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I turn slowly, my upper lip curling with distaste. “Away.”
He huffs and motions to his arm as if I am the one being difficult. “We have to stay together, or the sting will come back.”
“I’ll risk it,” I retort as I fling open the door and march right out into the lonely night air.
6
Ivy
Do I have a solid plan? Not really. All I know is that I want to get away from Leo, who made me come alive with his kiss and then took it away so cruelly, as if this whole thing is my fault.
I walk around the outskirts of the city, unsure how to get home other than the way by which I came. My arm burns, but being with Leo when he turned so very cold hurt far worse. I grit my teeth as my breath becomes shallow, catching in my chest when each step away from the shifter causes agony I am ill-equipped to endure.
But that doesn’t stop me.
I stomp past the buildings without giving them a second glance, the sting ramping up the further away from Leo I traverse. I only pause when I reach the library. My eyes tether to the lone gargoyle, separated from his row of brethren and frozen in his humiliation for eternity.
Not if I can help it.
Of course, I have no idea how to help Gregory, but I blow him a kiss and whisper a promise that I will do all I can to free him, so he doesn’t have to be around people who are this horrible. The motion hurts my arm, but that’s not the thing that gives me pause. As the promise settles in my chest to free this poor gargoyle who got way harsher a sentence than he deserved, it’s not just my right arm that burns, but my left that endures the phantom skin scraping, as well.
“Ah!” I hiss, glancing at both arms and seeing no visible sign of irritation. Then I snarl at my arms. “Screw you!”
Stubbornness builds up in me. I will not go back to Leo. He can figure out his life without me in it, which will suit us both just fine. Anger steels my resolve and pushes my feet forward, away from this city Fern warned would be bad for me.
She was right, and she’s not even here to gloat about it.
Rubbing my arms does nothing to alleviate the sting, but I do it anyway, simply because I like to pretend I can fix this. I’ve never been tempted to open Fern’s spell books. When she passed, I put them in storage, grateful they wouldn’t be lying around the apartment anymore. But now I feel a temptation to crack one open if there’s something in there that can undo this torment.
I stomp toward the pocket of the forest’s edge where I think we entered into Grayrock City, teeth gritted and tears dotting my cheeks as the pain increases. My arms burn like an angry cat scratch that holds no hope of fading. When I step into the woods under cloak of darkness with only my small lamp on my bicep and a few slivers of moonlight illuminating the way, the cat turns to a tiger, forcing a bleat of agony from my lips. I don’t want anything to do with this world I’ve always been curious about. However, walking away from it through the woods that brought me here is literal agony.
An audible bleat escapes me as the trees close behind my footsteps, shrouding me in yet fewer slivers of moonlight. It’s difficult to trust my sense of direction in this unfamiliar terrain. If I had a clear head, maybe I could piece together the four cardinal directions, but all I can focus on is the white-hot fire that builds with every stumbling step I take away from Leo and the city I know I will never belong to.
Nothing has made it more clear that I don’t belong there. However, I’ve never been all that great at fitting into the outside world, either. Fat tears roll down my cheeks when the realization that I don’t belong anywhere hits me so hard that I fall forward. A cry sends itself from my anguished soul through the hollows of the forest, bouncing off trees and going into the sky as supplication for a life better than this.
I cannot go back to Grayrock City, so I crawl on my hands and knees toward my apartment that hasn’t felt like home since Fern died.
Maybe not even before that.
As the minutes tick by, I find that my left arm isn’t in pain anymore, but my right arm still burns. I inch forward, my teeth gritted as tears slide down my cheeks. My breath comes in fits and starts as my fingers grip the soil.
“Are you alright?” someone calls in my direction.
I can’t unlock my jaw to answer. My eyes are clouded with tears so much that I cannot clearly see the stranger who jogs to my side and kneels in my eyeline. It’s not Leo; I know that much.
I don’t know who this man is, and the pain in my arm is muting out my ability to pick out details. But when my eyes find a modicum of focus, I take in the pale angular face and red irises of…
“Vampire!” I choke out. Fear is the only thing that can force my pain out of the forefront of my mind.
I am alone in the woods with a vampire.
Fern warned me never to venture into Grayrock City, and now I know why.
7
Calvin
All I could think about for the past five minutes was getting my left arm to stop burning. I could scarcely hear the heartbeats around me, which is the constant temptation thrumming in my throat. Everything was dulled to make room for the damned tethering charm that took me by surprise and hooked me to this very spot.
