An Arcane Inheritance by Kamilah Cole - 17

Liam Blackwood perpetually looked as though he had stepped off a runway, and today was no different. His rich brown hair curled brightly over his forehead, his ivory skin lazily kissed by sun. He’d attracted a small crowd of admirers, and he spoke to them softly, flashing a smile that almost warmed the crisp autumn day. His hands were in his pockets as he leaned against the side of an indigo-colored car.

“Is that a fucking Rolls-Royce?” Tai asked, her eyes wide. Ellory, who had no idea what a Rolls-Royce looked like, shrugged. “It’s the latest Rolls-Royce!”

“Wow,” Ellory deadpanned.

“If you saw the price tag of that car, you’d be scared to even look at it, let alone put your ass on those seats.”

Ellory wasn’t thinking about cars or price tags. She was thinking only about Liam, with the kind of fierce determination that Tai wouldn’t understand. After all, Ellory hadn’t told Tai about her early-morning altercation. She didn’t tell anyone but Hudson, and Hudson didn’t even bother to answer her text message. After days of staring over her shoulder and calling the increasingly annoyed campus police to drive her home from her closing shifts, Ellory grew tired of being afraid. She immersed herself in arcane histories and occult mysteries for far too long, treating it with the same importance that she treated her schoolwork. For once, she wanted to try being a normal woman on a normal date with a normal man, one who actually enjoyed her company. So, when Liam had invited her to go apple picking with Boone Priestley, Ellory had jumped at the chance.

The fact that it would get her off this haunted campus was a bonus.

Liam spotted Ellory over the head of the woman he was talking to, and he waved. His fans turned to look at her, confused and then surprised and then annoyed, but Liam didn’t seem to notice as he slipped past them. Ellory wasn’t used to this—being wanted and being envied for that want—and she didn’t know what to do with it. Her body felt like a series of disconnected limbs rather than a functioning unit as Liam closed the distance between them, smile bright. Her hands found her pockets, then straightened her hat, then tucked a stray curl behind her ear. She was stuck between trying to seem nonchalant and feeling painfully awkward.

Beside her, Tai leaned against the doorpost. “Blackwood,” she said with a nod. “Nice car.”

“Thanks,” Liam replied without taking his eyes off Ellory. “It was a birthday present.” He stepped closer, his voice becoming feather soft, as if they were the only two people in the world. “Hey, you look amazing.”

They were going apple picking, so Ellory had dressed for apple picking: a loose-knit thermal top, a gold cotton parachute vest, black leggings, and waterproof lace-up boots. Her beanie was gold, her peacoat was olive green, and her dangling earrings were a gold line of stars that almost touched her shoulders. She didn’t think the outfit was anything special, except that the deep V-neck of her top showed more cleavage than usual. His eyes hadn’t dropped below her face, though, so maybe it wasn’t enough cleavage.

“Thank you,” she said with a shy smile. “So do you.”

Ellory barely remembered to say goodbye to Tai as she floated to the car, Liam’s hand on her back. Yes, some normalcy to her school year was long overdue.

Tucker Farm was located forty-five minutes away from campus, passing through at least three towns along the way. The scenery alternated between quaint colonial houses hidden by long stretches of greenery, shopping centers with banks that looked more like manors, and so many trees stretching over the guardrails to reach the road that they swallowed the sound of passing cars. Liam admitted to being a fan of R & B, and after a brief moment of discomfort (“You didn’t ask me out because of some jungle fever bullshit, did you?” “Some what ?”), he gave Ellory control of the aux cord so she could test him with the intros of some of her favorites. He’d just guessed Ashanti’s “Foolish” off nothing but six notes when they pulled into the farm’s half-empty parking lot.

Waking sunlight gilded the few cars they passed. Liam backed into a space near the entrance, then helped Ellory out of the passenger seat. A duo waited by the front gate, but Ellory’s gaze was first drawn by a single muscle car that stuck out among the sedans and SUVs. Her smile inverted. Only Liam’s hand in hers kept her from stopping in her tracks.

“Isn’t that—”

“Hey, guys,” said Liam, as the pair turned to reveal Boone and Hudson. “I hope you weren’t waiting long.”

“’Sup, Morgan,” said Boone, who wore a black hoodie beneath a black sherpa-lined trucker jacket. His ebony hair spilled from beneath the hood, bouncing when he nodded in greeting. “Thanks for letting me crash your date.”

