Page 168 of Collared by the Vampire Prince

And me…

I have spent the past year trying not to think about that night. Trying not to wonder whether any of it was my fault.

Nathaniel takes another careful step up the slate, with the collar swinging from the crook of his arm. I flare my wings with a sharp snap that sends agony through the left joint.

“If you put that around my throat again, I will jump.”

Nathaniel stops, his expression faltering. Whatever smugness I expected is absent, something close to genuine fear breaking through. “Please don’t.”

“Please?” I repeat.

“Please.” Rain runs over his colourless face, soaking his hair. He does not look like a prince now. He looks like a man standing beneath an executioner’s blade.

I stare at him through the rain, cold sheets lashing my wings. “You’re pleading now?”

“And begging, if it will help.”

“Go back inside.”

“I cannot. I’ve invested far too much effort in keeping you alive already.”

That same maddening question tears loose once more. “Why does my life matter to you?”

His gaze remains fixed and serious, but something almost charming touches his face as he says, “Perhaps I’ve developed feelings for you after all.”

He is toying with me. He must be. Yet he sounds almost forlorn.

I lift my chin. “Fine. Then stay and watch.”

He is too far away to stop me, so I turn towards the city, one hand still locked around the finial as I place my foot upon the downward slope.

I spread my wings wider, the dark membranes straining against the gusting wind.

Without warning, Nathaniel sprints up the steep slate, one hand reaching for me, but it’s too late. I’ve released the spire and thrown myself from the tower.

“Ki—!”

The wind steals the rest of my name.

For one endless heartbeat, there is nothing beneath me. My mouth opens upon a silent scream as I plunge through rain and darkness. Then my wings catch.

The full force of the wind surges beneath them, wrenching them wide and lifting me so sharply my stomach drops. I beat my wings, the tower falling away as I fly higher and higher. The night opens around me. For one glorious instant, I feel powerful.

Weightless.

Free.

Then a violent gust strikes my injured wing. I cry out as it collapses, knocking me out of control. The other catches the wind alone and hurls me sideways, sending me careening back towards the tower as sky and slate whirl around me.

I glimpse Nathaniel beside the finial, his face stricken, an instant before I crash shoulder-first into the roof.

The impact stops me dead.

Pain explodes through me. Then gravity takes hold.

With both wings trapped beneath me, their rain-slick membranes skid over the slate like oiled leather, carrying me feet-first down the slope before I can pull them free. Every frantic movement spreads them wider while my fingers claw uselessly for purchase and my stockinged toes skim the freezing tiles.

The flared eaves rush towards me.