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“Want a snack?”
“Always. You dragged me out without breakfast,” I reminded her pitifully.
She was sweet enough not to point out that if we had eaten, we’d still be stuck back at the school. “Then we will go to the bakery first, but I’m warning you, there will be a line because everyone loves their cinnamon rolls. They are the size of a baby’s head and have frosting so thick you can swim in it.”
I smacked my lips. “Sounds like it would be worth the wait.”
And it so was. We stood in line for at least a half hour, while Alara fretted about them running out, even though she kept reassuring me the bear claws and donuts were almost as good, but when we emerged from the bakery, we each had one of the giant rolls, dripping in frosting in one hand and an Earl Grey tea latte in the other. Zephyr was leaning against the front of the building.
“Let’s find a bench to sit on because we’ll end up dropping everything otherwise,” Alara said. “We can shop after that.”
“Sounds like a plan.” We settled across from the findings store she’d told me about, and the place was already crowded with students. “Can we go there next?”
She nodded, mouth full of roll. “We’d better, or there will be nothing good.”
As we stepped into a store filled with the oddest collection of rocks and bits of moss, jewelry made of natural things, and even art created from them, we passed Zephyr who had somehow managed to end up leaning against the wall outside that place.
And so the day went as Alara took me from store to store, buying a few little things like snacks to take back, a pair of earrings, nothing really, but everything pleased me so much, it could have been much bigger things. And at each store, I walked in and out past Zephyr, who never said a word, just seemed to casually be there in his all black with those eyes…those intense green-and-gold eyes.
I decided to speak to him on the van, but again we were late and this time ended up in the front row, and he was still way at the back. When we disembarked, I lost track of him in the crowd and figured since we were both here, I’d have a chance to ask him why he was following me, later on. Or if he was. Perhaps it had been coincidence. He was a bad-boy-hot guy and that type never gave me a second glance.
But that didn’t explain the black rose I found in my shopping bag when I got back to the suite. It didn’t at all.
Chapter Fifteen
I held the rose up. Its petals were matte black, but when I touched them, nothing but delicate softness met my fingertips. I lifted the flower to my nose and inhaled, closing my eyes. It smelled like sandalwood instead of the velvety rose scent I’d expected.
Leaning back against the nearest wall, I thought of Zephyr. Wondered if he would mind me calling him Zeph. Wondered what those pouty lips would taste like as they descended onto mine.
He had been outside every shop we went to like I was a princess and he was a bodyguard sworn to protect me. Jeez, I was getting carried away. All of that fairy history was getting to my head. Suddenly, I was inserting myself into fables and conjuring lies to go with what was probably a non-intimate, generic excuse for why he was leaning against every building I went into.
But gods above, the man knew how to fucking lean.
It was like he was making love to the wall by just standing there.
A noise in the hallway startled me. It sounded like someone dropped a million boxes or ran into a loosely bricked wall and the rest came crumbling down. I hoped Alara wasn’t in trouble. By the time we left all of the shops, she reminded me of one of those girls in the movies that had to have an assistant just to hold her shopping bags.
I liked her and all, but I wasn’t shopping-bag-holding close yet.
“Hello?” I called out into the hallway, expecting to see Alara laid out on the ground, her purchases the cause of her demise.
Instead, what I found was disturbing. A cold sweat broke out along my brow while my heart stammered, searching for the next breath to help it beat.
Though it was still light outside, none of it filtered in through the windows. I stuck my head back into the suite and found it was brightened by the rays coming in through the panes in each room. There were windows along the hall in measured increments but, instead of sun, there was nothing but blackness—empty ink splotches where sun used to be.
“Hello?” I called out again as a chill took over my body. I rubbed my hands up and down my arms, trying to ease piercing chill to no avail. It was like the iciness had already infiltrated my bones and seeped into my muscles.
A long, low hum began to resound all around me. I turned, whirling around, to see where the source was but couldn’t pinpoint it. It was like it was coming from all around me, under me, through the walls and the ceiling. It buzzed in my ears and seemed to skim the surface of my skin like a greasy lullaby.
I swallowed as the fear crept in, inching little by little until it had blossomed through me and filled in all of the cracks once solidly happy.
A tugging at my chest made me slap my hands over my sternum. It felt like someone or something had lassoed me right through the rib cage and was using the middle of my chest as the anchor, the middle point.
“Stop!” I shouted, or tried to, not knowing who or what I was talking to but also well aware that the being or force wanted something inside me—wanted me closer, ever pulling me into its fold. “Let go of me. You can’t have me.”
The worlds tumbled out of my mouth before I had a chance to calculate them. They arose from a place of pure terror and self-defense.
“Endymion?” That voice, the bass one, the chastising one, the sexy as hell one, broke through the barrier of trepidation, and with a snap, everything came back to life. I gasped as the once-dark windows faded back into sun-filled ones. The cold wafted from my skin as though I’d been on a frozen tundra and was slowly defrosting. I patted my chest and found that the grip on it was faded, though I could still feel the absence of it, the only proof it all had just happened.
