Mark of the Seer by Jenna Kay Read Free Book Online Page A

Oh, and Miss Miller?”
    “Yes, Mr. Baker?”
    “Make it sparkle.” He smiled and waddled back to his office, shutting the door.
    I stared after him, bemused. Make it sparkle? Yeah. Whatever!
    So with my orders bestowed on me I busied myself with making the store, uh, sparkle . Dusting and arranging shelves, washing windows, cleaning toilets, disinfecting counters. Doing whatever I could to keep myself busy, hoping time would go by faster. Also, doing whatever I could to not have to go to the stockroom. I totally didn't want to walk into something there.
    Gross .
    After a couple of hours, without a single customer, I was down to sweeping floors. The music playing over the intercom was weighing my nerves down. Mr. Baker never changed the radio from the oldies station. The oldies did seem like the right station to play, since the store was still stuck in the fifties. Looking at the clock on the wall I almost jumped for joy—thirty-five minutes until closing!
    I continued to sweep the floor, my goal to have it mopped right when we closed so I could get home and into bed. My hope on that goal vanished with the ringing of the bell, sounding in a customer. After two hours of no customers, one has decided to arrive right before we closed. UGH!
    I dredged up a fake smile, even though I didn't have much energy left in me to make my face work. Not only had it been the first day of school, but I'd just worked my butt off cleaning, making the store sparkle and smell lemony fresh. Literally, I felt like someone had beaten me with a stick.
    Turning around to greet the customer my smile dissolved, forming into a frown. The customer turned out to be Nick Reece, and there was no way I was going to waste a smile on that ignorant turd.
    He walked up to me like he owned the place, smiling arrogantly. His hands were in both pockets of his designer jeans, his red silk shirt was fashionably un-tucked. Wisps of his dark blonde hair fell over his intense green eyes, his bright white teeth almost blinding me under the fluorescent lights. Yeah, he was a good looking guy but his attitude stank worse than dog farts.
    “Hello, princess,” he said, smirking. “Doing a little sweeping, I see.”
    “Hello, Nick the Douche,” I retorted, throwing in my pet name for him. “Doing nothing but taken up space, I see. Business as usual, huh?”
    In the past my mouth has been known to stir up trouble, harboring a whole mess of vulgar words. That was why I kept it closed most of the time, to try to get along with people. With Nick, though, I always found it hard to control my mouth, causing me to say whatever popped in my head. And usually there was nothing nice to be said.
    He glared at me, his eyes as cold as a winter day. “Funny as always, Clarity. Funny as always.”
    I rolled my eyes. “What do ya want, Nick?”
    He took a step closer, an arms length away, way too close for me.
    “I want to know why you broke Kora and me up. Everything was goin' good, but you kept runnin' your mouth, telling lies about me.”
    “What lies?” I interjected angrily.
    He ignored my question. “You've never liked me. You didn't want Kora to be with me because you were jealous. You told her all this crap about me. You broke us up.” He pointed a finger at me.
    Jealous? Was he insane?
    “You know...I don't have time for this.” I took a couple of steps forward. “Face reality, Nick. I didn't break ya'll up—you did.”
    Startling me, he grabbed my arm and pushed me back against the wall, knocking the breath out of me. The broom I'd been sweeping with fell to the floor, the sound of it echoing through the store. His hands found my shoulders, squeezing them roughly, holding me tight against the wall. My first thought was to scream, but I didn't want to show any weakness. I wasn't going to let him know for one second that I was afraid. I stared at him with stormy eyes.
    “Listen and listen good, princess,” he snapped nastily. “You are the reason Kora's not