Heart of Stone (Rock Star Fairy Tales #1)

Chapter 8

C h apte r 8

One o f the Boys

H er cousin had the decency to look bashful as he pulled the door open and promptly stumbled as he encountered her discarded boots in the small footwell. “C’mon!” he groaned, regaining his balance. “You didn’t have to boob ytrap me.”

“My boots were here before you,” Margot snapped. “Deal with it.”

“It’s like that, is it?” he asked, opening her small fridge and retrieving a can of soda. He glanced over at where she sat. “Want anything?” he asked. “You know,” he added, tapping her foot, “since I’m already in the kitchen.”

“Jerk,” she said, but the old joke made her smile. In Maddie’s house behind the bar, they had always played the “While you’re up…” game, and though Margot could easily reach anything in her tiny home, Nik teased her, knowing it made h er smile.

“Tea,” she told him, and he plucked a bottle of iced tea from the door, handing it to her before shutting the fridge. He made noises as he pushed her few hanging shirts aside to sit in the passen ger seat.

“Seriously,” he said, “you’re not making this ea sy on me.”

Margot turned to face him directly. She dead-eyed him as she opened her tea, took a swallow from the bottle, capped it again, and put it on the desk beside her. “You knew.” She didn’t have to say anything else. The guilt on his face wa s enough.

“I…” He opened his soda, took a sip, then tried again. “I couldn’t.”

“Couldn’t?” she pushed. “Or wouldn’t?”

“They didn’t know if you would ever … you know,” he defended. “They couldn’t tell you unless you were one of them, and there was no way to know!”

“But you knew,” she argued, “and you’re not one of them.”

“I am different,” he said, taking a hasty sip of his soda and leaning back in the chair, suddenly finding the ceiling above his seat very in triguing.

“Because you’re one of the boys, right?” Margot asked, bitterness seeping into her tone. “Because they want you w ith them.”

“We all want you with us, Margot,” Nik said, abandoning his study and leaning forward.

“Yeah,” she griped, spinning her chair again, “because Maddie made you promise or so mething.”

“My mom,” Nik began, then took another sip before setting his nearly empty can down on the floor beside her closet door. “She worried about you, about all of us, but more about you. Your mom—”

“I know,” Margot replied. “My mom was the wild card, running around strange countries with str ange men.”

“Your mom never said who your father was. Maddie thought he was human, so there was a chance you were too. As a human, you would never have to deal with any of this.” He reached out to stop her spinning. “And if you were human, you were vulnerable, and we needed to look out for you.”

“Now that I’m not human?” she pressed. “It seems like I’m more vulnerable than ever. Did you know about this Claiming bullshit?”

Nik frowned. “I’ve hea rd of it.”

“And you? Are you Claimed?” s he asked.

“I’m not fae,” he said. “That doesn’t app ly to me.”

“But you knew!” she repeated. “Why would they tell you if you weren’t one of them?” She corrected, “One of us , ap parently?”

“It’s … com plicated.”

“Oh, Nik,” she sighed, leaning back to study him. “You always make everything com plicated.”

“I don’t make things any way,” he said. “Things just sort of happ en to me.”

“What, like stumbling into fairy secrets? Did your mom tell you because she was one?”

“Fae,” he corrected. “They hate the word fairy. Something about some playwright misrepresenting them hundreds of years ago. And no, my mother didn’t tell me,” he said, and for a moment, she thought he would say something else, but he stopped himself. “Look—it’s not important right now. Tonight is about you. Isn’t that what you wanted—for everyone to focus on what yo u needed?”

She glared at him. “Ash and Timothy told you everything that happened?” When Nik nodded, she asked, “Was Tobin w ith them?”

“The new guy?” he asked. “No. I don’t know where he went.”

“You don’t know him?”

Nik shrugged. “Never saw him bef ore. Why?”

“He seemed to know who Ash and Timothy were. I assumed he knew you too.”

