just did?
That’s when she’d started going to school with him.
But it wasn’t until they’d hit the teen years that Aurora really felt herself starting to go out of control. All those hormones! She was as giddy as any teenage girl around Luke.
And it was right here in the school that he’d broken her heart for the first time...the heart that she wasn’t supposed to have...
Aurora shook her head and tried to pull herself together. Stop it. You only have a day. You have to focus.
She opened the door of the library and walked in. At this hour she had the whole place to herself, except for Mr. Twitchell, the librarian, who didn’t even lower the newspaper he was hidden behind at the circulation desk. She walked into the cluster of round tables and sat down at one out of the librarian’s sight. Her hands were sweating just like a mortal’s as she watched the clock and the door simultaneously, holding her breath...on the verge of tears from sheer anticipation.
Then suddenly the chair across from hers was pulled out, and a red-haired, freckle-faced kid plopped down in the seat, startling her; she hadn’t heard anyone come in at all. His hair was spiky, gelled to within an inch of its life, and he carried a skateboard bristling with stickers, which he slid under his chair.
Loki, of course, ever the shape-shifter, decked out as an adolescent skatepunk.
As she stared at him, he grinned at her. “You like?”
“You look like a redheaded porcupine.”
He looked faintly injured. “I think it’s a good look for me.”
She tried not to glance toward the library door. “Please go away.”
Instead, he tipped back in his seat and put his Converse sneaker-shod feet up on the table. “I thought you should have a chaperone. You’re only sixteen. You have no idea what these jocks can be like.”
She rolled her eyes. “I think I’m safe enough in the library.”
“How little you know, child.”
“Please leave,” she said more urgently.
Loki hauled his legs down from the table and slid forward in the chair in one sinuous move. “Seriously, you’ve been exactly here and now before. And where did it get you? Nearly kicked out of the Aesir, that’s where. Not that the mortal isn’t just fabulous, but they’re all nothing but trouble in the end. Why start a war over this one?”
“No one’s starting a war,” she began.
Loki chortled. “Are you kidding? Val is just about nuclear. She takes this gathering-warriors-for-Odin thing very seriously.”
“Oh. Val,” Aurora said, feeling a tug of worry. She was actually surprised she hadn’t seen her sister yet; that wasn’t good. She knew she’d turn up just when Aurora least expected or wanted her. “I can handle Val,” she said bravely, and Loki gave her a knowing look.
“Have it your way.” He glanced at his watch. “I’d say you have about an hour, tops, before it all hits the fan.”
“Please go,” she hissed, and he shrugged and vanished.
Aurora looked around quickly to make sure no one had seen, and nervously flipped back her hair.
Then she saw the door opening, and her heart nearly stopped in her chest.
It was Luke.
* * *
Luke pushed through the library door and scanned the library—empty at this hour, and lit by those annoying fluorescents that made everything look like half-light.
At least it looked empty until he saw a girl sitting alone at a far table on the side. She looked up at him and then quickly looked down at her books. Luke was used to getting that kind of reaction from girls; the shyer ones didn’t seem to know what to do in his presence. And that was just fine with him; he knew how to handle the shy ones. This would be a breeze; he’d have her writing his papers for him in no time.
He took his time walking up, and looked her over as he approached.
She had creamy skin and shimmering red-gold hair, and for a second he was sure he had seen her before. She was pretty, for sure, someone he would have noticed, although truthfully, having his pick of cheerleaders meant that the less obvious girls sometimes slipped through the cracks.
This tutoring thing won’t be so bad at all, he thought to himself as he stopped at the table and looked down on her. “Aurora?” he asked.
She nodded quickly. “Hi.”
“That’s a pretty name,” he said, not actually lying. She flushed crimson. He pulled a chair out from the table and turned it around, straddling it. Girls always liked that.
“I really appreciate you tutoring me,” he added, looking into her eyes. Very blue and clear, like the sky.
“Oh, it—it’s no problem,” she stammered, and blushed again.
“It’s not that I don’t understand the class, you know.” Luke didn’t want anyone to think he was an idiot or anything. “Jenks just doesn’t seem to like me.”
“I could see that,” she said.
Luke stared at her, startled. “You can?”
She looked alarmed, as though she’d said the wrong thing, and quickly backtracked. “Well, a man like that, you know, always just talking about the great things that other people have done, never doing anything himself...it can’t be easy for him to see someone he knows is going to actually go out and do them.”
Luke was honestly shocked at her words. It was the way he’d always felt about Jenks; that there was a jealousy and resentment there under the surface of the man that was...festering was always the word he thought of, like something infected.
“I should’ve transferred out of the class at the start of the year,” he said glumly. “Now I’m stuck. If I don’t pass, I’m off the team. If I’m off the team, it’s no scholarship, no college...” His stomach churned at the thought. And then what?
“It’ll be okay,” she encouraged. “You’re going to do such great work he’ll have to give you an A.”
Her face was lit up, and he realized she wasn’t just pretty, she was beautiful. “Pretty sure of your skills, aren’t you?” He smiled down at her. At the same time, he wondered if someone who looked like her was enough of a nerd to get the actual job done. He needed to pass the class with a B or better.
“Me?” she almost squeaked. “Oh, no. I just know you can. I mean, I’m sure you can.”
“Oh, now you’re just practicing psychology on me, right?” Luke teased. “Psych me into thinking I can do it?” He was laying it on thick, but it never hurt to butter them up.
She looked at him with those clear blue eyes. “No, I know you’re destined for great
