Revealed (Unbound, Book 5)

Chapter Five

"Hello? Are you decent?"

I looked up from the mirror of the vanity when two knocks rapped on the door. Before I could answer, though, the door opened and Calin entered. His gaze found me, and a smile lifted his lips.

"What if I wasn't dressed?"

Calin's grin grew and he shrugged.

"Oh, that's just... Ugh." I turned back to the mirror and rolled my eyes, then leaned forward to apply mascara. Blinking, I paused as the amount of violet in my eyes took me by surprise. Rather than the usual edging, it had begun fading into my normal eye color—one blue and one green—even more intensely than I remembered my mom's being.

Calin took a step forward, the movement in the mirror distracting me from what I couldn't explain. I sucked in a breath, looked down to dip the wand into the tube, then up again as I leaned forward. Blinking, my mouth hung just slightly as I coated my eyelashes. Finishing, I set the tube down and applied a small amount of clear lip balm, smacked my lips, and then stood up to face Calin.

"You do know all of that is unnecessary, right?"

I smacked my lips again in his direction and smirked. "Trust me, I need all the help I can get after the lack of sleep during the last few days. But you are sweet to pretend otherwise."

"If you're tired, we don't need to go," he said, stepping forward until he was right in front of me, and placed his hands on my hips. "We can just stay in so you can finally rest."

"Meh." I waved my hand through the air between us. "If we go out and I burn more energy, I'll be so exhausted I'll have the best sleep ever."

"Well, I talked to Brant. He spoke with Maible and got everything set up for us."

"A double date?"

Calin nodded, stepped back, and took my hand before he started leading us out of the guest bedroom. "Yes, we're meeting Brant and Maible."

"Where?"

"It's a surprise." Calin shrugged.

"Calin."

"Nora."

"You know I'm up for pretty much everything, but I hate being surprised."

"Oh? Even when I took you to Briarville?"

"That... doesn't count."

Calin laughed and continued to lead me through the house. At the front door, he stopped to get our coats from the hallway closet, and then opened the door for me to go through first. Keeping his hand on my back, Calin guided me to the passenger side of his car, once again opening the door to let me in. As soon as I was buckled, he shut the door and rounded to the driver's side.

"Now will you tell me where we are going?" I asked.

"You'll see."

I bit my lip and turned my head to look out the side window, annoyed. Irrationally, the fact that Calin wouldn't tell me irked me. I'd never been good with surprises, sure, but this felt like he was keeping something from me. Didn't Calin trust me? If a surprise so obviously didn't make someone happy, then how could the intent of giving one be good?

If I could think of this as bad, though, what did that make what I was doing?

With a sigh, I turned my head to look straight.

My annoyance with Calin was really my frustration with my reluctance to include him.

"You okay?" Calin glanced at me and back to the road. "You got really quiet all of a sudden."