Project Alaric: Book One ✔️

Chapter Nine

Emery Gray

My throat dried the moment he started speaking. The comment he made. Did he feel like I thought he was still intimidating? Not by a long shot. I didn't hold the capability to find him intimidating anymore. Not after he protected me from something that couldn't hurt me–ghosts. Not after he made sure I was safe when crossing over the stream above the waterfall. Not after he went down to take pictures of the waterfall for me. Not after he carried me on his back for two miles while I went on a wild rant about my interests because he asked about them.

Not when I found out that he tried to be friends with me prior to this. I still didn't know how to process that information. How did I not see it? Was it because of Axton? Or did I choose to ignore it out of fear? I made up these little stories in my head to make sense of Alaric speaking to me, and it turned out they weren't true. None of them were true. I thought he'd be upset when he found out about my crush on him. Yet, he was far from upset. He wanted to figure out what things meant to him. And even though I felt like it could hurt me in the process, I wanted to give him the chance.

Even if I had little chance of obtaining the member of Triple-A that I'd been crushing on for the better part of six months.

The longer we spent with one another, the closer I was going to get, and that did terrify me. I was terrified to fall deeper into my Alaric-shaped hole than I already was. But who was I trying to kid? Myself? Because I was already slipping lower and lower by the day. I didn't have a firm grasp on the edge anymore. And the more I got to know him, the more dirt was going to be thrown over me as I was buried alive in all things Alaric.

Oh, shit, right, he expected an answer. "You don't intimidate me anymore. You haven't for a while."

Alaric took a second to mull over my words while I had an internal panic attack. "Can I ask you something?"

Not if it was detrimental to my health. "Sure."

"Why did you lie about your interest in ghosts?"

I frowned. "Because it's childish."

Alaric crossed his ankles, leaning back against the bench. "It's not childish to have interests, Emery. Did someone tell you they were childish?" He asked. "Did someone call you annoying? Because you also like to go on little rants when it comes to your interests, but you have to be prompted to talk about them."

My hands twisted together, and I kept my attention on them. "Numerous times. I'm weird, I get that. I don't mind that about myself. Being weird isn't negative. But when I first got into each of my interests, I'd tell my school friends about them, and they didn't care to hear it. Remember when I said I felt alone when I was in California? Yeah. I ended up staying silent around my friends because they didn't really want to hear what I had to say."

He grumbled under his breath. "That's why you were nervous about telling Axton and Apollo about the history of The Pink Lady. When we were on our way to Asheville. You were scared they'd tell you to stop talking."

I dropped my shoulders in defeat. "Yeah. Something like that."

"Not with us." Alaric's tone took a serious edge to it. I risked a peek at him, and his face showed the same. He was being serious. "You don't do that with us. Don't do that with me. If you want to spend six hours listing every single fucking volcano fact you have in your vault, then you do that. Understand?"

Straightening up, I nodded. There wasn't room for argument. God, he has to stop doing nice things because this little conversation only made me want to gravitate closer to him. He felt warm. Safe. Comfortable. All of this was wrong. Dangerous. He would truly ruin me, and I didn't know what to do with that information.