I heard a door slam and then a water tap turn on.
Yeah, take a shower and wash off your ugliness, you prick.
I’d never been so mad in my entire life. My chest heaved up and down as the blue light frantically flared and receded in short bursts.
I lay down on the couch in the small study that I’d found myself in and stared at the ceiling.
Why was this my life? Why the fuck did I meet this guy and kiss him and now want to kill him? I asked myself fifty questions over the next ten minutes before my eyes started to droop. I wanted to stay awake until he got out of the shower and then take one myself. I wanted to yell at him some more. I wanted to… but sleep took me under its heavy embrace.
I awoke in the middle of the night to a dark room, only the glow of the embers from a small fire that had long burned out to light up the corners. I looked down and saw that Liam had covered me in a blanket.
Why the hell would he care if I froze to death? Pulling the blanket back, I went to step off the couch when I noticed a lump on the floor.
Liam.
He was snuggled on the rug right in front of the couch. Why was he sleeping in the same room as me? Shouldn’t he be halfway to fucking Seattle by now? Stepping over him, I shivered as the cold seeped into my skin. Grabbing another log, I lightly set it onto the fire, causing the embers to splash upward. Adding two more logs, and a shoved-up piece of newspaper, I got the fire roaring once more.
Brrrr.This cabin clearly didn’t have central heating, but something told me the prince of Winter here would be fine with that. Had he lit the fire for me?
My mind stewed over our fight the entire time I showered and well into picking out clothes from a dresser where there werehisandherssides. The underwear were a size too big, but in a brand-new package, and clean. Same with the yoga pants and pink tank-top I found. Someone had set this house up as a safe house of some sort.
I desperately wanted to wear a thick hoodie, but couldn’t risk pinning my wings to my back if we had to escape. I didn’t know where scissors were, so couldn’t cut holes. My arm was tender but better, and my wings were healed as well, though I would try to hold off on flying as long as I could.
Finding fuzzy socks, I padded out into the family room and wondered if I should try to make food or get some more sleep. It was 1A.M. and we’d slept through dinner. The pain meds were worn off, but I still felt a lingering grogginess, along with some throbbing.
I was just deciding what to do when I passed the study and noticed Liam draped against the open doorway, wearing low-slung sweatpants and a t-shirt too tight for his muscles.
I gulped.
He stepped forward. “Look, about earlier … I’ve been taught to hate your kind. Okay?”
Any hopes I had of an apology were dashed.
I crossed my arms and sneered at him. “Ditto.”
He sighed, running a hand through his light blond hair and flexing his muscles as he did so. Not that I was noticing or anything.
“What I’m trying to say is … you’ve clearly led a privileged life—”
“You ass!” I shouted, taking a step closer to him. “You don’t know anything about my life.”
He put his face in his hands. “You’re not letting me speak. I’m trying to explain—”
“Out with it, then!” I roared, feeling the tension build in my chest. This motherfucker infuriated me.
“I’m fucking sorry, okay! I shouldn’t have said that shit to you before. I was pissed about not being in Seattle and I took it out on you.”
My mouth snapped shut and he stepped closer to me as the low blue light began to glow in his chest. “You have no idea the horrors I’ve lived.” His face looked chilling in the deep blue glow. “I’ve killed more people than I can count. I’ve buried more friends than I have fingers. I’ve been beaten within an inch of my life by my own father.” His throat constricted. “All. Over. Those. Fucking Crystals.”
Stalemate.
It was the first word that popped into my head. I’d lost a billion Fae over his dad stealing the crystals from Faerie, and he’d been through great loss as well. We both needed the crystals … but that’s not how these things worked. Only one of us would win.
“They belong in Faerie,” I whimpered. “And so do you,” I said finally. Was there some way that everyone could be happy?
He shook his head. “Lily…” Reaching out, he cupped my face. “You’re so damned naive.”
The way he saidnaïvewasn’t derogatory. It was just as if he’d had a realization.
