Burned » Kai Parker

10

"You can drive all night, looking for the answers in the pouring rain..."

I settled into the mildly comfortable chair on the balcony of my hotel room, nursing a styrofoam cup of hot chocolate that I'd gotten down in the lobby. My earbuds were plugged into my phone, streaming my Spotify music on shuffle. I couldn't even be bothered to go through the effort of manually selecting songs.

Portland nightlife buzzed beneath the metal balcony, laughter and indecipherable shouts sporadically immersed amidst bursts of varying music. On another night, I might've been one of them, even encouraging Sam to come along to take part in the fun. Tonight, I was just an onlooker, trying my best to step out of the world. Just for a few minutes.

I had to, because the alternative option was letting my soul get sucked into the miserable reality of being partners with the Gemini coven once again. Reluctantly, I accepted that this wasn't going to change and miracles just weren't something that the universe felt like doling out to me. That didn't mean my mind was at peace with the matter; far from it.

Cruelly, my brain was taunting me with future predictions, replicas of the battle that my father died in. Like another one was on the horizon, where history would repeat and another Luna would be lost on behalf of the Geminis' disloyalty.

Kai had told me a few times that he wasn't his father and under his rule, loyalty actually meant something. I haven't garnered enough about the warlock to know if he was truly the type of man who could stand by that word, but God, I wanted to. If I had to deal with the Five Covens yet again, I had to believe that it would be different, or I would lose my mind.

Even considering the possibility of this actually working out with Kai's new leadership, I still felt like my father would be extremely disappointed. It was a sinking pit in my chest, like I had let him down again.

I tried to stop it, it didn't work, but I tried, I thought pleadingly, as if he would be able to hear me. I couldn't handle the weight of another failure. My bones might actually shatter under the enormity.

My eyes were stinging now. I blinked hard and convinced myself it was the emotional-inducing effect of Cage The Elephant.

As I sipped my hot chocolate, something thwacked the side of my head.

"Jesus," I uttered in shock, spilling some of the liquid on my shirt. I looked at the ground, finding a crumpled brochure that I recognized as one of the various touristy advertisements in the hotel lobby.

Glancing up, my gaze connected with Sam's. He had the room directly next to mine and was leaning over the side of his balcony with his elbows balanced on the metal.

"A simple hey, Eva wouldn't have cut it?" I muttered, tensing up as I remembered the harsh words we exchanged earlier today. It had been a lot of ignoring going on since. More so on my part. I was never one to willingly talk things out, that had always been more Sam's area. So, it was no surprise that he was now initiating our first encounter since the argument.

"It would've," he replied. "I just wanted to hit you in the head."

I huffed, waving my free hand impatiently to magically clear my sweater of spilled hot chocolate.

"Can't sleep either," he added, when I silently stared out at the night.

I gave a nod, flexing my fingers around my cup.

"Since it looks like neither of us are gonna fix that anytime soon, wanna watch The Office with me? I figured out how to get Netflix on the hotel TV, after getting sick of that shark documentary on National Geographic."