“Yeah, I don’t think you can tell me what I can or can’t say,” I tell him, raising my eyebrows, which only makes his jaw tic even more. “And while we’re at it, you shouldn’t have talked about me with your friends like I wasn’t here. That’s bad manners.”
“What about crashing someone’s party? Does that also fall under bad manners?” he shoots back.
My lips part.
Okay, he got me.
Iamcrashing his party. I wasn’t really invited, was I?
“I wasn’t… I was leaving,” I say. “I just got lost.”
“Lost.”
“Yes.”
His eyes glow again and something flashes through his features that I don’t really understand. “You do that a lot, don’t you? Get lost.”
“I don’t… what?”
“In the woods. In the hallways…”
He leaves that sentence hanging but I get his meaning. I get it and oh my God.
He knows.
He knows it was me. That I saw him. Months and months ago, on my first day at Bardstown High.
Heknows.
A rush of heat fans over my cheeks. My throat, my entire body actually, and can I just dissolve into this tree?
Can I just please disappear?
“I’m… I didn’t think you…”
“Knew?” He smirks. “I did.”
“But I was… quiet.”
“You weren’t as quiet as you think you were. Besides…”
“Besides what?”
He leans forward slightly, the strings of his hoodie swinging, as if confessing a secret. “I didn’t mind. Being watched by you. The Thorn Princess. And if you hadn’t run away, I would’ve gotten rid of her.”
“You would have?”
“Yeah.”
“W-why?”
“So I could focus all my attention.” Then, with a lowered voice, “On you.”
My heart bangs against my ribs, bruising them. Battering them, making them throb.
In fact, my whole body throbs.
I can feel it. I canhearit even.