Hudson’s lips thinned as he stared at their joined hands, but he didn’t comment.

“I thought you had plans today,” Liam said to him.

At this, Hudson finally looked up. Not to meet their gazes, because that would have been the polite thing to do, and he certainly wouldn’t be caught dead being polite in Ellory’s presence. Instead, he looked off into the parking lot, his black peacoat adorned by a light-gray wool scarf.

“He canceled,” Hudson said tightly. “I hope it’s okay if I come.”

Ellory, who minded a great deal, let Liam assure Hudson that they were happy to have him. She had been excited to get to know these people with the saintlike patience to not only know but also live with someone like Hudson Graves. But Hudson himself being here, this man who acknowledged and discarded her at a whim despite all they’d been through… Her body was hot with embarrassment.

Liam’s arm circled her shoulders. She flinched as he tugged her against him, and the concern in his fawn-brown eyes made her feel like an ass for it. “Everything all right?”

Ellory briefly entertained the idea of being honest with him, making them watch as Hudson climbed back in his stupid Plymouth Barracuda and drove home alone, but smiled instead. Her arm slid around Liam’s waist. “Everything’s perfect.”

They ambled behind Boone and Hudson into the fields bisected by a dirt path that was still slick with yesterday’s rain. The undeniable smell of manure was tempered by the scent of fresh grass pearled with dew, butter-yellow dandelions, and baby-pink peach blossoms. A ginger cat stretched out in front of the barn, tail curling back and forth as it watched their approach. Inside, there was a shop that offered jams and cider, apples and pears, wreaths and pies. Fridges in the back carried milk, cheeses, cream, and alcohol. The entire space smelled like hot chocolate, freshly mixed and up for sale in stainless steel beverage dispensers.

“Professor?”

Ellory turned at Liam’s surprised greeting to find Preston Colt standing there with a basket full of Brie, Parmesan, and cheddar cheeses. He was wearing a powder-blue cable-knit sweater and beige slacks, and he looked larger divorced from his salon suits, Clark Kent glasses thrown off to reveal Superman underneath. His smile was still warm, the crinkles by his eyes deepening despite his confusion.

“Mister Blackwood, Miss Morgan, what brings you to Tucker Farm?” They were still pressed against each other like magnets. Colt’s smile widened. “Ah, perhaps that’s a stupid question.”

“What are you doing here?” Boone asked, though not unkindly. He fiddled with the ring on his middle finger, turning it over and over.

Colt lifted his basket. “I may be biased, but this is some of the best cheese in the state. I’ll accept nothing less on my sandwiches, Mister Priestley.”

Behind them all, Hudson remained silent. His desire to speak to a professor outside of class must have been limited to salon nights only. Colt didn’t even bother to look his way, as though used to this treatment, and that infuriated Ellory, because it was one thing to ignore her , but it was an entirely different thing to ignore the man who held her future in his hands. Ellory wanted to shake Hudson, afraid his rudeness would reflect poorly on her, barring her from any more gatherings. Instead, she remained a tense line at Liam’s side, hoping her polite smile would keep Colt from noticing Hudson at all.

“Well, don’t let me keep you,” said Colt, winding his way past them. “The weather’s supposed to be quite good today.”

Ellory dropped her arm from Liam’s waist and watched Colt leave, feeling like she should say something, anything, to capture his attention. What if she’d been too quiet? What if he thought her frivolous for going on a date when she could have been studying? What if he mistook her insecurity for Hudson’s insolence?

But he was gone before she could cobble a sentence together, disappearing into the too-bright morning with his brimming basket of cheese.

“He’s such a weird old fuck,” Boone commented. “But he’s got the right idea. We should clear out before the rest of that crowd comes lining up for fresh produce.”

“He’s not weird ,” Ellory finally managed. “He’s brilliant.”

“Do you want to stop by the hospital on our way back? You might need emergency surgery to remove your lips from his ass.”

“Boone,” Liam sighed. “You promised you’d behave.”

“This is me behaving.”

“Well, behave over by the refreshments, would you? Ellory, I’ll be right back.”

Before she could make a single sound of protest, Liam went to get baskets, and Boone wandered toward the drinks. She and Hudson were left hovering by the entrance like awkward children whose parents were late to pick them up from kindergarten.

