
“They’re not vile, they’re just…different.”
“They’re the weakest beings ever created and yet they act as if they’re invincible.” She scoffs, shaking her head.
She has a point, but I’m too distracted by Thien to respond. He’s surrounded by girls…his favorite place to be…and now he’s smiling. WTF! Five seconds ago he snapped on me for pointing out the fact that he’s acting differently, and now he’s smiling with Desiree and the wonder-twins ready to fall out of her dress.
Screw him.
I turn to leave and run into Noah. “Are you okay?” He asks. I am now.
“Do you want to dance?” I ask.
“Have you forgotten who taught you the sprinkler already?” He says with a serious face. We both laugh. Noah holds his hand out for me to take and he pulls me into the middle of the crowd of dancers. We both do our best impersonation of the sprinkler and then a new song comes on.
Rihanna’s ‘Needed Me’ comes on and Noah pulls me in close. My first thought is to thank him for his time and find Willow, but one glance over in Thien’s direction keeps me right where I am. Desiree is sitting on his lap. She’s LITERALLY sitting on his lap and he doesn’t see a problem with that.
I could KICK his teeth in. Never have I ever met a guy who drives me as insane as Thien Youngblood. He’s moody, he’s pretentious, and he’s RIDICULOUSLY FREAKING HOT…UGH! Of all the guys in Petrem, why did I have to fall for him?
Noah twirled me around to where my back is against him. His hands are wrapped around my waist and I hook my right arm behind his head. Our bodies move in sync to the music. I mimic the girls around me and gyrate my hips against him as we sway from side to side. It’s been a while since I’ve had this much fun and a smile spreads across my face. It helps that Noah actually has some rhythm. By the time the song ends we realize we’ve become the center of attention courtesy of the steamy performance neither of us realized we were putting on.
One set of eyes in particular quickly pulls me back to reality. He looks pissed and I know I should care, but after the way he spoke to me earlier he can bite me. “Take a walk with me.” Noah asks.
“The last walk I took with you ended up with your tongue in my mouth.” I remind him.
“I’m not seeing the problem.” His eyes bore into mine.
“Thien and I-”
“I don’t want to know.” Noah cut me off. “You have feelings for him and I don’t have a problem with that.”
“Its more than that.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“How can you say that?”
“You and I have always been like magnets. I’m not worried about Thien because I don’t have to be. It doesn’t matter how many Thien’s stand between us, once I reach your heart you won’t want to let go.”
Damn. I stare at him in awe. I have no doubt in my mind Noah will live up to his reputation as unforgettable. Five minutes alone with him usually ends up with me in a compromising position. Thankfully, Thien grabs me by my wrist and practically drags me out of the house before I can succumb to Noah’s charms.
“What are you doing?” He asks. At least he’s holding my hand now.
“Making sure your world isn’t revolving around me.” I glare at him.
He takes a deep breath and exhales slowly. “About that-”
“SAVE IT.” I press my index finger against his lips. “I don’t know what happened when you went home and I don’t care. What you’re NOT going to do is take that out on me ever again, or I’ll slit your throat in your sleep. GOT IT?”
“Got it.” Thien smirks. “You’re a very violent person. Has anyone ever told you that?”
“I’m serious Havoc.”
“Thien.” He corrected me.
“No. The guy I’m interested in…his name is Thien. When you start acting like him then you’ll be worthy of the name.”
Thien looks at me like I’m crazy. “Its MY NAME. You can’t just take my name away whenever you’re mad at me.” He laughed, shaking his head.
“Actually I can…HAVOC.” I teased.
“My mother won’t call off the engagement to Katnis.” He drops a nuclear sized bomb on me. “It doesn’t matter though, they’ll get the hint when I don’t show up for the wedding.”
“Wait a minute. You’re still ENGAGED?” I reel back in disbelief.
“No, my mother is engaged.” He scoffs.
“If you don’t show up Katnis will be shamed and the Bolton’s will blame me.”
“What would you have me do? Katnis and my mother are in cahoots and I don’t know if you noticed while you were there, but my father has all but resigned from dealing with anything that doesn’t concern the Watch.” Thien sighs, shoving his hands in his pockets and leaning up against a white picket fence that surrounds the home we’re standing in front of.
“Thien I-”
Before I could speak, Thien pulled me into his wings, curling them around us. We were under attack. The sparks were bouncing off of the armor of his wings, but they had us pinned down. “I can’t hold them off forever.” Thien whispered as we watched them hurl spark after spark in our direction.
We were so close that I could feel his pecks and abs through the shirt he was wearing. His eyes shifted from the danger outside to mine. “Focus Aria. Now isn’t the time for those kinds of thoughts.” He shook his head.
I forgot he could read minds.
“We’ll have plenty of time for that later. Right now, I need Shadow.”
“One bloodthirsty Shadow coming up.” I activated the sparks in my palms. “On the count of three. One…Two…Three!”
Thien shot straight up in the air and they were so distracted with him that they didn’t realize I was still on the ground. Point…release. Point…release. I aimed and fired at every being in the sky, quickly dwindling their numbers down to half.
I leapt into the sky to help Thien but someone grabbed my foot and slammed me down on top of a car. The glass windows burst, sending glass fragments EVERYWHERE, and the alarm went off. I pulled at time until it slowed to a stop. Realizing something was wrong, the others came running out of Desiree’s. They took to the sky to help Thien, while Noah and his team helped me battle those on the ground.
Noah tackled the demon that had my legs and blasted it in the chest with his spark. It turned to ash. He helped me off of the car and we joined his team as a swarm of demons came at us from both sides. We were prepared to fight to the death, but then they stopped. They created a path and as they moved out of the way a powerful demon began to approach us.
Everyone was on the ground now. We formed a barrier between the demon and Desiree’s home. “Desmond.” Noah goes on high alert.
“Do you know him?” I ask.
“Yes. He’s an inhibiter like me, only he killed his king and absorbed his powers.”
“What does he want?” Thien asks.
“No clue.”
“Noah Archer, you’re a hard wing to find.” Desmond walks up to us. He waves his hand and instantly everyone who isn’t of Royal blood falls unconscious to the ground.
“What the hell!” I shout angrily. Desmond’s eyes wash over me. His interests quickly shift from Noah to myself.
“Azury?” He calls out my twin sister’s name. He thinks I’m Azury.
“Aria.” Thien protectively steps in front of me.
“OH.” He seems surprised. He examines me for a moment, and then returns his attention to Noah. “Where’s your brother? He stole something from me and I want it back.”
“Is that why you sent these demons to attack my friends?”
“I wasn’t aware the Muerte and the Elite were friends.”
How does he know so much about us and yet I’ve never even heard of him?
“We agreed to work with Muerte in order to capture Gavin. He kidnapped someone and we need to find him.” Noah explains.
Desmond realizes we have mutual interests. He wraps his arm around Noah and takes him out of earshot to talk. Thien and I exchange confused glances. When the two of them come back Desmond snaps his fingers and his entire army is gone. Moments later, he too is gone.
“Okay seriously…that dude has WAY too much power.” I scoff. “What did he say?”
“Nothing.” Noah replies.
I study him with my eyes and one inescapable truth is made very apparent. Noah is lying.
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