Starbound (6 page)

***

“What happened to you Friday night?” Claudia asked Monday morning.

I leaned against my locker, the cool metal at my back. “Don’t even ask. It was a disaster.”

She folded her arms, her black ponytail swinging with the movement, and waited for me to elaborate. I huffed. She was bound to find out sooner or later. “Matt and I broke up,” I said, the back of my head hitting the locker.

“Totally saw that coming,” Claudia replied in her know-it-all tone.

She was getting on my nerves. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just that you haven’t been happy in months, Katia.” I was surprised at how intuitive she’d been to figure that out. So not normally Claudia. “It was guaranteed to happen. That, and there have been rumors that Matt’s been sleeping with Jessica.”

My head snapped up. “What! And you are just now telling me this?” Some best friend.

She shrugged, biting her lip. “I figured maybe you didn’t care. You’ve been distracted by a certain someone else lately.”

I gave her a weird look. “What is that supposed to mean? If you’ve got something to say, just spit it out for Pete’s sake.” I wasn’t in the mindset for games.

She gave me a half smile. “What’s the deal with you and Seth Nightingale?” she asked.

Gulp. Had someone seen us kiss? Had he told the whole school that we swapped spit? I didn’t peg Seth as the kiss-and-tell type of guy. But God knows I didn’t have the best judgment when it came to boys. That was for sure. “I don’t know what you mean,” I said, playing dumb. I hiked up the bag that was beginning to slip off my shoulder.

Claudia snickered. “The heck you don’t. You can’t fool me, Katia. The two of you have been having some kind of twisted eye-banging thing for the last two years.”

“We have not,” I denied and took a deep breath. “There is nothing going on with me and Seth.”

“Uh-huh. So you are telling me that you don’t undress him with your eyes every day in Ms. Harper’s class?”

“I do not,” I insisted more forcefully. A few heads turned our way as the halls started to fill with students shuffling to get to class.

She rolled her dark blue eyes. “Why don’t you just do him and get it over with? Then you’ll satisfy that curious mind of yours and you can concentrate on something other than Seth’s glorious body.”

My mouth fell open.

“See you at practice,” Claudia called over her shoulder, grinning like a shithead.

Claudia had lost her freaking mind.

I did not ogle Seth every day like he was a piece of cherry pie. Man, I love cherry pie. Add vanilla ice cream on top and I’d be putty in his hands. Okay. Fine. I’d been caught gawking at him a few too many times, but that was only because he was gawking at me.

Not that it really mattered how I looked at Seth. I had apparently totally misread the signs. He made it clear that he wasn’t interested in me like that—twice. Still didn’t change the fact that he made my heart jump out of my chest.

His name alone made my belly dance with butterflies.

Being a teenager sucked.

Chapter 6

Katia

If I thought my day started off rocky, it only got worse. Matt Lang was the biggest dickhead this side of the Mississippi, or maybe in the whole goddamn universe. I should have known Matt would make a scene at school. He lived for drama.

Just to sweeten the pot, when I was on my way to English—the class I had with Seth—I bumped into my ex.

“Well, if it isn’t Katia, the school slut,” Matt sneered, and his basketball buddies snickered. He turned to his circle of d-bag friends. “Which one of you guys wants her next? I’ve grown bored, and she isn’t that good anyway.”

Assholes
.

I was two-seconds away from punt-kicking him in the junk. Again. It was effective enough the first time. Why not go for round two? My cheeks blazed with anger. Was it just too damn much to ask that Matt actually talk to me in private? Oh no. The whole school had to be involved. Mature. What I was twitching to do was turn him into a fly and smash his five-eyed butt.

“Matt, let me break it down into small terms for you. I. Broke. Up. With. You. Do you understand?” I asked condescendingly.

He took a step closer to me, evading my personal bubble. Matt loved intimidation, but this was one girl who didn’t back down. That little trait was definitely going to get me in trouble one day. Just hopefully not today. I contemplated hocking a loogie in his face. “Katia, you’re a slut. Everyone knows it, so cut the little virginal act. You aren’t fooling anyone.”

