"Devon?" I asked into the night. I heard a groan in response.
"Something you need, Princess?" He replied in a groggy tone.
"Promise me that in your right mind, you won't get into my head. I'll ask Alex to make my necklace a muffler so that it's easier, just, stay out of my head." I begged.
"Something going on?" Casey asked, probably just waking up.
"I'll put the muffler on myself, Princess, if you want me to stay out I will. I promise." He said, and I heard a thump as his feet hit the ground. I sat up and the room brightened with light.
Casey was holding a ball of fire. I shook my head wildly and Devon's eyes widened as he stumbled back, clenching and unclenching his fist. The flame grew wild and I made gestures for Casey to end it.
"Casey, put it out!" I hissed violently. The room was plunged into darkness and I said the words for the light spell. Accidental light is a very hard thing to accomplish. Devon got up and made his way over to me, clenching his fist around the pendant in my necklace. His knuckles were white and I gently brushed a stray piece of hair behind his ear. "Calm down." I whispered. Devon nodded and leaned his forehead on my shoulder.
"Your shoulder isn't comfy." He complained, his hands at his sides now. He was still shaking though.
"Neither is your head." I replied, and he sat up slowly, taking my necklace and squeezing his eyes shut, murmuring ancient words under his breath.
Fallon?! Fallon what happened? Where are you and why can't I hear or feel your heartbeat anymore? Alex shouted in my head, frantic.
Stay out of my head for the battle this weekend. Devon turned the necklace back to muffler.
You realize I can hear you two, right? Alex opened the door and glared into the room.
"Not funny guys. Next time tell me when Fallon's being shut off." Casey punched Alex in the shoulder at that.
"Don't talk about her like she's some toy that's not even there." He scolded. Alex smiled sheepishly.
"First thing that came to mind, Sorry Queen. Can I stay with you guys tonight?" He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him, answering his own question.
"You're going to anyway." I said, leaning back against the headboard.
"True. And I hope you know I'm going to try very hard to break into your mind." Alex said. I put up the lighter's barrier and smirked.
"Try now." I challenged. Alex smiled back but all was silent in my head.
"Hey, you said not until the battle." Devon whined. I rolled my eyes as Alex pouted and gave up. I took down the enchantment.
I just want to make sure you're safe.
She's being reasonable, come on, what if the demonmaster strikes again. She's going to have the enchantment down for us but she's trusting us to stay out so that she'll know if we're possessed or not. Precautions.
I wrapped my arms around Devon and then gestured for Alex to come over, giving him his hug too.
"What, so the person there for you when these douches weren't doesn't get a hug?" Casey protested, and I shook my head, plopping down on his bed and pecking him on the cheek.
"That's for being awesome all the time." I stated, jumping back onto my bed with the boys.
"You're mean." Alex said, poking me. I beamed back at him.
"You love me for it."
"Yeah, he does." Devon muttered.
"Do you have a problem with your brother finding a sister?" I asked. Devon didn't respond, just walked out the door. Alex followed him out and I heard muffled words come through, but couldn't make anything out. Casey gestured for me to go to him.
"Do you love Alex?" Casey asked, nervous. I nodded.
"I love Devon too, but I don't know how. I've never known." I answered. Casey nodded.
"Well Devon is convinced you love Alex more than him, because of the him being gone thing. And he's convinced you love Alex in a way a seventh grader shouldn't be feeling. And he knows Alex loves you, but with that emotion, no one can really figure out what type it is, so Devon is scared that he's going to become a third wheel." Casey explained. I nodded and the twins came back into the room. Alex looked ticked off and Devon just went to bed, covering his head up with the covers.
I walked over to Alex and put my face next to his, standing on my tiptoes to do so.
"I know Devon, and I know you. And I can feel both of your emotions, so do you mind if I share Devon's bed? He seems a little more upset than you." Really, I didn't feel their emotions, I never had. But what I had said would make it seem like I did share that connection with them, even though I never really said anything that would prove it.
"It's fine, Queen. He needs you. Night." Alex whispered back, kissing me on the cheek. I kissed his cheek and ruffled his hair.
"Night." I replied, turning to see Devon flipping over with his back away from the world. I sat on the edge of his bed and shook his shoulder. "You don't expect me to sleep on the floor do you?" I joked softly. Devon tucked the blanket more tightly around him.
"Go sleep with Alex." He growled. I didn't make a joke, just stroked his hair aside.
"Remember when you were upset when you were little?" I asked, careful to keep my voice as low as possible.
"I begged you to sing to me even though you couldn't sing." He replied, his words still hard and gruff.
"Mmhmm." I nodded, my finger brushing a tiny bit of his skin.
"Can you sing to me now?" He asked, turning to look at me. I nodded again and started singing and humming to a song I didn't know, my own soft voice lulling me into exhaustion. Devon scooched over and I slid under the covers, his arm wrapped around me as I hummed the end to the song I had heard but never known.
