The Secret Trinity: Reign (Fae-Witch Trilogy, Book 3) (10 page)

I sighed. 
“Clay and I got in a fight, and I practically dared him to go hook up with
Penni
.  Unfortunately, as you know, we can be pretty stubborn with each other, and the dare back fired on me.  I had to scramble to find him and apologize before
Penni
could dig her claws in
, and I barely
got there in time. 
And...well
, you know the rest, okay?  Beyond that I don’t know what’s
going on.”  I conceded with this
short and sweet explanation, and now I hoped
I could get a subject change.

Clay opened the front door and that stale kind of silence ensued, where you know that you were just being
talked about behind your back.

He looked around at us with his eyebrows raised, “What?  Can you blame her?” Clay said posing like a body builder in the door frame, guessing what w
e had just been talking about.

“Oh please,” I said at length, rolling my eyes while everyone else laughed.  Clay flashed a gleaming smile and strode over to me.  He sat beside me on the couch and slung his arm over my shoulder
,
giving me a quick kiss on my temple
.  Everyone watched us,
completely fascinated by t
he change in our body language.  It
felt natural to me, but since we normally reserved this side of us for moments when no one was looking, I squirmed, becoming uncomfortable.  Grant was sitting on the floor against the couch resting against Morgan’s shins, and he maneuvered to
retrieve a piece of yellow legal paper from his back pocket
,
unfolding it
.  I peered over and spotted
mine and Clay’s name in the center
,
and then a chart with a bunch of dates and the names
of everyone else in this room.

“Ok, now that it’s all out in the open, maybe you two could help us settle a few bets.”  Grant said grabbing a pen off
of
the coffee table.  Everyone reached into their pockets and threw some money on the table. 

“You have got to be kidding me!
You guys have a pool going on us?”  I exclaimed, mouth agape. 

“Yeah, but we can’t cash in until we get a little more info
rmation,”
Grant said casually, like
this wasn’t at all offensive.

“Dude, why didn’t you tell me?  I wo
uld have gone in on that action,”
Clay said, and I elbowed him in the ribs.

“Now was last night your first kiss or was the first one before that?”  Grant began as if this line of questioning wasn’t a complete invasion of our privacy.  I kne
w we were all close, but geez.

“No, it had to be at least a few days ago in our kitchen,” Kayla chimed in.

“Kayla!”  I shrieked.

“What?  I figured it didn’t matter now,” She said with and innocent look on her face.  My face was burning with embarrassment.  Thi
s was not happening right now.

“Actually it was about a month ago,” Clay said as
I whipped my head up at him to give him a death glare for actually enterta
ining this.

“Knew it!”
  Morgan exclaimed, putting her hands in the air like she just scored a touchdown, and Grant handed her part of the kitty on the coffee table.

“And who initiated the first kiss?”  Grant continued on casually, and I was ready to crawl under the couch.  Clay pointed a thumb at himself, and everyone but Morgan g
ot some of the kitty this time.

“Really
,
Morgan?”
  I looked at her skeptically, wondering why she thought
I would have kissed him first.

“Do you really want me to explain my reasoning
,
because it looks like the v
e
in on your forehead is about to pop,” she said with raised eyebrows, and I clenched my jaw shaking my head no.  I could feel Clay’s arm vibrate on my shoulder as he laughed under his breath, much more amused by this than me. 

“Okay, last question.  Will you two be naming your first born son after his uncle Grant?”  He asked with a sarcastic smile and everyone burst into laughter. 

“That’s it, I’m outta here.  You guys suck,” I said, standing to leave.  I wanted to find Jeremy before this got back to him too. 

“Hey Jeremy,” I said nervously in
to
my phone.

“Hey,” he said in a defeated voice, and I knew he had heard.  I thought I may have led him on a little, and I wanted to find him and apologize for giving him the wrong impression.  Deep down I knew he had feelings for me, and he had been so nice since I had come to
Draíochta
that I hoped we could still be friends.

“Are you home?  I would like to stop by, if that’s alright.”  I hedged.

“Yeah, I guess,” h
e answered, and I could sense the pout in his tone.  I quickly teleported to his house before he changed his mind, and knocked on the front door clicking the phone shut.  I could have landed right in his living room but
I wanted him to invite me in.

Jeremy appeared when the front door opened.  He didn’t say anything, only walked to his couch and sat down
,
leaving the door open for me to walk in.  I tentatively walked to the couch and sat down
too,
not quite knowing how t
o begin.

“So how’s it going?”  I asked, thinking this was as good a place as any to start.  He shr
ugged, not making eye contact.

“I’m guessing you heard about my run in with Clay last night,” I said, and he nodded meeting my eyes with some sadness.  I f
elt terrible.

“I know that you may have thought we were heading in a certain direction, and I’m really sorry if I gave you the wrong impression.”  I said honestly, resting my hand on his shoulder.  He looked at my hand and then back at me.

“I’m not going to
lie
, Ari.  I was pretty bummed when I found out.  Last night I decided I was going to get up the nerve to ask you on a real date and then...”  He trailed off, slumping back onto the couch.

“I hope we can still be friends.”  I said, removing my hand from his
shoulder.  I slumped back too.

“Yeah, friends,” h
e said, still sounding bummed.

