Flame of Frost (The Caelestian Chronicles: Book #1)

Chapter 7 - Kristina Hates Austin, A Lot

"What? What's wrong?" I frown.

"Nothing." Austin brushes the liquid carefully, the grin still resting on his face.

"No, what is it?"

"Your face was completely blank. Like you were trying to arrange pieces of a puzzle together. That was funny — cute, but funny."

Immediately, I stare at the folded hands in my lap and grit my teeth to stop the betraying blush. All I was doing was staring at his eyes.

"It was nothing really, I was recalling a day when mom did my makeup for a stage show," I lie. "It was a great day."

His smile fades. "I'm sorry about your parents."

"There's nothing to be sorry about. I'll bring them back for sure, without any harm." I try to reassure him, or myself, I am not absolutely positive.

"I'm sure you will." At first, I thought that was sarcastic, but it wasn't. He really believes I can bring back Mom and Dad.
Austin caps the lipstick and picks up a tiny box. Just after he opens it — POOF! — we jump to our feet as if a current passed through us when we realize that he has spilled loose, pink glitter all over us.

Pink. It had to be pink.

"Too sparkly for me." He frowns.
I can't help laughing and he joins me.
"I hate pink." I try to brush off the sparkles off of my dress with my hands, which just makes it worse. The glitter sticks to the back of my hands.

He laughs even harder. "Here let me do it."  He takes a dry cotton ball and starts brushing them off my face.

"Do I have them in my hair?" I touch my fingers to my hair and scowl. The particles adhere to my fingers like magnets. "It's your fault!"

"Don't make faces," he says, calm and collected. "First, let me clean it. Then scowl all day, I won't care."

"You won't care?" I smirk.

"No."

My index finger points at his reflection and Austin scowls intently. From his chest to his feet, he's glittering. He jumps and stomps his feet in an attempt to shake off the tiny things, but it only works little.

I burst out laughing again.

"Shut up, Sparks." He points at my back. "Look at yourself."

However bad the glitters were sticking to Austin, they are surely sticking twice as more to me. Being short has its disadvantages, like when a tall guy poofs open a box, you get bathed in pink pixie dust from head to toe. It sticks to my forehead, eyelashes, and dress making me look like a live sparkler. "It contained too much glitter for a box that small." I balk.

Austin's face appears on the mirror, where he stands right behind me. "Oh look at that, Sparks is sparkling!"

I turn and smack him hard in the arm. It doesn't seem to even a mild discomfort to him, but pain flares in my hand as I might have hit asphalt.
"Ow!" I rub my fingers. "What are you made of? Bricks?"

Austin sticks his tongue out at me and I resist the urge to smack my elbow on his face. He takes another tissue and starts forward.

"No, this will take too much time." I shake my head.

Austin crosses his arms over his chest. "You got a better idea?"

My hands rummage through my drawer until I find — there. I hold up the cardboard ring.
Austin knits his brows together.
I roll my eyes. "Duct tape, genius."