Filed to story: Kissed by Claw and Fang
“I’m sorry.” It sounds like the words are dragged out of him.
“For what?” The apology astounds me.
“I didn’t protect you.”
“From an earthquake?”
His gaze swings back to mine, and for a second, just a second, I can see something in his eyes. Something powerful and terrible and all-consuming. But it’s gone as quickly as it came and then he’s back to showing nothing. “From a lot of things.”
“From what I understand, you saved my life.”
He snorts. “That’s the point. You don’t understand much. Which is why you should go back to your room and forget all about what happened earlier.”
“Forget about the earthquake?” I ask. “Or forget about you kissing me?” I don’t know where I got the guts to bring it up…except, truth is, it’s not bravery so much as desperation. I have to know what Zane’s thinking and why he’s thinking it.
“Forget about it all,” he answers.
“You know that’s not going to happen.” I reach for him once more, and this time he doesn’t jerk away. Instead, he just watches me as I rest my hand on his shoulder, hoping the contact will remind him of what it was like to touch me. Hoping it will break through the barriers he’s erected between us.
“Yeah, well, it needs to happen. You have no idea what we just did.”
“We kissed, Zane. That’s all we did.” It felt momentous, important-it still feels that way to me-but in the grand scheme of things, it really was just a kiss.
“I keep telling you that it doesn’t work like that here.” He shoves a frustrated hand through his hair. “Don’t you get that? You’ve been a pawn since you got here, a chess piece to move around the board to get the desired result. But now…now we’ve upped the stakes. This isn’t just a game anymore.”
He might mean his words as warnings, but they feel like body blows.
“I was a game to you?”
“You’re not listening.” His eyes glow incandescent with the effort of holding in emotions I can’t even begin to decipher-no matter how much I wish I could. “From the moment I kissed you. From the moment you got hurt, everything changed. You were in danger before, but now-“
He breaks off, jaw clenching, throat working. Then says, “Now I’ve all but put a bull’s eye in the middle of your back and dared someone to take a shot.”
“I don’t understand. You didn’t do anything.”
“I did everything.” He moves then, swift as one of those shooting stars from last night, until his face is right up in mine. “Listen to me. You need to stay away from me. I need to stay away from you.”
His words send a chill through me, make my mouth go dry and my palms sweat. And still I can’t just walk away. Not when he’s standing right here. “Zane, please. You’re not making any sense.”
“Only because you refuse to understand.” He backs away. “I have to go.”
The words hang in the air between us-dark and somber-but he doesn’t go. He doesn’t do anything but stand there, staring at me with tortured eyes.
So I do something. I step forward until our bodies are just barely brushing against each other.
It’s not much, but it’s enough to have heat pooling in my stomach and electricity crackling just below my skin. “Zane.” I whisper his name because my vocal cords have forgotten how to work. He doesn’t answer me, but he doesn’t move away, either.
For one second, two, he just stands there looking down at me, his gaze locked with mine. His body pressing forward into mine.
I whisper his name again, and it’s almost enough. I can see him waver, feel him lean more heavily against me.
But then he snaps out of it, his voice cutting like broken glass as he tells me, “Stay away from me, Ivy.” He turns away, takes the steps three at a time, and doesn’t stop until he’s on the landing ten feet below. Then, without turning around, he calls up to me. “It’s the only way you’re getting out of this school alive.”
“Is that a threat?” I ask, more shaken than I want to admit-to him or to myself.
“I don’t make threats.” The
I don’t have to hangs in the air between us.
Before I can respond, he puts two hands on the iron banister and vaults straight over it. I let out a strangled scream, rush to the edge of the staircase, half afraid I’ll see his mangled body down below. But not only is he not lying broken on the ground three stories below, he’s nowhere to be seen at all. He’s vanished, right into thin air.
Don’t Ask the
Question if You Can’t
Handle the Answer
I stand, staring down at where Zane should be but isn’t for several seconds. He couldn’t have just disappeared. It’s impossible.
I start down after him-the sane way-but I’ve barely made it four steps before someone is calling behind me. “Hey, Ivy! Where are you going?”
I turn to see Lia coming across the landing toward me. She’s dressed in all black, as per usual, and looks totally badass in a chic, feminine way. Also as per usual.
“I wanted to talk to Zane, but he’s too fast for me.”
“No news there. When Zane doesn’t want to be caught, he’s too fast for everyone.” She rests a hand lightly on my shoulder. “But, Ivy, honey, are you okay? You don’t look so good.”
I’m pretty sure that’s the understatement of the year, so I just kind of shake my head. “It’s been a weird day. And a long one.”
“It always is when Zane is involved,” she tells me with a laugh. “What you need is a little more of my tea and some girl time. We should arrange that for later.”
“Yeah, definitely.”