Athena looks up at me as Zeke walks off. “Pixie, huh?”
“She’s just some girl that took a liking to me a while back. This was like, more than a month ago. Almost two, I’d say. She wanted to take me home.”
“And did she?” Athena’s face is carefully blank, not giving anything away, and I hesitate. I don’t have to tell her the truth. I can lie, say that nothing happened between Pixie and me, that I shrugged her off and went on my way.
But of course, that’s not the truth. I let things go further than they should have before I walked out of that situation. And even if it would make things easier on me, I don’twantto lie to Athena. I never have.
“Yes,” I say finally, letting out a long breath. “I went home with her. She patched me up from the fight. But it didn’t go much further than that. She tried to go down on me, and well—I pushed her off. Left and came home.”
Athena’s gaze doesn’t waver from mine. “And you didn’t wish you’d stayed?”
Something about the question feels loaded as if my answer to it matters. “No,” I say honestly. “I didn’t want to stay. I didn’t really want to go with her in the first place, but she talked me into it. I guess part of me just thought I’d—I don’t know, see what happened. I felt lonely.” I stop short then, realizing I’ve admitted something I never intended to.
Athena’s eyes widen for the briefest of seconds, and then she looks away. “You didn’t have to be lonely. You didn’t have to go to anyone else.”
“She didn’t come with strings that you do. I thought—” I pause. “I didn’t stay, Athena. I left. Nothing really happened.” I don’t even reallyneedto justify myself to her, but—a part of me feels that I do. Part of me feels that if I don’t fix this now, make it clear that I don’t want anyone else, something will be irretrievably broken between us. And even if that would be for the best—it’s not what I want.
Athena still isn’t looking at me, though. “Things have changed,” she says quietly. “The bullshit with the town, it’s not the same as it was—”
“It is.” I shake my head, feeling my stomach sink. “You and Dean and Cayde might think you can change things, but you’re wrong. This is going to blow up—”
“No.” Athena cuts me off, her voice suddenly sharp. “You’rewrong.”
She starts to walk away, and I grab her elbow. I’m not letting her wander off through this crowd without me knowing exactly where she is, whether she likes it or not. But I don’t have to pull her back because she’s suddenly gone perfectly still, her face pale and her lips suddenly trembling.Allof her is shaking, her hands clenching into fists, and I know at that moment that something is very, very wrong.
“Athena?” I peer at her. “Athena, what’s going on?”
She takes a deep, shuddering breath. “The girl,” she whispers. “The one that was stalking me. The one who helped kidnap me. She’s, she’s—”
“She’swhat?”
Athena’s voice cracks, her whole body suddenly tense. “She’shere.”
“Where?”
She raises her hand slowly, discreetly pointing just to her left. And that’s when I see what—or ratherwho—she’s pointing at, and my heart nearly stops.
Athena is pointing at a tall, black-haired girl standing at the edge of the crowd, in tiny shorts too small for the weather and a flannel men’s shirt left open to show her bare, flat stomach beneath the crop top she’s wearing. But it’s not just any girl.
It’s Pixie.
Athena
Ican’t breathe. My heart feels as if it’s about to hammer out of my chest. I don’t know if I want to rush straight for her and beat her face to a pulp, or spin on my heel and run out of the warehouse, not stopping until I’m back in the manor, safely away from her and all the horrible feelings that seeing her face again causes to swell up inside of me.
It makes me feel dizzy, like I might pass out. I don’t resist when Jaxon starts to pull me towards the door, his hand firm on my elbow as he steers me past the other clusters of the audience and out into the rapidly cooling night air. All I can see is her face, staring back at me with the same shock reflected there as that diamond septum ring in her nose twinkled in the light of the bare bulb swinging overhead, sending me straight back to that night and the way I’d seen it glinting in the encroaching darkness.
It hadn’t been a fucking star. It had been her goddamn nose piercing I’d seen.
I’m shaking by the time we get outside. Jaxon hasn’t let go of my arm, and when we’re finally well out of earshot of anyone inside, he looks down at me, his face tight and fierce.
“What do you mean?” he demands, his voice rough. “That’s the girl?”
“Yes.” I try to stop my lip from trembling, but I feel as if I might fall down at any moment. I’m suddenly glad for his hand on my arm because it might just be the only thing keeping me upright. “The black-haired girl with the septum ring. That’s the one that’s been stalking me. The one who helped kidnap me.”
Jaxon finally lets go of me, almost reeling back as he runs both hands through his hair, looking around as if to make sure no one has followed us out. “Fuck!”
“What?” I feel my heart skip in my chest, my throat tightening. “What’s wrong?”