“I don’t know,” Nik said. “This is the guy at the bar, right? The one you were so frien dly with?”

“Watching over me, are you, Nik?”

He sighed. “C’mon, Go. You know I always have your back. You seemed to be having a great time talking to him. I was—am—happy for you.”

“Even though whatever he did caused wings to pop out of my back, and now I’m apparently fair game for any wande ring fae?”

Nik cracked a grin. “I heard about that. Can I see them sometime? Ash and Tim never show me any fae stuff. You’d think they were in hiding or something. I only know because it came out when—” He stopped abruptly, his familiarity and ease with his cousin causing him to be careless. “Look,” he said, “I know this is scary. Navigating new abilities is terrifying. But it’s going to be okay.”

“How do you know?” she asked, resting the cold tea bottle over her forehead where a small headache was building.

“Trust me,” Nik said. “I know. And as long as you have someone to help you, it’s no t so bad.”

“Who is going to help me?” she ask ed. “You?”

“Nah.” He shook his head. “I don’t know much about fa e powers.”

“Then who? Ash made it pretty clear he wants nothing to do with me. Timothy, I guess?”

“What about New Guy?” Nik asked. “He Awakened you. You must have a Co nnection.”

“What do you mean?”

Nik shrugged, grabbing his can and emptying it before tossing it the length of the van into the small garbage can tethered to the front of her sink.

“Score!” they yelled simultaneously, years of habits hard to break. Margot turned to him. “No, seriously, what do you mean?”

Nik shrugged again. “Like I said, it’s not really my area of expertise, but I always thought Awakenings happened when there was a deep Connection of some kind between two fae.”

She glared at him. “What kind of co nnection?”

He scoffed. “Please. It’s not always about sex, Go. Just a closeness, a comfort, I think. Maybe it’s magic.” He gave her a wry grin. “Apparently, a connection you did not share with Ben o r Thomas.”

Margot reached out to shove him, Nik landing back in the chair with a laugh. “Shut up!” she snapped, embarrassed and annoyed that he would mention the two boys she had dated during high school. “At least I remember the ir names!”

“We both do,” Nik said, “and if Ash knew, they’d both wish h e didn’t.”

It was Margot’s turn to scoff. “As if he would care.” She sighed, turning a soulful gaze onto her cousin. “You didn’t see him, Nik. The idea of being with me, Claiming me, whatever that means, disgusted him. Like totally and completely repulsed.” She put her head in her hands, the weight of this newest rejection sinking in. “I’m such an idiot.”

Nik’s hands were warm on her shoulders, offering comfort. “You’re not an idiot, Go.” He rubbed between her shoulders, ruffling her long hair the way he always did when trying to cheer her up. “You may aim a bit high, but you’re not an idiot for falling in love.”

“Is it love?” she asked, fingers over her eyes as the tears began to fall. “I don’t think I know what this is anymore… except pathetic.”

“Ash is fantastic,” Nik said. “Hell, if I went that way, I’d be into him too, but he has a lot going on.”

Margot snorted, regaining her composure. “Of course you would defend him. His rock star life is complicated? Whatever.”

“Not that,” Nik said quickly. He reached down to lift her face, pushing her hair behind her ears and wiping her eyes. “Look, I think Ash has a lot more going on than he tells a ny of us.”

“Like what?” she asked, wiping her nose and taking a shuddering breath. “Like fairy—I mean—f ae stuff?”

Nik cocked his head, pursing his lips in contemplation. “Yeah, that for sure, and the band stuff, but there’s someth ing else.”

“What?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted, breath exploding out of him, “but it’s definitely growing.” He gave her a long worried look. “It’s not new, and it’s getting worse.” He ran a hand through his hair, then smiled at her. “I’m so glad I can finally talk to you about this now.”

Margot sat up, eager to hear what worried her cousin. Despite herself, a small voice whispered: It doesn’t matter. I will always keep Ash safe.