Last Shadow || Deception Book III

Chapter 11

A/N: Sorry for the late update! Anyways, it's here now so enjoy :)

Luke

I felt a little miffed that Ri even had to ask that question. Didn't she know she was the only one for me?

But it was adorable to see her get all worked up.

Besides, I couldn't let such a good opportunity pass itself up. I mean, heck, when did I ever get the chance to tease her?

"Me?" Ri pointed to herself, her eyes wide. "Jealous?" She scoffed. "Keep on dreaming, Luke. I'm not possessive."

"So . . . if I was to start flirting with Nicole, you wouldn't care?"

"Try me!" Nicole yelled. "I'll kill you first."

Ri smirked. "See?"

I made a face at her. "Fine. You can continue monitoring them. I'll go check on Ke-"

"You. Stay. Right. Here," she ordered as she glared at me.

"So you are jealous."

"No, I'm not. You're supposed to be doing your job instead of going to check on a stupid, insignificant demon."

"You're blushing."

"I'm just mad at you for neglecting to tell me this."

"It's so not important!" I protested. "If I were to tell you the details of every single monster who joined us in the five months you were gone, I'd lose my voice." I smirked and leaned closer to Ri, who averted her gaze. "You are jealous."

She pursed her lips. "Shut up." A split second later, she whirled on me. "Did she use charmspeak on you?"

"She did-"

Ri started heading after Kelli. "I'm going to go kill her-"

"But it didn't work," I finished, catching her arm and whirling her around to face me. I tilted her face up so our eyes met. "It didn't work because of you. You'll always be the only one for me, Ri."

Rianna stared at me, her green eyes wide before she smiled slightly. "Fine. I'll forgive you this time. But you're not allowed to talk to the empousa anymore."

"Possessive," I muttered under my breath as I let go of her, though I wanted to laugh at how cute she was being right now. She was so adorable when she was pouting. I leaned closer until my lips brushed her ear. "Do you want me to kiss you in front of everyone to prove it?"

Rianna shivered slightly, but before she could reply, Ally coughed loudly. Too loudly.

"Go get a room you two," she scowled. Both of us whipped around to see her glaring at us, her arms crossed in front of her chest. "I had to deal with you two and your sneaky glances when we were at camp. Then, Luke spent all of last summer sending puppy eyes at you. And then when you guys got together, I had to deal with that. To make matters worse, when you left, I couldn't even get a break because NICOLE AND ALABASTER started dating. It was hard enough when it was just you two, or just them, but now, I have to deal with ALL FOUR OF YOU."

Rianna smiled sheepishly. "Maybe you should get a boy-"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence."

"Or go join the Hunters of Artemis." Rianna grinned. "They're all maidens, and all of them can't stand romance of any kind." She raised her brows. "Or, at least, they can't stand men. No one ever said anything about each other."

I didn't see Ally's expression, my mind caught up around the casualness and familiarity with which she said the goddess of the Hunt's name. Artemis was an Olympian, after all. Had Ri just invoked her name so amiably because she was joking? Was I just overthinking things? I recalled my memories of last winter when Artemis had been forced to hold up the sky. Ri had been absent for nearly the entire duration of that event, even though it had been quite important. She'd always had things to do, but was that because she really did or was it because she didn't want to see the goddess?