Starbound
Authors: J.L. Weil
Starbound
A novel
By
J. L. Weil
Kindle Edition Copyright 2014
by J.L. Weil
All rights reserved.
Second Edition April 2014
ISBN-13: 978-1497307995
Edited by Kelly Hashway
Cover design by J.L. Weil
Image Credits: Obsidian Dawn, Mirish, and I am Jenius
Kindle Edition, License Notes
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are a product of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblances to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All rights are reserved. No part of this may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.
Novels by J.L. Weil
Saving Angel (Divisa #1)
Losing Emma (Divisa #.5)
Hunting Angel (Divisa #2)
Breaking Emma (Divisa #2.5)
Chasing Angel (Divisa #3)
Luminescence (Book 1)
Amethyst Tears (Book 2)
Starbound
Dedicated to those who believe in fate and love.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Katia
I had a hard time understanding why people didn’t believe in magick. It was everywhere. Who could doubt it when the winds sung, the sky sparkled with stars, when rainbows appeared after a rainfall, and dewdrops glistened in the morning? Everyone in some way has been touched by magick. It was just simply a part of life.
Seth and I were living proof.
Chapter 1
Katia
I caught Seth Nightingale staring at me for like the umpteenth time, which wasn’t that unusual really. We kind of had been playing this cat and mouse game since kindergarten. He would glare—I would grimace and glare back. And so the vicious cycle went.
What had me so worried was this undeniable pull I’d been feeling toward him lately. I thought I had gotten rid of my silly childhood crush years ago—apparently not.
Seth Nightingale
?
I do not like Seth
, I reminded myself—again—as if that was going to help curb this insatiable need to be near him. Ever since the start of our senior year, I noticed a shift inside me. It wasn’t all centered around Seth, but he was the root of it. There were hundreds of boys to choose from, and I had dated my fair share of them, so why Seth? Why now?
What was it about this guy that made me want to throw all caution to the wind and leap into his arms, right in the middle of English nonetheless? There was something behind those smoldering green eyes that intrigued me. And no matter how many years had gone by, that intrigue only intensified.
Seth and I had a complex relationship, a love-hate relationship. We loved to hate each other, but it hadn’t always been that way.
There had been a time when we had been friends—best friends.
Shocking, I know. I even had a hard time believing it.
Before all the eye glaring, name calling, and general loathing, we had been inseparable. Now, a span of the ocean stretched between us. Even our seating arrangements in class were affected—it was that bad. I sat in the first row; he sat in the last row. One year just for shits and giggles, I sat in the seat beside him. He had literally gotten up and told the teacher he couldn’t be subjected to skank.
That burned my ass.
What he really meant was, he needed to be as far away from me as possible.
Asshole. And I didn’t have a problem saying it to his face. Daily. Or showing him just how deep my burning hatred was rooted. The one-finger salute became my signature greeting as we passed in the halls.
I had spent the remainder of my freshman year searing him with hateful scowls.
Yet, somehow we co-existed at Vermillion High without bringing it to the ground, but we’d come pretty close. If I didn’t know better, I’d actually think he liked pissing me off.
Warped.
So I was back to my original predicament.
Why was Seth looking at me with a spark of interest instead of his usually irritation? Okay, I admit over the years I’d done my fair share of gawking. It was not like Seth was a hardship on the eyes. Just the opposite, he was sinful eye-candy. And the asshat knew it.
How could I find him both drool-worthy
and
stab-worthy? That was just wrong on so many levels. But for some unholy reason he both fascinated me and infuriated me. Embarrassingly, I knew way more about dark and dreamy than I would ever admit.
That was how screwed up I really was.
Seth was an amazing artist, always doodling in class, sketching instead of taking notes. He had these breath-stopping green eyes and black, messy hair that most guys couldn’t achieve if they tried. It was adorable. But that was were adorable stopped on Seth. He oozed smexy and had that whole tall, dark, and dangerous persona going on. To say he made my mouth water was an understatement. But the real problem was…Seth was off limits. And we couldn’t have been more of polar opposites if we tried.
As talented as Seth was at art, I was good at…being popular and pretty. If that wasn’t cliché enough for you, I was also a cheerleader dating the basketball star. I made
myself
want to hurl. There was a time when I had been nothing but the girl in the shadows with Seth. It was amazing what one summer could do to a young girl’s figure… and to her popularity.
