Charmfall by Chloe Neill Read Free Book Online

at some point. I just hadn’t expected it to happen so soon.
    “I thought you’d have more time?”
    “I might have,” he said darkly, “if my cousins weren’t acting like hoodlums. That changes the math. I have to step up earlier than before. When it’s all said and done, my cousins may not listen to me, but at least I can be a good example.”
    Okay, I silently thought, but a good example of what?
    He brushed a lock of hair back from my face. “You’re important to me. I wanted you to know that.”
    I appreciated the thought, but I still moved back a little bit, giving myself some space and distance. I knew there was a risk—a really good risk—that I’d end up being hurt if we kept dating. I just didn’t think it would be right now. So soon.
    “I know,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t worry.”
    “Fair enough,” he said. He chuckled lightly, and before I could tweak him for laughing at me, his lips were on mine. He pulled me closer and kissed me like he was desperate to do it, like he might never get another chance. And as much as I wanted to just sink into the kiss and forget about the world for a little while, the world continued to spin around us. He was still a werewolf with a family that believed in curses, and I was still a girl who didn’t want a broken heart.
    My hesitation didn’t seem to scare him. He held me even tighter, his arms enclosing me like he meant to protect me from the rest of the world. If only he could. If only it were that easy.
    Eventually he pulled back and kissed my forehead. “We should get back to school. Tomorrow morning awaits. And it’s a Monday.”
    “Yeah,” I quietly said. There was no pretending I was excited about that. I mean, being an Adept was hard. But being a junior in high school was a completely different animal.
    Jason called out Michael’s name, and after a moment he came jogging down the tunnel, water splashing at his feet, crimson on his cheeks. It wasn’t hard to guess what he and Scout had been doing a couple of passages away.
    “You ready?” Jason asked.
    Michael nodded. “As I’ll ever be.”
    “Then let’s hit the road. It’s waffle day in the cafeteria tomorrow, and I don’t want to sleep through it again.”
    Michael rubbed his hands together. “And that, my friend, is why I love Mondays.”
    That was the only reason to like a Monday, if you asked me.
    “I’ll text you tomorrow,” Jason told me. I squeezed his hand.
    Michael gave me a little wave. “See you later, Lily.”
    “ ’Bye, guys.” I watched as they moved down the tunnel, trying not to get panicky about my werewolf boyfriend returning to the family who wanted to pick a bride for him. Was it wrong that I totally wanted to lecture his cousins?
    Fear heavy in my heart, I tucked my hands into my pockets and walked down the passageway until I found Scout.
    It was good to have a best friend, even if neither one of us was in a chipper mood as we walked back to the dorms. Turns out Michael had asked Scout about her dress for Sneak. I’m sure he asked only because he was excited, but she didn’t have a dress and got panicky about “being a girly-girl.”
    As we walked down one dark tunnel after another, I filled her in about Jason and his possible disappearance.
    She looked about as excited as I felt. “You ever have those days where you wish your life was like a keyboard with an ‘undo’ button? You could just hit the button and rewind recent events, go back to the way stuff was before?”
    “More often than you can imagine,” I said.
    “Can’t we just skip Sneak?” she asked. “It’s not like we don’t have other stuff to worry about.”
    “If you don’t go with Michael, he’ll have to find someone else to go with, and I know you wouldn’t like that. What if he had to take Veronica? Or Mary Katherine?”
    “He wouldn’t dare,” she said through gritted teeth. She was so easy to bait.
    “So we’re going to Sneak,” I said, linking an arm