“I’m sorry. I thought I wanted—I do, it’s just…”
He took it as an invitation and pulled her against him with renewed fervor.
It was worse than before. He was crushing her. She couldn’t breathe and she couldn’t think.Move,she screamed at her stupid legs, her lazy arms.Just move.Her traitorous body remained still, a doll, a shell. It was as though she watched floating from somewhere above. The beautiful boy sheathed one hand in the tangled hair ofthe girl in his arms, pulled her face to his. She was limp, insignificant. She was nothing in his grasp. He stopped, breathing hard, and switched his attention to the front of her dress, twitching and ripping in his haste to undo the buttons.
She woke. Her bloodscreamed;that was the only way she could describe it. A song of bared teeth and fury echoed through her, curling her fingers to claws. She wrenched at Jasper’s wrist.
He jerked in shock. They stared together at the welling crescent marks on his arm, the blood on her nails.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—I’m sorry—”
“You keep saying that,” he slurred.
“But I am.”
He advanced on her.
“Fox.”
It was soft, like an insult. He was staring at her with unnerving intensity.
“Fox.”
He raised his voice, still not looking away.
“Fox.”
The sound echoed through the colonnade, bouncing off the pocked stone tiles.
Foxfoxfoxfoxfoxfox.
The first halloos filtered through the night air.
Jasper smiled, and it held no kindness.
His coat was red. His boots were tall. And his eyes were hard.
He stepped toward her.
She ran.
CHAPTER 15
They were behind her.
“Fox! Catch the fox!”
The horn blew jaunty blasts through the night air.
She could hear them. Their boots, their hunger.
She ran faster than she ever had. Streets and squares and cobbles blurred into one. The city was hard stone. Gargoyles leered. She whipped around a corner.
Her breath was coming in gasps. She could taste blood.
A statue screamed for her with outstretched arms.
“Fox! It’s the fox!”