He still wasn’t looking at her, so she studied him from the corner of her eye, trying to figure out what he and Liam could possibly find to talk about. Despite growing up together in Darien, Liam and Hudson had turned into two different people—and not just because they occupied such viscerally opposite ends of her occipital lobe. Liam was all summer, warm as sunshine, a golden boy in every sense of the word, while Hudson was deep winter, human permafrost, who smothered all signs of life beneath an icy exterior. There were some similarities—they were, after all, both popular brown-eyed athletes—but even in that they differed. Liam welcomed people close to the bonfire of his personality, while Hudson’s mysterious-loner routine made them desperate to impress him. Liam was an active captain of the lacrosse team, while Hudson played soccer like he couldn’t avoid it. Liam’s eyes were the brown of a toasted marshmallow, while Hudson’s were the brown of graveyard dirt.

“I forgot that you’d be here,” said Hudson, piercing the uncomfortable silence. “I can head home if—”

“And leave it to me to explain to your roommates that you left because of me? Absolutely not. You’ll pick some damn apples, and you’ll like it.”

Hudson’s lips curved upward. “Will I?”

“No, you don’t get to do that right now,” Ellory said, her tone barely shy of waspish. “You didn’t answer my texts. I was attacked, and you couldn’t even be bothered to ask if I was all right.”

“You were what ?”

“We’re not friends , Graves,” she hissed. He had turned to face her, and their height difference rankled when her fury crackled between them like an electric storm. She wanted it to strike him down until he was beneath her, where he belonged. “If I’m texting you at all , you should assume it’s actually important.”

Hudson ran a hand over his face. “Boone took my phone. When he gets mad at one of us, he hides our phones, and—this is irrelevant. I assure you my dislike of you isn’t murderous in nature.” His hand dropped back to his side. The regret in his eyes made her anger wither. “I didn’t get your texts, Morgan. I swear I didn’t. What do you mean you were attacked ?”

Ellory frowned suspiciously. “Do you know about the Old Masters?”

“Ready to go?” Boone said, shoving a basket between them. Ellory caught it before it hit the ground, her heart composing a blast beat in her chest. In that moment of uninterrupted eye contact, she had seen something flash in Hudson’s dark eyes. Something that looked like fear. “If we focus,” Boone continued, “we can be done before nightfall.”

Hudson’s silent intensity snuffed out like a candle flame. He took a basket from Liam and headed outside without another word, Boone trailing behind him.

Liam passed Ellory a disposable cup of hot chocolate, heavy with whipped cream and rainbow marshmallows. “I hope you like sweets, because that’s all Boone got.”

“Yeah, this is great,” Ellory said, staring after the two men. “Thanks.”

The cup warmed her hands, but her skin prickled with nerves. What did Hudson Graves know that she didn’t?

***

The Tucker Farm orchard was a sprawling maze of apple trees and browning grass. Narrow trunks and feathered branches spilled clouds of leaves into the air, apples of all colors weighing them down. They ranged from four feet to eight feet, crowded together to block Ellory’s view of even the nearest rows. Once Boone and Hudson disappeared down another path, she and Liam swiftly lost sight of them. The orchard even swallowed their footsteps, until it was so quiet Ellory felt like they were sharing space with ghosts.

She had spent far too much of the walk trying to figure out a way to get Hudson alone, to demand everything he knew about the Old Masters, but she hadn’t been able to think of a thing. They weren’t friends. He wasn’t even supposed to be here. While she was mollified that he hadn’t been ignoring her intentionally, she was still on a date, and how would it look to abandon Liam Blackwood to drag Hudson Graves deeper into the trees for a whispered conversation?

Ellory shot one more glance in the direction Boone and Hudson had gone before forcing herself to let this go. For now.

She and Liam picked apples in a companionable silence, pausing only to do the occasional taste test. After the third time Liam managed to find the one sour apple in the bunch, she started calling him a jinx. He lobbed a half-eaten apple at her, which she dodged easily, and chased her laughing form through the trees. Apples spilled from their baskets, but neither of them stopped to notice. There were apples everywhere, after all.

Ellory let Liam press her against the trunk of an apple tree, still giggling. Fine golden hair dusted his arms as he trapped her between them, his palms against the bark. His hair flopped over his damp forehead, loose from its artful style. He looked like a Botticelli painting.

