Red by Alyxandra Harvey

Author:Alyxandra Harvey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: paranormal romance; young adult romance; magic; beautiful creatures; kami garcia; anna dressed in blood; fairy tale retelling
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
Published: 2015-03-18T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Kia

I decided I didn’t believe in werewolves.

I had circumstantial evidence at best. Being shirtless in the woods and covered in scratches was hardly conclusive. And wolves ate rabbits every day. Real, actual wolves, not the kind that transformed under a full moon. And, yes, that was a lot of justification for a girl who could create fire out of nothing.

I spent most of the afternoon at Brontë’s drinking lattes, brooding about my scholarly fate and researching increasingly bizarre things on the internet. I hid the burn scars on my palms with fingerless gloves. I forced myself to stop Googling werewolves and firestarters. The last thing I needed was for my laptop to be searched. I wasn’t sure if the school could legally do that, but the cops or the fire department could, if charges were pressed. My stomach roiled. I typed in Ethan’s name to distract myself. Purely out of curiosity.

I managed to find snippets from local papers and some girl’s creepy fan-girl website. It was all hearts and bad poetry. Still, she blogged about things I didn’t know, like Ethan getting caught half naked in a school rowboat during a fund-raising carnival with not one but two girls. His father had then conveniently paid to have the auditorium renovated and had furnished the library with new computers. These were the first of many generous donations that happened after Ethan was caught in various offenses, from rowboats to lighting fireworks on the football field during the tenth-grade formal dance. I couldn’t blame him for that last one. Formal dances were brutally boring.

When Sloane came in, I slammed the screen down. She ordered three cupcakes and some kind of drink that was mostly whipped cream. Ethan followed, with Justine and her friends. He leaned against the counter, his tie loosened. I tried not to stare, but it was more difficult than it should have been. I wasn’t the only girl sneaking glances. My eyeballs hurt from trying to look-not-look.

“Kia?” Sloane poked me. “Earth to Kia.”

“Sorry, what?”

“What’s the matter with you?” she asked, licking cupcake frosting off her thumb. “Besides the school thing?”

I would set my own self on fire before admitting what I’d been doing. It was way more embarrassing than believing in werewolves.

“Oh, let me answer,” Justine interrupted. Her cloud of perfume usually made my tonsils itch long before she was in sight. She flipped her hair, and I nearly broke out in hives.

Even Sloane’s nose twitched. “God, Justine,” she said. “Do you have to marinate in that stuff?”

She lifted her chin haughtily. “I like it. And not all of us want to smell like a wet dog. You might try some soap at least.”

They glared at each other for a long, burning moment and even Justine’s friends realized there was something else going on under the obvious insults. But they looked as uninformed as me. “Oh my God, Justine.” Sloane slumped in her chair like she was exhausted. I was glad I wasn’t the only one who felt drained by her.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.