He tilted his head to the side, and a curl of dark hair fell into his probing eyes. “Except I’m not entirely . . .human.”
“Please dropit.”
“Your silence, coupled with the high color in your cheeks, speaks volumes.” He stalked toward me, and I steeled my spine to avoid bolting. “I think I have it all figuredout.”
“It happens when we’re tired.” The lie rushed out to cover thetruth.
I gritted my teeth, anticipating the cost of saving face. Even though I didn’t gasp when the Ishim robbed me of another feather, sweat beaded on my brow. Jarod’s smirk turned into a frown when he caught the glint of the feather drifting toward the mosaic. The loss should’ve saddened me, but I was way too busy seething tocare.
“What . . . no gloating?” Isnapped.
He stared at the fragment of my being rocking beside my espadrilles. “I’m sorry,Feather.”
I doubted he was. When the downy barbs began to blur, I lifted my gaze toward the window, hoping the bar of sunlight would burn away the annoyance pooling behind mylids.
“Are you going to pick it up?” His voice was soft, probably a distortion caused by the rushing in myears.
“No.” I was afraid of reliving a significant episode in view of my precariousstate.
“Does it hurt when it detachesitself?”
Sensing I’d gotten myself under enough control, I shifted my eyes back toward him. “Yes.”
He raked his fingers through his hair, pushing his wayward locksback.
“Before meeting you,” I said, my voice feeling as raw as my wing, “I’d never lostone.”
He winced, as though it washisbody that had endured the assault. “I told you that you should leave,Feather.”
Leaving wouldn’t change anything, not now that our lives and fates were plaited together. Still, I said, “Ishould.”
Jarod backed up, giving me space to maneuver around him. When I glanced toward the doorway, he said, “But I’d rather youdidn’t.”
My heart missed abeat.
“Playing chess against myself is quite dull.” He smiled, but it didn’t reach hiseyes.
I let out a softsnort.
“I might even let you win,” he said. “To make up for being such a . . . what was it your friend calledme?”
“Unicornnoodle.”
“Yes. That.” The smile on his lips reached a littlehigher.
I sighed. “Fine. But I’m just accepting in order to teach you somemodesty.”
“Modesty, huh?” Jarod’s eyes sparked withamusement.
“You probably don’t even know what the wordmeans.”
His lips parted around a chuckle that turned into something deeper, louder, more magnificent, that vibrated against the copper pans and the mosaic tiles and made my fallen featherseesaw.
Like the first time we’d met at his masked party, he crooked his finger under my chin and cranked my head up. “Stop looking atit.”
He was no longer laughing, and I realized I missed the sound more than I missed my feather. “Make it disappear,then.”
He held my gaze. “Are yousure?”