My blood boiled, and I felt the first tingles of magick spread to my fingertips. Maybe everyone did think that I had a loose reputation, but it couldn’t have been further from the truth, and that was what really bruised Matt’s inflated ego. He was pissed I hadn’t slept with him. I wanted to cause him bodily harm. I wanted to deck him square in the face. “Listen, douchebag, I don’t care—”

I never got to finish my verbal thrashing. Seth had materialized out of nowhere and quicker than I could blink, he had Matt pinned against the lockers. Metal screeched under the weight of Matt’s body. Suddenly, there was a crowd surrounding us, growing like wildfire.

Oh shit
.

“Watch what you say about her,” Seth growled, eyes flashing with barely contained rage.

My heart leaped into my throat. Confusion couldn’t begin to describe how I was feeling. Why was he jumping to my defense?

Every muscle in Seth’s body was taut, poised to crush Matt. The vein in his neck pulsed, and whether Matt knew it or not, Seth was a much bigger threat. He had more than just his fists to pummel Matt with. I held my breath as I waited to see what Seth would do, what he might say next. Then he shoved Matt into the locker, smacking his head against the steel, and released him. Matt stumbled. His basketball buddies hadn’t been very quick on the draw, and they hardly had time to realize what had happened. Seth didn’t wait around, he pushed his way through the cluster of kids, and as he passed by me, his fingers clasped mine.

Half dragging me, half guiding me, he led the rest of the way to class. I stole a quick glance over my shoulder and smiled to myself. Seeing Seth jump to my defense was almost as satisfying as ninja kicking Matt’s balls.

“You sure know how to pick them, don’t you, Kats?” he grumbled, his voice still vibrating with anger.

Tongue-tied, I watched Seth stalk to his seat, leaving me more muddled than ever. My mind felt like a cherry slushie. I wanted to ask him a gazillion questions, but not in a room with an audience. So for the next forty-five minutes of Ms. Harper’s class I peeked at Seth from under my long lashes, studying this complex guy—the vein at his neck still ticking and his body lined with tension.

What gives?

Why would he care about the nasty lies Matt spread about me?

What was he so pissed about?

Even after class had ended, Seth still looked ready to commit murder. On my behalf? Or maybe he was annoyed that he had to rescue me—again. Either way I didn’t get it. One minute he insulted me, and the next he was defending my honor. Talk about making a girl’s head spin.

He shot out of the room before his name even left my lips. I slumped in my seat, running a frazzled hand through my curls.

Damn it.

Obliviously he was back to pretending I didn’t exist.

Whatever.

Two could play that game.

When the final bell rang, announcing the end of yet another day, I immediately changed into my cheerleading clothes. The black and red short shirt swished against my bare legs as I walked to the gym. Vermillion high was home to the Tanagers—a little bird, not precisely fierce.

Slugging my athletic bag over my shoulder, I walked into the gym and the lively buzzing of the gossip bees went dead. My newly single status and the commotion I had caused in the hallway must have trickled down the grapevine. I dropped my bag in the corner with a loud thump that echoed through the gymnasium.

This ought to be interesting
.

You could have dropped a pin in the room. “I am not going to have a breakdown,” I said to the group, pretending to be stretching my limbs. “Let’s just practice.”

After that, energetic chatter once again jam-packed the gym. They really weren’t overly concerned about my feelings, just waiting to see if I would give them something new to start spreading over the gossip mills.

I sighed and sat on the mats to finished my stretch routine.

Seth

I should have done a lot more than body slam Matt Lang. He deserved so much more for his treatment of Kat. And I didn’t just mean for today. Matt was a prick. What she ever saw in the jerky-jock escaped me. But God did it feel good to lay my hands on him. I had been itching to pulverize that pretty boy face of his for a year.

It had taken all my strength to not lay into him. I hadn’t realized the amount of pent-up anger I had at him, at the shitty deck I’d been dealt. He was just the lucky sap I’d projected it on. Even now, hours later, I was still fuming and was looking for something to hit.

Shoving my books into my locker, I paused, feeling the familiar tingle. Kat was near. Shoving the metal door closed, I leaned against it and waited. A moment later she came into my eyesight from the girl’s locker room, walking toward the gym. My head hit the locker as my heart back flipped.

Kat in her cheerleader skirt was like every teenage boy’s wet dream.

