Tell Me Ariel, Are You Mine?

Chapter 14 - Cherry

Chapter 14 – Cherry

Almost immediately I wanted to take it back because the thoughts showing through his face were asking too many silent questions I wasn't ready to answer. At one point Dante seemed unprepared. Thrown. Yeah, I didn't know I was going to tell him either. I guess I'm a tad impulsive.

Now he had to figure out how to navigate it all. Yet, his immediate response?

"How did you know?"

Stumped, I looked elsewhere and shrugged. "I figured it out."

"How?"

Trying to elaborate without bringing Nate into it was exacerbating me already. I laughed nervously as I turned away. "I don't know, I just did." What was I supposed to say to that? I hadn't planned any explanations.

"Ariel." Dante came after me, never more than two steps on my trail. I even recognized the sound of his shoes over another random pair not far behind. "How?"

"Process of elimination."

Dante pulled me back.

"You weren't ready for me to ask how you knew so you didn't come prepared with an answer. Who told you?"

"Well it wasn't you." I snapped out of his grasp. "It should've been."

"I would've liked it to have been me." He took that like there was a potentially sharp sting to the realisation. Mid afternoon and not a ruffle to his composure other than knowing he hadn't told me, and the fact I knew about him at all. It compromised everything. It was obvious that I'd provided a curveball. No way was he expecting to address this so soon.

"I swear it would've been me," he reiterated.

"But not today. All the reasons you came and that wasn't one of them."

He wasn't after a reality check but he got one. He definitely took the loss on that one.

"When, then?" Forcing his hand on the matter, I pressed further. "When would you have done it?"

If that didn't put Dante on the spot I didn't know what would. He was forced to confront what I suspected, that he would probably still have me believe anything but the truth.

"What else are you keeping from me?"

Dante slipped a hand in his pocket to check his phone. The time. The road was still pretty naked on traffic and light on people. The sky a little greyer, seemed heavier too. The gravity of my line of inquiry just as daunting.

"Funny you should ask me that." He'd never looked so impatient. "Because you see, Magpie, that's a loaded question."

"Because there's more."

"On both our sides."

The thing about Dante is he rarely, if ever, missed a step. Tack sharp. He knew that I was hiding something. Guess that made me a hypocrite. But tell me how you let a demon know that a hunter is on his trail without seeing what the demon is capable of?

I shifted uncomfortably when it became clear he wasn't the only one keeping secrets. To take the heat off myself and prevent him from questioning further, I threw him a bone. He wanted to know how I knew? Fine.

"I put two and two together."

"And came up with four but didn't want to believe it until someone told you you were right."