Page 223 of The Black Witch

Perhaps it’s the exhaustion, or the lingering fear that makeshis stubborn silence feel so piercingly unkind.

“I don’t understand,” I press. “After everything that’shappened...why can’t you tell me what you really are?”

His face tenses with frustration, but he doesn’t say anything,and I’m inexplicably hurt by his silence. Tears sting at my eyes.

“But the dragon knows what you are,” I force out. “And so doesWynter, doesn’t she?”

“Elloren...”

I bite my lip, horrified that I’m so close to bursting intotears. I struggle, to no avail, and pathetically start to cry right there infront of him.

He just stands there, staring at me with those intense eyes ofhis, and I’m suddenly terribly aware of how my skin must shimmer in thedarkness—highlighting how irreconcilably different we are.

A cloud shifts, and the panic rears its head again. I struggleto fight it back, trembling. “I could have died...”

“You didn’t.”

“But Icouldhave. Weallcould have.”

Again, he retreats into silence.

“They might catch us,” I insist, my voice growing shrill. Hedoesn’t respond, and his continued silence sends a flare of hysteria through me.“They might find us...and arrest us...andkillus...”

His face grows hard, his eyes flinty. When he speaks, his toneis as hard as his eyes. “Yes, Elloren. Theymight.”

I’m oddly steadied by his terribly blunt reply. He’s faced thisfear and moved past it. It’s possible to move past it.

And then his hand is on my arm again, his gaze searing, but histouch gentle and warm.

“Go on,” I relent as I wipe roughly at my tears with the backof my hand. I gesture toward the twinkling lights of the University city with mychin. “Go get some sleep. You look exhausted. Your dragon will be fine. Arielmay be a bit...unstable...but she knows what she’s doing when it comes tocaring for any winged animal.”

He nods tightly, his face incredibly tense as if he’s desperateto say something, but just can’t. Unexpectedly, he steps toward me, eyesburning. “Elloren,” he breathes as he brings his hand up to cup the side of myface, his long fingers sliding back through my hair.

I gasp. His hand is so hot on the cold skin of my cheek, hisfingers threading back through my hair. His touch...it feels so good.

He leans in, his face close to mine as if he’s about to kissme, and for a moment it seems like everything is about to right itself.

I tilt my head up, my heartbeat erratic, suddenly wantingnothing more than to feel his lips on mine.

He steps back sharply and pulls his hand away from my face asif he’s been burned.

I’m so shocked, I don’t know what to do.

He looks furious with himself.

“Good night, Elloren,” he finally says, his voice strained.

And then he turns and strides quickly away, leaving me to theice-cold night, too hurt and dazed to react. I watch his darkened form recede,then disappear, swallowed up by the University.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Revolutionary

The wanted postings appear the next morning.

They’re affixed to the message boards of every tavern, lodging house and hall.

I skid to a halt at my first sighting of the crisp sheets of parchment. A newly vicious cold has swept in with the morning wind, and it burns at my exposed skin and chills my lungs. It sets me shivering and hugging my winter cloak tight with woolen-gloved hands as I peer at the notice before me.

---