Well, at least mine. My eyes followed her through the hall just to make sure Matt the punk left her alone…so I told myself. It had nothing to do with the fact that I found her utterly spellbinding.

“Are you ever going to hit that?” Zeke asked, sneaking up behind me.

I still hadn’t taken my eyes off her. “Sheila Michaels?” I said, playing dumb. “Hell no. I wouldn’t touch her if my life depended on it.”

Zeke snorted. “You know that is not who I am talking about. And, dude, if you touched Sheila, I would disown you as my best friend.”

I wanted to pretend ignorance, but there was really no point. I’d been caught red-handed ogling. Sheila and Kat disappeared behind the gym doors, and I finally looked at Zeke. “Nope. I don’t plan on going anywhere near Katia Montgomery.” I pushed off the lockers and started to strut toward the exit. Zeke was quick on my heels.

“Why the hell not? That girl is bangin’, popular, one of us, and clearly into you. She is a cheerleader for frick’s sake. Enough said.”

My brows buried together. “I just can’t. So drop it.” There was a warning in my tone not to push the subject. Zeke pretty much never listened to warnings.

The sun hit us overheard. “You literally bare teeth and growl if anyone mentions her name.”

I blinked, adjusting to the sunlight. “I do not,” I argued.

Zeke shook his blond head. “I don’t understand. We used to all be friends.”

The parking lot was packed with cars zipping to get off school grounds. “Keyword in that sentence,
used
to be friends. As in not anymore.” We weaved through the parking lot, barely escaping being run over by some overzealous sophomore who probably just got their license.

“If you tell me that you aren’t interested, I’ll call you a liar.”

Man. He just wasn’t going to drop this topic. “Trust me, Zeke, when I say that it will never happen.”

He leaned against my truck, preventing me from opening the door. “I’m not an idiot, Seth, but
you are
if you don’t take a chance with Katia. She is one in a million, and she is
so
into you. I can feel the sexual tension between the two of you. It’s thick enough to cut with a samurai sword.”

I didn’t need a reminder. I already knew how special she was, but that changed nothing. I never told anyone about the curse, not even my best friend. The only people who knew about the dark cloud that hung over my head were my parents and Kat’s. Maybe the only way Zeke would shut up about her was if I told him. I was getting sick and tired of always shouldering this fucking curse alone.

“Look, man,” Zeke said when I remained silent, stewing in my indecision. “If you aren’t going to take a shot, then I will—”

He barely finished the sentence and I was in his face, my vibrant eyes narrowing. “I will break you in half if you touch her.”

Zeke grinned. “So you
do
care…”

I sighed heavily, taking a step back. “It doesn’t matter, Zeke.” My gaze wandered off over his shoulder, looking at the white peaked mountains in the distance. “Kat and I can never be anything.”

His blue eyes shot me a puzzling look.

“We’re cursed.” There, I’d said it. Surprisingly, my chest felt lighter. I wasn’t sure how I expected to feel, letting go of a secret I’d kept my whole life.

I’ll hand it to Zeke; he took it in stride. “You’re freaking shitting me.”

Or not.

I met his astonished gaze. “No. I wish I was though,” I admitted, my voice thick with unmistakable regret.

He ran a hand through his short hair. “What kind of curse? Why have you never told me?” There might have been a little bit of hurt behind his words.

I slouched, my whole body supported by the truck. “The kind that will get Kat killed.”

He squinted his eyes. “And you’re sure about this?”

I understood his doubt, but bad things happened if Kat and I got too close. That was all the proof I had needed to keep my distance. The sinking sensation in my gut got worse. “Yep. Positive. We’re starbound.”

I heard him suck in a sharp breath. My thought exactly. The idea of not being with Kat stole my breath. It made my chest ache. It splinted my heart into a thousand pieces.

Being starbound meant there was one person chosen to be yours by the stars—like a soul mate juiced up on steroids. It infused magick, heart, soul, flesh, and spirit, binding two nixies for all eternity—the five points of a star. Starbound was rare, and if you found yours, you never let go.

After a moment of deadpan, I told Zeke the tale, one I knew by memory and could recite in my sleep. “This curse has been plaguing our families for centuries. It was cast by Arachne, Kat’s ancestor.”