Page 38 of Bound By Fury

“Harper,” I reply, barely able to hold in my laugh.

“It’s nice to meet you, Harper. My name is Lucas.”

“Hi, Lucas,” I say, though my words sound weird and clogged with emotion. Over the last year, this is all I really wanted, but I’m confused about what’s changed. Why now?

He pulls me to his chest and wraps his arms around my shoulders. We’re both covered in sweat, but my heart stutters as I place my face in the crook of his neck and breathe him in. The scent calls visions of swaying cattails and the sounds of the whispering creek winding through the woods of Willow Estate. I wish it weren’t true, but despite everything, he smells like summer.

“I’ve missed you,” he says into my hair.

“You could have called,” I mumble bitterly.

He pulls back and looks into my eyes. “No, I couldn’t.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I can’t—”

“Who’s this?” A voice booms from behind me. I jump, turning to take in the blond guy approaching us. “New girl? Oh shit, yeah! You’re the one that passed out in the caf yesterday! You sure you’re supposed to be out here in the sun?” He gives me a once-over before shaking his head. “Doesn’t matter! I see you’ve met our future el presidente! The king!”

I turn to Lucas, raising an eyebrow at this guy’s ignorance, but he just gives me a sheepish shrug.

“Nah, she and I go way back,” Lucas says, winding his arm around my shoulders. “But Harper, this is Coyote Dan. He’s like the school mascot… if our mascot was a coyote and not a wolf.”

“So then why is he called Coyote Dan?” I ask at the same time Coyote Dan screams, “Go Wolves!” before crouching onto his hands and howling at the sky.

“I…”

“Don’t question it,” Daisy says from my other side, looping her arm through mine. “There’s not a single sane person at this school.”

Lucas leans forward to look at her. “Daisy, how was your summer? You haven’t said hi to me yet.”

Daisy makes a face. “I spent the summer sacrificing boys to the demon that lives inside me.”

“Ha!” Lucas laughs, his chest shaking against my side. “You’re hilarious.” He turns to smile down at me with his frosty irises lined by charcoal lashes, and I gulp, ducking from beneath his arm.

“Anyway, listen, Harps, I really do want to start over. And you know, we probably need to talk some more. It’s been too long. So much has changed…” A whistle blares from somewhere across the field. Lucas scratches the skin of his ribs as he backs away. There’s something there, too. Black script, the last three letters of a painfully familiar name… xie. Where the hell would they have even gotten tattoos from? “But I miss you, for real.”

“Uh, yeah, for sure.” My cheeks warm. “Same.”

He’s saying all the things I’ve wanted to hear. But it’s not enough, somehow. My chest still squeezes uncertainly.

He winks before turning and jogging off to join the football team in the end zone.

I turn to Daisy, my eyes wide. “Whoa. That was…”

“Girl, no. He may be, like, the hottest guy to walk the face of planet earth, and I don’t know the details of the history between you two, but the vibes are most definitely sus as hell.”

I stare at the way the muscles in his chest move while he’s stretching, the sun bouncing off the sweat like glitter.

“You’re right,” I say. Because she is right, something is off between us. All three of us. “But there’s no harm in looking.”

I sign up for Creative Media Club, run through my A and B schedules two times each, and meet Daisy and Sam for dinner.

I’m so exhausted afterward, I crawl into bed well before lights out. I toss and turn, my dreams plagued by smoke and flame. Each time I wake, my heart is pounding painfully in my chest; I can hear its panicked whoosh in my ears. I glare meaningfully at the starless sky obscured by deep purple rain clouds, and startle when the rumble of thunder shakes the leaded windowpanes, though it dies down quickly after.

When it seems like I’ve finally fallen into a fitfully dreamless sleep, I wake to the frantic sound of banging against my door, shouts ringing out from the hall, and the dull drumming of many feet running across the deep-blue carpet.

Sitting up, I swing my legs over the side of the bed. It’s too dark to see much of anything, so I tilt my nose and sniff for smoke as I stand, hands slapping the mattress in search of my phone. The screams get louder, and tears prick my eyes. It’s happening again. A fire, surely. Burning down the dorm. If I don’t hurry, I’ll die the same vicious death as those witches.