His gaze dropped to her mouth, pupils expanding with palpable desire. Ellory nodded her assent, her hands gliding over his strong shoulders.

Liam kissed her, a soft brush that deepened into curious exploration. He tasted like coffee and mint. Sunlight fell through the trees, warming her face and making her lids glow a fiery red. He leaned closer—his chest against her chest, his hips against her hips—and she slid her arms around his neck to hold him there as one kiss bled into another and another. She’d forgotten how much she liked kissing as a destination, rather than a rushed journey to the bedroom. She could feel him hard against her, but there was no urgency to any of it. This was nice. He was nice.

Everything was so…nice.

They were swathed in sunshine and birdsong, so it took Ellory a moment to notice the dissonant chord in the sonata. Her eyes opened, briefly studying the messy curl of Liam’s eyelashes before moving beyond the curve of his golden cheek. A crow sat on the branch of a nearby apple tree, watching them with beady black voids. Eyes seemed like the wrong word for those fathomless holes, trapped in shadow despite the brightness of the day. Its knifelike beak pointed to the right, and its wings were pulled close to its skeletal body. The crow did not blink, and neither did Ellory. Unease rippled through her chest until she yanked back from Liam’s abruptly claustrophobic kisses.

“What?” he asked, breathless and distracted.

Ellory, whose breathing was even, swallowed past the lump in her throat. “Nothing. Nothing, I—we should keep moving.” She didn’t have to feign her shiver. “It’s kind of cold.”

Liam’s gloved finger traced the line of her jaw before he pulled away completely. “More of that later.”

“Definitely,” she promised.

Her basket was in the grass, apples trickling out in a waterfall of red and gold. More crows had gathered there, prodding at the fruit in a way that seemed more menacing than curious. One lifted its wings and squawked when she reached for the basket handle, and no fewer than six birds dropped from the trees to surround it. A murder of crows stared her down, daring her to try her luck.

“Hey,” said Liam, his back to her, his own basket safely retrieved, “I wanted to thank you for letting Hudson crash. I know the two of you are kind of weird about each other, but I would’ve felt shitty about him being home alone after his brother blew him off again.”

Ellory straightened, the birds forgotten. “Hudson’s what ?”

“His brother. He never told you about Cairo?”

Ellory lifted her eyebrows.

“Right, stupid question.” Liam laughed. “Cairo is Hudson’s older brother. Six years older. They used to be close when we were growing up, but then…” He made a vague gesture that meant nothing to Ellory. “Anyway, these days Cairo’s pretty unreliable, but anytime he shoots an email, Hudson shows up.”

Ellory did not want to feel bad for that walking hangover, but her delicate heart squeezed anyway. She knew the sting of missed calls and broken promises, the justifications and excuses that preserved the illusion that someone who couldn’t even manage to be present still loved you in their own way. Her parents had sent her away because they wanted more for her. Intellectually, she knew that. Emotionally, she had been taking care of herself and Aunt Carol since she’d first set foot in America, and sometimes that didn’t feel like love at all.

She couldn’t pinpoint exactly when her independence had become the result of an innate knowledge that the only one that she could rely on was herself, but she knew she had felt like an adult long before the law recognized her as one. Disappointment was baked into her existence.

It was uncomfortable to have something like that in common with Hudson Graves.

“Oh,” Liam said, followed by muffled laughter. “You’re not getting those back.”

He had noticed the crows. They’d multiplied since she’d last looked, covering her basket like flies swarming a rabbit carcass. Apple shards dotted the ground, torn apart by sharp beaks and sharper talons. Every crunch sounded like the breaking of a bone. Ellory’s unease returned with a vengeance, her mind on a crow tattoo and a midnight murder.

She grabbed Liam’s sleeve as he tried to walk past her. “It’s fine. Let them have it.”

“You sure?” Liam looked completely unbothered by the birds, but Ellory’s pulse was jagged and uneven. It was nearing winter. Shouldn’t most of them have flown to warmer locales?

One crow snapped up a chunk of apple and stared at her unblinkingly. Its twitching head seemed to say, You’re next .

Ellory’s fingers tightened around Liam’s sleeve. “Let’s keep moving.”

“All right,” Liam said easily, prying her hand from his sleeve so he could hold it. “I don’t mind sharing.”

They sank deeper into the trees, but no matter how far they walked, Ellory couldn’t shake the feeling of a thousand beady eyes hunting her through the orchard.