Мишель Роуэн - Reign Check

Demons and Shadows were forbidden to be together as anything other than master and servant. Also ridiculous.

And get this: my father had originally assigned Michael to be my personal servant. But I didn’t think of him that way at all. Plus, since Michael put his life on the line to help defeat my aunt late last Friday night, I’d made my father promise Michael wouldn’t have to be a servant anymore. That was the last time I’d seen either of them.

It was all complicated enough to give me a big fat headache when I thought about it for too long. I rubbed my temples and finally opened my locker so I could unload my backpack and grab my books for the first class of the day — biology. I had it on fairly good authority that today was dissect-a-frog day. I was looking forward to that disgusting prospect only a little more than my now-inevitable conversation with Chris.

“So your party’s definitely on, huh?” I asked, trying to concentrate on something else.

Melinda nodded as she stuck her head back into her locker. “Saturday night starting at eight.” She hesitated. “Chris is coming. Is that going to be a problem?”

“A problem? No, of course not.”

Sure it was.

I was finding it difficult not to obsess about Chris. He was going to be a big problem. Would he tell anyone what he’d seen? Would anyone believe him? And if so, what would happen then? Would I be able to deal with it?

Yes, of course I would. I’d battled my evil aunt, who wanted to kill me. I could deal with Chris knowing my secret.

Still, my head began to throb even worse.

I knew I had to keep on top of my emotions. Since I was a Darkling — half human, half demon — all this power had built up inside me since I turned sixteen, just waiting for a chance to burst free. And when your inner demon wants to burst free, it’s not a pretty sight. Trust me on that.

I looked at the little mirror on my locker door and gasped. Thanks to my stress about Chris, my eyes had turned red — full red with black slits for pupils, like a cat’s eyes. And they were glowing.

No. Not here.

I couldn’t change into my Darkling form right here in the middle of the school hallway. I suddenly pictured screaming, panicked students running in every direction trying to escape from me. Yelling and pointing at the monster with the big leather wings wearing jeans and a hot pink V-neck sweater.

Relax , I told myself. Everything’s okay.

“Can you come over earlier on Saturday and help me set things up?” Melinda’s voice echoed inside her locker.

“Yeah … sure. No biggie.” I squeezed my eyes shut and attempted to breathe normally. I tried to think happy thoughts.

I thought about Michael.

Dark hair, green eyes, a rarely seen but amazing smile.

Michael’s lips. Michael kissing me .

Okay, I started to feel calmer. Happier.

I opened my eyes and looked in the mirror again, relieved to see they had returned to their usual hazel color. I pulled my long blonde hair back and tucked it behind my ears. After quickly applying a little lip gloss from the zippered pocket of my backpack, I was all ready to go to my first class.

I could do this. Everything was fine.

I repeated it over and over in my head.

Everything is going to be fine. Chris is my only problem this week, and I can totally deal with him.

“I guess I’ll see you at lunch,” I said.

“Oh my God.” Melinda grabbed my arm. “Nikki, there he is.”

“There who is?”

“The exchange student.” She bit her bottom lip, her attention focused behind me. “So hot. I could die.”

I turned to look and my mouth dropped open.

Melinda was right — the new guy was really good-looking.

He was tall and cute with short chestnut brown hair. He had dark brown eyes. I wasn’t close enough to see the color at the moment, but I knew they were dark brown.

How did I know? Because I’d already met the new student Melinda was excited about.

His name was Rhys. He was sixteen years old. But like me, he wasn’t all that normal.

Believe it or not, he was the king of the faery realm. The forest that bordered the Shadowlands led directly into his kingdom.

And he knew I was a demon princess.

Had I thought Chris was my only problem at the moment?

Um … wrong. So very wrong.

The last time I’d seen Rhys, only a couple of days ago, he’d mentioned a fascination with visiting the human world someday. He’d never been here before. He brought it up during the same conversation when he’d threatened to kill me with a very sharp sword.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Melinda’s smile fade. “That’s weird. Do you already know him, Nikki?”

“I … uh …” I clamped my mouth shut before I said anything that might get me into more trouble than I was already in.

Despite his death threat the last time we’d been face-to-face, the sixteen-year-old faery king was currently waving at me.

“Weird” didn’t even begin to cover it.

“Never seen him before in my life,” I said to Melinda after I found my voice. “Maybe he’s waving at you .”

“Oooh, you think?” Surprisingly, this hadn’t occurred to her.

“Absolutely.” My throat felt dry.

“We’ll definitely talk later,” she said with a grin. “Gotta go. See you at lunch.”

“Okay.”

I stood there in place as Melinda walked away, books held tightly in her arms. I tried to breathe normally.

I’d be brave. I’d march right up to him and demand to know what he was doing here. I wouldn’t let the faery king intimidate me.

But when I’d summoned up enough courage and turned to look at him again, Rhys was gone.

Maybe I’d been wrong. Maybe it wasn’t even Rhys. After all, I’d last seen him in a dimly lit forest, where he’d accused me of being evil. But just because I was half demon didn’t mean I was evil. At the time, he hadn’t seemed to understand that. Thus the unfriendly sword pointing and the whole “get out of my forest” thing.

If it was Rhys, why was he here? Maybe he was just sightseeing or something. Half an hour of wandering around in the middle of December …

Of all the places in the human world he could have picked to visit, he chose snow-covered Erin Heights?

Yeah. That made sense.

I exhaled shakily and, turning left to head to my biology class, came face-to-face with Rhys.

“Hi there,” he said. “Remember me?”

My mouth gaped open. “You …”

He ran a hand through his cropped brown hair as he waited for me to say something else. When I didn’t, he continued. “We met in my forest. You were harassing a unicorn.”

“I … I remember. And I … I wasn’t harassing it.” My body tensed, but I stayed as still as possible as I waited to see what he’d do next.

“If you say so.”

“What are you doing here?” I managed.

He shrugged. “I’m on vacation.”

“Right.”

“You don’t seem that happy to see me.”

“Last time I saw you, you tried to kill me.” My voice was so low that even I could barely hear it.

Rhys raised an eyebrow at me. “I didn’t try to do anything. I simply gave you a warning that you were trespassing on my territory. And you were .”

“And now you’re trespassing on my territory. Don’t tell me you’re on vacation because I don’t think anyone in his right mind would want to come here in the middle of the winter.”

“You don’t know me very well, then.”

“I need to get to class.” I walked away from him without saying another word. It only took a moment before I realized he was following me. I tried to ignore him, not knowing any other way of dealing with him at the moment.