The Promise of Lightning by Weatherwax Jenna

Author:Weatherwax, Jenna
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781838256180
Publisher: SmashBear Publishing
Published: 2022-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

26

What is Difficult

Thirst woke me first but was shortly followed by the aching in my neck and back. Someone had piled several heavy quilts on top of me, tucked tightly. They held me in place on my side, so tight that I felt the bruise my own elbow had pressed into my ribs before I could even open my eyes. My mouth tasted like cotton balls and bad decisions.

As I was trying to lift myself out from underneath the pile, someone said, “Woah, hey. Water.”

I blinked my eyes open. Ronan was holding out a glass of water from where he was sitting on the floor of my bedroom. Blankets surrounded him and about every other pillow in the apartment laid under him. Material lines creased his cheeks.

I took the water with two hands and gulped it down. It got rid of the scratchiness but did little to ease the regret. “Did you sleep in here last night?”

“Yeah, I wanted to make sure you didn’t choke on your own vomit.”

I grimaced. “Ew. Thanks.”

A knock sounded at my door and Sam popped his head in. “How are you feeling?”

“Head hurts, mostly, but I’m okay.”

He shook a bottle of aspirin and pulled a bottle of water from his back pocket. It was sweating with condensation and my mouth watered at the sight of it. “So, I can’t interest you in one of these?”

“Oh my Gods,” I said, already sitting up for them. “Yes, please.”

He came to sit by me on the bed, pouring two pills out and handing me the water. “Slowly, Ness,” he warned, pulling another bottle from his other pocket and tossing it to Ronan on the ground. Ronan caught it with one hand and downed it like I had the glass. Sam put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me into his side.

“Thank you,” I said. “Sorry about being a mess last night. I don’t know what got into me.”

Ronan frowned, which just looked cute with how sleepy he was. “How much do you remember?”

As if the words were an injection of a different kind of medicine, the events of last night caught-up to my hungover brain. The kitchen, the game, the way Theo and Alexander had kissed each other…

“I remember enough,” I said, sighing into Sam’s shoulder. He was dressed to go to work, but didn’t seem to be in any rush.

“How are you feeling?” Sam asked again, and I knew he was enquiring about more than just my hangover.

“I’m not sure,” I admitted. I put one hand to my chest, where my stupid split soul rested and it reacted to the attention, pounding against my palm. “Everything is blurry, so maybe it wasn’t as bad as I remember—”

My phone started ringing, a sure sign of the gods laughing at me as the sound clanged through my head. We all looked at each other and the phone rang three more times before I reached for it. Eliza’s name was on the screen and I hesitated. If she was going to yell at me, I didn’t want to answer.

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