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There was charm in the smile, seductive charm, and she reached to touch the window lock. His face was white, now. The tan before must have been makeup, but he was still handsome, beautiful even, and alluring.
“Yes,” he crooned, “justinvite me in, Saber…”
She nodded and gazed at him, already feeling a heat rising from deep within her body. He’d give her everything that Ansel denied her. He would not hold back, would not resist. The carnal knowledge she so desired, the knowledge she was so hungry for, he would provide.
“I’ll tell you how you can have what you want.”
“I don’t want anything from you.”
“Offer yourself to him,” Derek said. “On the full moon. But cut yourself first, on the inside of your thigh, so you’rebleeding.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“He’ll be like a dog with a piece of steak dangling in front of him,” he said, and laughed at the thought.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” she said again. But when Derek said things to her, looked at her, they didn’t need to make sense, did they?
She blinked, and the trance shimmered, broke, if only for a moment. She took a deep, gasping breath and broke eye contact, looking around the room. Hanging on the corner of her mirror was the hemlock crown that Mia had made for her. She snatched it up and, not feeling the least bit silly now, tugged it onto her head.
The trance splintered like glass shattering, falling away. Derek’s smile, which had seemed so inviting moments ago, now seemed twisted and vicious. His glowing silver eyes were terrifying, and his teeth, his long, sharp, wolfish fangs, spoke of a mortal threat.
“No,” Saber said. “Go, get the fuck away from me!”
It was only then that she realized she was on the second floor. Derek was hovering above the ground. The realization sent ripples of abject horror through her like an electric shock.
Derek’s face became a snarling animal’s, and he hissed at her with fury.
“I know it wasyou, Saber Warren,” he spat at her. “I knowyoukilled her. Mychild!”
“Go,” she said, raising the crucifix she always wore now, but Derek only laughed.
“Do you think that thattrinketcan keep you safe from me?”
“Get away from my window,” she cried, not even trying to keep her voice down.
“Your little baubles, crucifixes, your friends, your boyfriend, none of them will protect you when the time comes.”
“I command you to leave,” she said, her voice rising.
“Youcommandme?”
Saber fumbled to find her phone, sitting beside the window on a nightstand, and in one fluid motion turned on the front-facing camera and held it up to him. He made a disgusted, furious face, and seemed to withdraw backward like he was on a fast-moving conveyor belt, into the night. The encounter ended so suddenly, for a moment she doubted it had even happened.
“Holy shit,” she said, sitting on her bed, just as her dad walked in, pushing open the door.
“Saber, what’s going on? I heard you yelling!”
“Dad,” she sighed, putting her face in her hands. “Sorry, there was a raven at my window. I was having a bad dream and—”
“Are you ok?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” she said. “Totally fine.”
The next morning, Saber wondered for a moment if the whole thing had been a dream. By the time she was making her coffee and eating her granola, she knew it had been very, very real.
She picked up Lozen on the way to school and told her nearly everything about what happened (leaving out the mention of Ansel). When she was done, Lozen sat for a moment, staring straight ahead.
“What are you thinking?” Saber asked, and Lozen sighed.
