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“I’m okay,” I said—but I wasn’t. I was shaking uncontrollably. Liam pulled me to him and wrapped his arms around me. I was shaking too hard to resist. I burrowed into his arms like an animal burrows into its nest. Around us the woods were dark and cold. Who knew what other horrifying creatures they held? I looked up at Liam and saw that his cheek was streaked with blood. I touched the scratch that had missed his eye by the merest centimeter.
“It could have taken your eye out!”
“I couldn’t let it hurt you,” he said fiercely. Then he leaned down and pressed his lips on mine. They were so warm—with the cold and dark creeping closer around us they were like a candle burning in the vast dark forest. I leaned into that heat, hungry for it. His lips opened mine and I felt his heat pouring into me, flooding me, opening something deep inside me, as if his lips had turned a key at the base of my spine and unlocked a door I hadn’t known was locked.
But just as I felt that opening I remembered pushing open the door to the coatroom and finding him with Fiona Eldritch.
I pushed him away.
“Cal—”
“No, don’t.” I got painfully to my feet, my scraped knees stinging in the cold. When I swayed he reached out for me, but I grabbed the gate and he stopped. “Please, you don’t owe me an explanation. I’m practically engaged…and I have to go.”
I backed away from him, still holding on to the gate. I wasn’t sure I could stand without it. I backed through the gate but let it go when I was on the other side. Liam was looking at me, his eyes burning, but he didn’t come any closer, didn’t try to stop me. Seeing that gave me the strength to stand up on my own. I turned around and started walking toward my house. I listened for the sound of footsteps—or wings—following but all I heard was the iron clang of the gate closing behind me.
