The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey Read Free Book Online Page A

the light dusting of feathers across his knuckles. His jacket was zipped up nearly to his neck, leaving just a triangle of golden skin exposed at the throat. Echo zeroed in on it like a hawk. His hazel eyes—as human as her own, courtesy of some mixed genetics in his ancestry—twinkled, and she knew that he’d noticed. She wasn’t sure when she’d transitioned from believing he had cooties to nursing a crush socatastrophic it could level whole cities, but it had worked out rather nicely, since, as luck would have it, he’d developed his own city-destroying crush on her. The past eight weeks had been the happiest of her life, though the dynamic among their trio—once as inseparable as three peas in a pod—had altered somewhat. Tensions had been running high between Ivy and Rowan, and Echo knew her budding relationship was to blame.
    Ivy pretended to heave all over the table. “Hi, Rowan. Why, hello, Ivy, how nice to see you. Have a seat. Don’t mind if I do. Ah, why don’t I help myself to your fiendishly expensive éclair,” she said as Rowan did just that.
    He smiled as he bit into the éclair, and Echo cursed herself for noticing the way a stray bit of cream caught on his lower lip. She cursed herself doubly for noticing the way his tongue snaked out to catch it. If her hormones had a face, she would slap it.
    “What brings the Avicen army’s most promising recruit to this fine establishment?” Echo asked. Rowan’s
aw-shucks
faux-humble preening wasn’t fooling anyone, but she liked it anyway.
    “Swung by the Ala’s to see you.” He smiled at Echo, all straight white teeth and effortless charm. His hand inched across the table to cover hers. The feel of his skin against hers was electric; she wondered if the novelty of it would ever wear off. “And she said I might find you here. Warhawk training was suspended for the day.” He released Echo’s hand to wash the éclair down with a sip of her tea. How he managed to make food thievery endearing, she would never know. “Some guys were talking about a recon teamthat disappeared a couple of days ago, and Altair’s been busy dealing with that. It’s kind of nice having a break.”
    His fingers were long and elegant, and they cradled the teacup as if it were the world’s finest china. Echo extricated the cup from his hands to refill it. “I didn’t think Altair knew what a break was,” she said.
    Rowan shrugged, reaching for Ivy’s éclair again. She poked his hand with her fork, wearing a scowl that didn’t quite work on her delicate features.
    “He’s tough but fair,” Rowan said, rubbing the back of his hand. He cast his puppy-dog eyes at Ivy, but she was immune. She always had been, unlike Echo, even when Rowan had made a habit of stealing their scratch-and-sniff stickers when they were little. His thievery had been marginally less charming then.
    “Ugh, spare me,” Ivy mumbled. “I see their brainwashing has started to take hold. You’ve been in the army for, what? Two weeks? You just turned eighteen, and you’ve already drunk the Kool-Aid.”
    Echo buried her face in her hands. “Please don’t start this again, you two. I would like to go one afternoon without having to remember there’s a war on. Even if it is a cold war or whatever. Just one afternoon. Just. One.” She waved a hand at the cramped tearoom, with its Basquiat-inspired crayon drawings, and relief sculptures made of yarn and pushpins, and brightly colored carnations dotting each table. “I would like, just once, to be able to enjoy victory drinks with my best friend and my gentleman caller”—she waved her teacup in the air, sloshing Earl Grey down its side—“in peace.” Calling him her boyfriend, out loud, when peoplecould hear it, still felt a bit too real. The word never escaped her mouth without the accompaniment of a giggle, and Echo did not giggle. She chuckled. She cackled. Occasionally, she even chortled. But giggling? Heavens, no. For good measure, she