She said nothing.
“Who are you?” he tried again. “What are you?”
Still nothing. But her expression shifted, just slightly. Her hand reached out and touched the web near its base.
The silk glowed briefly—then dissolved as if it had never been there.
“Whoa—!”
Bálint yelped as gravity took over, and he crashed unceremoniously to the ground. His breath exploded from his lungs, his feet sank into the soft soil before his back slammed against the mossy earth.
“Thanks,” he wheezed, staring up at her. “I think.”
He pushed up to his knees, brushing moss off his elbows, and opened his mouth to speak again—when the air shimmered behind the girl.
Two figures flickered into existence, entwined in each other’s arms.
He blinked.
No.
No way.
But there she was.
Alice. His Alice.
Locked in the arms of a stranger.
Bálint froze, his mouth slightly open, his mind unable to process what he was seeing. Her hair. Her beautiful face. Her lips on someone else’s.
Something cracked inside him. Something deep.
The stranger pulled back slightly, smiling down at her with a look that made Bálint’s vision tunnel.
Oh, Dragon’s balls, NO!
He rolled his shoulders, his muscles coiling with something hot, wild, and feral.
He marched forward and tapped the boy on the shoulder.
The boy turned—eyes wide with surprise.
And Bálint punched him.
Right in the mouth.
The stranger reeled backward with a startled yelp, and fell back onto the soft moss.
Alice released a cry of horror and spun toward Bálint.
“What are you doing?!”
Bálint’s chest heaved as he glared at the boy on the ground, his fists still clenched and trembling.
“I should be asking you that,” he growled, his voice low and angry. “What the heck are you doing, Alice?”
Her eyes locked with his—and in that instant, everything twisted.
