Page 26 of Bound By Fury

“Ha, ha,” I groan, reaching to touch a tender spot throbbing at the back of my head.

“Are you bleeding?” someone asks.

I turn, ignoring the pain shooting down my neck as I see Daisy standing above me.

Confused, I shake my head no and place my hand in Lucas’s large, warm palm. I try to pull myself up, but the world is spinning beneath me. I don’t think about the familiarity of his touch. I don’t think about how I have been trying not to think about this for over a year now.

“You should probably stay lying down for a minute,” Daisy says, squatting to my eye level before patting my shoulder. “Give yourself some time to come to.”

Come to?

Curious glances warm my cheeks as I realize I’m on the floor. In the cafeteria. In front of the whole school.

Awesome.

“What the hell? What happened?”

“It was wild!” Daisy says. “You were talking to Missy, and then lightning must have hit a breaker or something ’cause the lights went all crazy, and then you fainted right as they went out? Probably unrelated, but it looked like you got zapped by lightning!” A panicked giggle escapes her as her hand flies to her mouth. “Sorry, I know it’s not funny, and you clearly didn’t get hit by lightning because you’re not dead, so…” She coughs. “But it was very cinematic.”

“Yeah, you totally bit it,” Lucas says. “Brit started screaming and dragged Missy out by her elbow. Said something about you being smited by God.”

I cringe. “That’s… weird.”

Daisy and Lucas share a glance, his cheeks darkening as he clears his throat and stands. “Well, you probably need some space, and I don’t want to, like, hover over you or whatever, so… I’m just gonna—” He makes a popping noise with his mouth, flicking his thumb over his shoulder. He’s still smiling, but his eyes are clouded with something I can’t place.

“Oh, uh… yeah… okay,” I say as I watch him turn and disappear into the crowd, leaving my heart hammering in my chest.

Lucas and I were never supposed to be endgame. In fact, I hadn’t ever thought about him that way at all. But then last summer Lucas was suddenly single after being dumped by his senior boyfriend, and Malachi was gone—without warning, he up and left for football camp. Flung a rock at my window at six a.m., and when I came sleepy eyed through the front door, he shrugged off my hug and told me he was leaving. Didn’t even look back when I ran after him, bare feet sinking into the dew-soft grass. I knew then that everything had somehow already changed between us. There had been signs all summer. Something about him was different.

Something about us was, too.

And somehow, despite the hurt that clouded the long days that followed, slowly the fog started to lift, and before I knew it, there was Lucas. Steady, just as he’d always been. And we were fresh off a back-to-back two-dollar movie marathon down at the Mulberry Theater and his lips were stained blood red with slushie juice and suddenly I wanted to taste him.

But that desire was the tipping point, and everything that followed is still too painful to think about. Which is why I’m confused when I realize he’s left me a little breathless.

This time when I meet Daisy’s eyes, she’s giving me an uncertain look.

“You… know Lucas?” she asks, her mouth a flat line.

Guilt sours my stomach. “Yeah, from the summers and stuff, you know? Small town.”

“You could have mentioned that during the tour,” she mumbles. “Wait, don’t tell me you know Malachi, too?”

I lower my eyes to the ground.

“Harper!”

“I’m sorry,” I cry before shifting forward and preparing to stand.

When I finally notice the person peeking out from behind Daisy, I laugh a little at their expression. They’re tall and brown-skinned with bleached-blond hair and dark brown eyes shielded by wire-rimmed glasses. Their navy cardigan is slipping off their shoulder, one straight eyebrow lifted in suspicion.

“Who are you?” I ask.

They give me a small, hesitant smile. “Name’s Sam. Sam Salas”

I nod once. “Well,” I sigh, “sorry we’re meeting like this, Sam.”

A hand presses against my back as I slowly rise to my feet. “Maybe you should get checked out by the infirmary?”