My life sometimes felt meaningless, blah, except for one small detail.
There was goddess blood running through my veins that gave me power—I was a nixie. Descendent to Arachne—a greatly skilled warrior princess. Well, before a goddess turned her into a spider.
Pretty F’d up.
The cincher…Seth was a nixie, too.
It was what initially drew us together, the shared secret of magick. Actually our town was sort of a magickal haven for nixies. Vermillion had been were the birthright of nixies was forged. But most importantly, it wasn’t that we currently ran with completely different crowds that kept Seth and me on opposite sides of the classroom. It was because he was a Nightingale, and in my family that was an enormous no-no.
Our families despised each other. That was how it had been since the day I was born, going back more generations than I could count. A Montgomery and a Nightingale had always lived in Vermillion, South Dakota, and there had always been bad blood between our families. We had been forbidden from seeing each other, but that hadn’t stopped either of us from being curious.
Rules were meant to be broken, and Seth loved to go against the rules.
At one time Seth and I had been best friends, in secret of course, just as our little sisters were to this day. There was just something appealing about going against your parents’ direct orders. It was the whole Romeo and Juliet thing. All through elementary school we had found ways to meet in secrecy. It had been daring and fun.
Our parents never knew, and if they did, they never said anything. I was torn in half the day our friendship died. Young, stupid, and naive, I had thought that Seth felt something for me—a connection. I had made it bluntly clear how interested I was in him, not having a shy bone in my body. That lout rejected me our first year in junior high, and the sting of rejection had never left me. It was the start of our hate relationship, and I wasn’t ready for a repeat performance of that kind of embarrassment any time soon.
My heart couldn’t take it.
“Katia,” Claudia, my best friend whispered in the desk next to me.
I tore my gaze from Seth and looked at her perfectly raised black brows and big blue eyes. “What?” I muttered.
The corners of her pink lips turned up. “You’re drooling.”
“I am not,” I snapped, wiping the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand for good measure. After all, I had been doing some heavy eyeballing. What was wrong with me?
Biting the end of my pen, I snuck one last quick peek at Seth. He had stopped scribbling on his English textbook and was looking over at Claudia and me. By the dark expression on his face he looked irked, as if we were bothering him. Breaking his concentration or something, which was a total joke, since it was obvious he wasn’t listening to Ms. Harper lecture about our next written essay.
“Are you and Matt going to the party Friday night?” Claudia asked as soon as Ms. Harper turned to the dry erase board.
I dug out my notebook, pretending to take notes. All concentration was shot for the day, thanks to Seth. “I don’t know, probably.” Out of the corner of my eyesight, I saw Seth’s hands clench the sides of the desk.
What’s got his boxers in a bunch?
“You have to,” Claudia whined. “Everyone is going to be there.”
In her book, that meant anyone who was anyone was going to be there. “I am sure Matt will want to go,” I conceded.
“Good, we are going to get totally waxed—”
“Miss Jenssen, do you have something to share with the class?” Ms. Harper interrupted.
I slunk lower in my desk. Claudia, however, faced forward and smiled sweetly. “I was just telling Katia that we are going to get completely blitzed on Friday night.”
I ducked my head, trying to cover my smirk. The entire class erupted in snickers, except of course for Seth, who looked ready to commit murder.
“I have a better idea. How about you spend Friday in detention?” Ms. Harper countered.
Claudia wasn’t fazed. “Can’t. I have plans.”
“Miss Jenssen, you are trying my patience.”
Luckily Claudia was saved by the bell as everyone shot up in his or her seat and started filing into the halls. She waved at an exasperated Ms. Harper on the way out the door. Claudia spent her life skirting the lines of trouble. She shot me a wink, and I shook my head as we parted ways. “See you at lunch, Katia,” she called over her shoulder.
Seth
I watched her saucy little butt saunter out of the classroom and had to bite my lip. I still couldn’t figure out why she hung out with Claudia and her other uppity friends. Kat wasn’t a snob. At least not the Kat I had known.
Really, I shouldn’t give two shits.
What Kat did—who she hung out with, who she kissed—was none of my business.
I scoffed at myself. That was all bullshit, because the truth was I cared.
I cared too damn much.
And that was
my
problem.