“You are a paradox, pixie girl.” His voice slurred over the words.
“You should sleep, David. You’re wiped out.”
He shook his head, and his hazy green eyes focused on her. “Why didn’t you tell me there’s a prophecy?”
“I— What?” She was tempted to laugh again. “The Sending? You—you didn’t know?”
“Why would I know that?”
“I assumed they told you.”
He sighed, almost indulgently, like he thought her far too innocent. “Tell me exactly who you thinktheyare.”
“I don’t know.” She threw her hands up. “Autumn?”
“Autumn is a locked safe who only doles out information when she thinks the time is right.”
Anna shrunk in her seat.
“No one talks to me but you,” he said.
Something warmed in the vicinity of her heart. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know, or I would have.”
His hand slid across the small distance between them to take hers. “Do you think I’m a plague?”
Every muscle softened as she leaned toward him. “Of course not.”
He patted her hand once and pulled away, his eyes drifting closed.
“David, can we—talk? About the other night?”
He drew in a deep, resigned breath. “Finally found the courage to tell me it was a mistake?”
Taken aback, she gaped at him. “You think it was a mistake?”
“I don’t make mistakes. I make…plot twists.”
A giggle burst from her, but she sobered quickly. “I—I’ve never been here before, David. This isn’t new for you, but?—”
“How do you know that?” He turned to look at her, eyes opaque as the ice inside.
She hesitated.
“Women like you don’t exist in the gutter I grew up in, Anna.”
“Women like me?” she asked, hoping that was a compliment and not something else.
David brushed his thumb over her chin—a brief, thoughtless gesture that stoked blood to the surface of her skin. “No one has ever trusted me the way you do. This is all new for me, too.”
She blinked, searching desperately for some sign of his feelings buried in the ice. “What are you saying?”
He chuckled bitterly. “It’s like you grabbed onto something inside and you won’t let go. I’m way too tired right now to try to pretend I don’t want you all the fucking time.”
Her entire chest lit from the inside. “Then—why haven’t you said anything?”
“Wasn’t keen for you to realize the mistake you made.”
The blood drained from her head so quickly that she grew woozy.She reached for his arm compulsively, dragging them closer together. “It wasn’t a mistake.”
