Spiritual Deficiency

Chapter 4

Drake

"You met the daughter of that man? The Water Fae in the council?" Shea asked in disbelief.

I chuckled at her response and nodded, throwing a rock into the creek in front of us. We were perched up on a boulder not too far from where I usually meet with Amarisse. "I'm pretty sure she likes me, too."

"Of course she does, you're a hunk," Shea cooed while wiggling her eyebrows. I grabbed a small stick by my foot and tossed it at her and she laughed. "Oh, chill out. This might be useful, though."

"I imagined it would be since it was their ball that you crashed, right? Did you get what you needed?"

"Blueprints of that gigantic estate, yeah. Your Water Fae girlfriend is going to succeed her father's position here soon and they'll have a much bigger party for that one. We grabbed the guest list for that as well and there are a couple people on that list that I'm interested in." She hopped off the boulder and stretched her limbs.

"What would you like me to do?"

"Just get close to her, for now. She may be useful later."

I stepped off and walked to her side, patting her on the head. "That I can do. I'll head to where I usually meet her, she's probably there now."

"Meet me here afterwards and we'll talk specifics. Try to get closer to her for now, don't hold back."

I laughed at that one. "I mean, I can't come on strong after trying to keep my distance the first time we met, but I get what you mean. I know what to do, don't worry."

Shea took off running in the opposite direction while I headed out with a new song.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I began walking to the same boulder I met Shea at earlier. I had to rush home after my rendezvous with Amarisse, because some mud was thrown at me by a certain nuisance. Shea decided she wanted to go swimming. Since I wasn't dressed for it and refused to go home to change, she decided tossing that was the easiest way to force me to do what she wanted. I huffed at the thought. What a brat.

I scratched at my ribcage that peaked through the sides of the cutoff I was wearing. I had a large bandage wrapped around where my Spirit Fae tattoo was, but left my sleeve with the Void emblem out in the open. It wasn't as obvious as the other one so I wore it proudly. I felt eyes on me and turned to spot Amarisse sitting with, what I assumed was, her mother. Her aura shined a brilliant blue that seemed brighter than usual. An image of her singing alongside me went through my head as I went and shot her a smile, one that was a little too ecstatic. I quickly shook it off, reminding myself of the barrier between us.

I waved at her, unable to hold back a small smirk, and watched as she waved back. She froze and looked down, before briskly grasping her shirt beside her and cowering behind it. Her face was beet red and I burst into laughter. I had to ignore the small thought that pointed out how adorable the action was to me and instead, made a silent plan with her to meet at our spot at sundown.

When I reached Shea, she started hopping up and down in excitement. "Finally! I'm ready to hit the water!"

"No can do, the water fae is over there with her family," I chuckled at her and sat down.

"Are you kidding me?" With a huff she sat back down on the boulder next to me, pestering me to recount everything that happened during my meeting with Amarisse. When I finished, she rolled her eyes. "Okay, I know you aren't the forward type, but you really need to put in a little more effort."

"I'm meeting her again at sundown, chill out," I sighed at her. "I have it planned out in my head, don't worry."

She eyed me closely, trying to see if she can spot my lie. Truth was, I was always a little unpredictable around Amarisse. I've kept it under control for the most part, but she makes me act differently a lot of the time. I don't really know how she's managed to mess with my head so much. It was an odd mix of attraction and loathing.