Uriel: The Inheritance (Airel Saga Book Five)

Chapter XIV

Boise, Idaho—Present Day

FOR WHATEVER REASON, WHEN I got back into the city limits of Boise, I didn't feel like going home. Mom wasn't expecting me for another day or two and I was unsettled.

Was it dishonest, what I was thinking of doing? Technically, yeah. "Which means yes," She interjected, prompting a vicious roll of the eyes from yours truly.

"Nice of you to show up," I shot back, but She didn't respond. Figures, I thought.

I spent a little while driving aimlessly around the city. I turned up Reserve into the foothills toward Table Rock, but it was after dark and the gate that led up to the mesa was closed and it was cold out, so I turned around and let the headlights drift me back down toward Boise.

I wasn't sure how or why exactly, but eventually I ended up parked alongside the curb on the street near Michael's foster parents' house. I wasn't sure what I was doing. It was late, way past my curfew, and I couldn't have reasonably expected to be able to see him. What was I going to do? Throw pebbles at his bedroom window? Wake him up with "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks" in a mind-contorting Shakespearean role reversal?

I felt pathetic, sitting there behind the wheel of that car. I couldn't get my mind off myself and how my life had slipped so far out of my grasp, how my plans for my future had missed the mark by such an appalling measure. That's when She piped up again. "It's not about you. Get ready, Airel. The time is coming soon when you will have to prove what you believe with action, with deed. Go beyond the words. Get ready."

I was trying to take in this new information and decipher the meaning when I saw a shadow in the rearview mirror. My eyes darted toward it, and my heart started racing. Then, right outside the driver's side door, I felt a presence. Before I could turn and look, there was a tap tap on the glass and I tried to inhale all the air inside the car, gasping in fright.

I turned to see Michael standing there, a playful smirk spreading over his face as the realization that he had scared the daylights out of me dawned on him. "Michael. What the—" I opened the door a little harder than necessary, banging in into his knees.

"Ow," he said.

"Oh, did I do that?" I got out and stood in the dark predawn street with my boyfriend. "So sorry," I teased. I wasn't sure what kind of mood he would be in, so I waited to see how he would respond.

"Airel, what are you doing here?" His voice was low, flat.

Quick. Come up with something. "Me? What are you doing, prowling the streets like a criminal?" It sounded good in my head.

"Really, Airel? I live here now, remember?" He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked over his shoulder toward his new house, where his now so-called family slept. "I don't know what to say anymore, Airel. You didn't text me all day—you never do anymore."

I shrugged. "I was with Ellie. Kreios is back, if you care to know."

"Yeah, I care to know. Why would you say that?" His eyes were dark and I shivered.

I looked around. Fog was rolling in, as was common at this time of year in the wee hours, and the streetlamp in the distance was bathing this river of mist in a chemist's pallid yellow. "Come on, get in. At least we can talk without freezing to death." I jerked my head, motioning to the passenger side of the FJ.

He walked around, and we both jumped in. As the doors closed, he met me in the middle of the car, both hands around my face, pulling me toward him, kissing me full on the lips passionately. I was so shocked at his forwardness that I wasn't sure what to do. I kissed him back for a second or two, and enjoyed it, but as his hands fell to my shoulders and pulled me in tighter, I began to feel unsafe.