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Cayden snorted. “He wants to be.”
“Yeah, right. Stop trying to start fights with him and concentrate.”
Cayden pushed off the wall and came toward me. “Concentrate on what? The fact that everyone in the audience is thinking about my past, about how I don’t belong…that I’m a killer, a wolf in sheep’s clothing knocking at your door in the night…” He trailed off when he reached me. “It’s not easy to concentrate when everyone is waiting to see what you’ll do, if you’ll blow, if you’re normal.”
“Then stop thinking about everyone. They don’t matter.”
“And you, Freckles? I didn’t peg you as the type to move on so quickly…Tyler Owens must have just been waiting for his chance, biding his time.”
I rolled my eyes. “What does that matter to you? I broke your heart, remember? I don’t exist.”
His eyes drifted closed at my words, and he swallowed hard. Sweat broke out on my brow. Was he regretting his harsh words? Did I want him to? It was best to change the subject.
“I thought that nothing matters but your dream, right? Stop fucking it up. I thought you were the best?”
My goading tone could have annoyed him, but it didn’t seem to. Instead, his eyes shot open and narrowed, a hint of challenge lighting up the blue pools.
“I am the best.”
“Prove it.” I shrugged and headed inside. I couldn’t get too close, or I’d lose the battle to stay cool and aloof. I felt his eyes on me the entire way inside. It warmed me in a way I hadn’t felt all week.
Cayden
When the final buzzer sounded,I’d never been so relieved. After talking to Lily outside at intermission, I’d gotten my head back in the game. We’d been down, and it had taken every second of coordinated plays, sweat, grit, and luck to scrape a one-goal victory.
The rink exploded into cheers from the Hade Harbor side as soon as the buzzer sounded. My teammates hugged me, cheering, just as relieved as I was. I stared at the scoreboard, unable to process that we’d managed it.
Coach had sweated right through his polo, despite the cool temperature in the rink. His smile could have lit up the entire place. My eyes searched behind him for a flash of satin red. Lily stood beside her mother, clapping like everyone else. A small smile lit her beautiful lips. I didn’t deserve that smile. I hadn’t deserved her inspiring words, and yet she’d given them to me anyway.
“Fuck, that was close.” Marcus took off his goalie mask and wiped sweat from his eyes. He looked exhausted, and I knew how he felt.
“Too close,” I muttered, feeling responsible. I’d let Tyler Owens get into my head. It wasn’t the first time I’d played the Volcanoes, but it was the first time I’d ever been on the winning team. My team in Midnight Falls had never made it far on the strength of one good player. Well, two if you counted Chase Elliot, which I preferred not to.
Tyler had barely goaded me, in all honesty. It was the fact that he knew Lily that had thrown me. He’d touched her, made her laugh. She was close with him. Thick, black possession had crowded my head like smoke, and I couldn’t see clearly through it, not even when we’d started the game.
Fucked up as it was, considering the chunks we’d ripped off each other, Lillian was mine.
Mine.
“So, are we celebrating?”
“Fuck yeah, why not? It’s Friday, we won…what’s not to celebrate?” Marcus was all easy smiles at my elbow.
My gaze fell on Tyler Owens, skating toward the coach’s bench. Lily waved to him and stepped down the stairs to speak to him. Another gut punch of possession and jealousy like nothing I’d ever felt before roared through me, followed by a wave of aggression I knew I couldn’t act on.
I had no right. I’d given it away.
“Cade, man. You down to party?”
I jerked my head back toward the other Ice Gods and then shook it. “I’m beat. I’m gonna head home early tonight, I think.”
“Seriously? You’re going to go to bed without getting your dick sucked after that amazing comeback?”
I clapped Marcus on the shoulder. “Look, man, you’re nice and all, but you’re not my type.”
He simply grinned wider. “Yeah, well, a guy can dream.”
Beckett cut in with some comment about where to go, and Asher headed toward the locker room, too. I trailed behind them, tearing my eyes from Lily and Tyler with difficulty.