“Come on
,
you’re a nice, good looking
Aira
,
whose family is second-in-line
t
o
throne.  There must be tons of girls lining up.”  I said
,
bumping shoulders with him in
a cheer-up manner.

“Exactly.
  All the girls I’ve dated are a bunch of Court snobs who seem more interested in my money and title than me.  Then you came along, and you’re the Queen, but you didn’t seem to care about any of that stuff.  It was a nice chan
ge for me.  I liked it.”

“Maybe the solution here is a simple one.  How about you date someone outside of the Court?”  I suggested.

“Ha, my Father would go ballistic and probably run her off.  He and I have been growing farther apart because of my supposed rebellion against the family, just because I don’t agree with him.  I think dating a citizen would definitely seal the deal.”  Jeremy said with some sadness, and I got the feeling he had thought about
someone but never acted on it.

“What’s that look?”  I asked wanting to dig a little deeper
,
liking the idea of finding him a non-snob.

“What, there was no look,” he said, but I could tell he was holding back. 

“Jeremy...”  I said at length, prying for him to spill.

“It’s nothing, just this girl back in high school I sort of had a thing for.  But like I said, I think I would
be
kicked out of the Sund
ay dinner if I brought her home,”
Jeremy said
, deflated again.

“Jeremy, you have to do what’s best for you.  You can’t just ignore something that could be special because of your Father.  You’re a great guy.  You should be happy.  So, who’s this girl
that you sort of had a cr
ush on?”  I asked him smiling and
nudging his side
,
usi
ng Kayla’s persuasion tactics.

“Just this girl I got to know when I was training a lot in high school.  She and I got paired up sometimes during workouts and she’s pretty cool.  Guys were always asking her out, though, and she never said yes, so I think my chances are even slimmer now since we haven’t hung out in a long time.”  He said, chewing the inside of his cheek.

“Who is it?”  I asked, st
ill waiting for him to fess-up.

“Um, she’s a trainer now at the
Aira
Gym.”  He said, still not telling me, but I knew exactly who it was.

“It’s
Bree
, isn’t it?  I love
Bree
, she’s the best.  You know I train with her all of the time, I could totally see you two together.  I’ll mention you the next time I see her.”  I said giddy at the idea of them together.  I was definit
ely on a match-making mission.

“No!  You can’t just mention my name.  She’s super smart and will see right through it.  If my roommates find out I asked you to talk to her for me, they’ll never let me live it down.  They already have been giving me enough crap about you.”  Jeremy said.  I felt a twinge of guilt, but clearly his pride was hurt more than anything else.  How much could he
really have
liked me in a romantic way if he was already picturing himself with someone else?  Men, I thought, suppressing a sigh.  In truth, I was relieved.  I definitely saw myself more as his wing-
girl than his girlfriend.

“Relax, I’ll be very subtle.  Maybe I’ll just mention that we’re all going out for a drink tonight and invite her
.”  I said wagging my eyebrows.

“We’re going out tonight?”  Jeremy ask
ed, since this was the first he’d
heard of th
is.

“We are now.  I’ll text you with a time and place,” I said with a wink
, standing up to leave.

“Wait, since you’re here, I have something for you.  I was going to wait until our first date to give to you this as a surprise, but obviously that’
s moot,” he said.

“Jeremy
,” I began, but he cut me off.

“It’s alright, Ari.  I understand.  I already kind of knew that you and Clay were into each other, and I guess I was just hoping otherwise.  It’s cool, really.  Once my roommates get off my back, it’ll all blow over in a couple days.  W
ait here, I’ll be right back.”

That was the first time Jeremy had spoken to me more like a friend than a Queen and I needed all the friends I could get right now.  I sighed
,
hoping he meant it.  Jeremy flew out of the room and up the staircase to the left.  He returned a few momen
ts later and handed me a book.

“What is this?”  I asked in awe.  The cover was an a
ged white canvas, with an embossed replica of the
t
rinity pendant from my necklace
etched i
n near the top.

“I don’t know if you were aware of this, but my Father and Mother live in the
Aira
royal home.  My father should have offered to return your rightful home to you, but has conveniently not said anything because he doesn’t want to move,” Jeremy explained, but I
was still fixated on the book.

“No, I wasn’t aware of that, but he can unclench because I have no desire to leave the cottage.”  I mumbled
,
still staring at the book, and Jeremy laughed.

“I’ll be sure to mention that.  Anyway, I came across this
book
hidden behind a false drawer in the study years ago and thought you would like to have it.  I think it might be a history book on yo
ur lineage, but I can’t open it,” h
e said,
and I looked at him confused.

“What do you mean, you can’t open it?”  I asked, now trying to pry the bo
ok open, but it wouldn’t budge.

“See, it’s stuck
.  I detect a lock-and-key spell
but I could never find the key,”
Jeremy said, and I pressed my palm over the top cover also sensing the spell.  It was basically a spell where it locked the contents and could be opened by the right person as long as they had the key and any other criteria in the original spell.  The key in question would be protected by its own cloak so you couldn’t detect its enchantment.  The
odds of
finding the key to open this ancient book were slim, but even if I did
that, not knowing the original
additional parameters of the spell
would make it nearly impossible to unlock it.  Regardless, I was grateful to have something so precio
us from my family tree.