"It's the lullaby from your jewelery box." Devon breathed, his breath hot on my neck. My eyelids drooped. "You put Casey and Alex to sleep." I smiled slightly. "You should go over to Alex now though. I know you want to, but you feel guilty because Cassey told you something he shouldn't have. I shook my head.
"I'm sorry. Casey told me because I would've been on the floor, confused and awake all night if he hadn't. And stop being hard on yourself. I care about you both." I replied, running my finger over his hand. The tip of his nose touched the nape of my neck.
"Go over to Alex. Now he feels like the bad guy, and the person you don't care about as much. Have you shared a bed since fifth grade? No, and he misses you more than you can imagine." Devon said. I looked over at him for a moment before nodding and getting up. "Oh, and Fallon?" Devon's voice was slightly louder. I turned to him, expecting a thank you that would be a typical Devon move. "We know what your powers are, and believe me when I say that we share everything.
I nodded and switiched beds. Alex was dead asleep, so I didn't wake him when I crawled under the covers and slipped between his arms, curling up with my head against his chest and getting that feeling of being at home again.
***
"Fallon?" Alex. I was half on top of him with his arms around my waist, my legs tangled with his, his heartbeat below my ear.
"What. The. Hell." Eli. I jumped off Alex rolled off the bed. Eli's tone was grim, and he was glaring daggers at Alex.
"Eli I-" I started, feeling so horrible.
"I don't want to hear it. What the hell were you doing? You're in seventh grade!" Eli said, shaking me. Casey sat up slightly, narrowed his eyes at the scene, and pushed Eli away.
"Leave her alone. Aaron came in late at night and got into bed next to her. Nothing happened. She wasn't cheating, and he wasn't trying to tempt her. Her bed is the biggest, if you didn't already notice, and me and Devon happen to be big dudes, as well as Alex, so obviously he would take the biggest bed with the smallest person for the msot amount of space." Casey defended, his words becoming less slurred by the syllabyl. Eli growled at him and shoved Alex off the bed.
"I don't want you to touch Fallon again." He warned. I followed him out into the hallway, my pajamas modest at least.
"What the hell is your problem!?!" I hissed once we were out of hearing range from them.
"My problem? My girlfriend who is in seventh grade was just sleeping in the same bed as some guy she just met when she knows pretty damn well that everyone who didn't room in Claire's house could be the enemy. About Derrick, I don't even know about him! You found him in the woods when you ran away! He's Shadow too, are you stupid? Are you insane? You're allowing yourself to become too close to the potential threat." Eli yelled at me.
"We already know who the potential threat is!" I fired back. "And you agreed to a jealousy relationship-" My voice lowered.
"Casey was there, I had to keep the act up!" Eli cut me off.
"You're always like this though! I'm getting sick and tired of it! I want to be able to be with my other friends and crack jokes and not have you yell at them or growl at them to shut up because you're acting jealous!"
"I'M NOT ACTING ANYMORE!" Eli yelled over me. I fell into silence. He was shaking, and tears ran down his face. "I like you, I did since early on in the fake relationship, and I thought that maybe you could have liked me too.I sound like a girl right now, I've shown tears, you made me weaker than ever, and you didn't think much of it?" He sounded desperate, looking at me with so much despondancy. I placed a gentle kiss on his lips.
"I do get jealous when you seem happier with the other guys, because all I'm doing is being a selfish, overprotective idiot. I saw the way Aaron and Miranda looked at me when it was just us and I still acted that way. But when you didn't protest, when you didn't look at me like that, when you smiled instead of pushing away and questioning me I thought-I, I thought..." He trailed off, looking into my eyes sadly. "Don't do this to me. Tell me that you don't like me like that, that you're only my friend and I will leave you alone I promise." He begged.
I kissed him. Even though I had just done so a couple of second ago, it felt like my first kiss. In seventh grade. With a boy who was supposed to be the school future-delinquent. With someone who has made me feel hopeless when he was trying to beat me. With Shadow fae.
"But what if I don't tell you that?" I asked. Eli pressed his lips to my forehead.
"Then we continue on. With rules. No other guys-same bed. None at all. You can't cheat. Those are my rules." He said pressing me against the wall and leaning his forehead on mine.
"My rules. I never kissed you. You can't be cocky about it. I never kissed you, and I never will. Not in public. It's embarrassing for me. You can't cheat. And you won't tell me this was all an act to get me to do something. You can't lie to me like that. So tell me now, before I hate you for it, are you lying?" I looked into his eyes and searched through his soul in my mind.
"You will kiss me when I want to kiss you. I don't care if you're embarrassed. I wont cheat, and I swear I'm not lying, and I won't break your heart." I didn't detect a lie, so I believed him. That is, until I noticed that his eyes weren't that deeply shadowed brown, but a dark, dark red, lined with black.
Help.