Fire

Burning Rage

“You’re the one that splattered it everywhere!” I protested, then grimaced at him when he licked his finger, “ew! You just ate my nose chocolate!”

“It’s delicious,” he teased, “It tastes better that way, here, try it. I’ll put some more on you.” He dipped his finger in the bowl, and I shrieked and back peddled as he came at me with chocolate covered fingers, stopped by the handle of the stove pressing into my back. Trent pressed in close, chocolate covered fingers held out threateningly. 

“Don’t you dare!” I shrieked, trying to hold back laughter, “quit that!” I tried to lean back, but the oven was making it impossible to back away any further. Trent dotted my nose with the chocolate, “gotcha!”

When the laughter subsided he was still standing over me, face inches away from mine. Still curved slightly in a grin, and again I had the urge to reach up and pull him closer, maybe get both my hands in that soft blonde hair. What would his lips feel like on mine?

He leaned forward and I stiffened. His lips brushed mine for a split second and I jerked back, startled.

We both froze at the sharp “click clack” of high heels on the tile behind us, and Trent whirled around, his fingers suddenly tight on my arm. Kari stood in the doorway, her hair slightly windswept. Her mouth was drawn in a thin line, and though her face was still relatively smooth, something sparked in her dark eyes that told me she wasn’t happy about what she was seeing. She swept across the room in a rustle of skirts and set a firm hand on Trent’s shoulder, and he took a step backwards. Trent looked like a kid whose hand had been caught in the cookie jar.

Kari’s voice was hard as a rock, “Trent, what exactly are you doing with my daughter?”

His voice was a decibel higher than usual, “making brownies?”

She glanced down at the mixing bowl, then at my face, “So it would seem. Jessica, you appear to have chocolate on your nose.”

My voice didn’t seem to be working, so I only nodded and scraped at my nose with one finger, cheeks burning. We both watched as Kari turned without another work and strode from the room, high heels cracking across the tile like gun shots as she left. Trent ducked his head and mumbled something about taking the brownies out when the timer goes off, and I noticed his shoulders were hunched, like he was expecting a blow from somewhere. 

We ended up sitting in the dining room awkwardly, listening to Troy, Teddy and Maria talking about the new recruit, who was apparently coming to stay at the house tomorrow.  The timer dinged and Trent practically vaulted out of the armchair he was sitting in, “brownies are done, I’ll get them.”

“Good,” Troy said, “bring them in here. I’m starving.”

Maria chimed in, “oh, chocolate brownies, yes! So anyways, this guy seems pretty great, and the truth spell I did made it obvious that he thinks the same way we do.”

“You made him swear to see Kari to the throne?” Troy rocked back and put his feet up on the table with a clunk, “sometimes they bulk at that. Like they were thinking it would be anarchy or something when we bring the queen down.”

“Yeah, anarchy,” the girl with the long dark hair rolled her eyes, “for the first little while, when we bring the ice palace down in shards. A little anarchy could be fun.”

Teddy glanced over his shoulder, which I was beginning to notice was a habit for all of them before they said anything that they thought my mother might not like, “yeah, a little anarchy and looting. I’m gonna make me rich.”

“So when Kari takes the throne is the little kid here gonna be a princess?” Louis was flipping idly through a home and garden magazine, and now he shot a look at me over the top of it, “I don’t plan on taking orders from her.”