Page 504 of Flirting with Darkness

I ignored him. Where was my invisibility cloak when I needed it? I had to be smart, I had to be quick. Tor wasn’t here to rescue me like he had when I was a girl.

“Hey,” he said. “I saidheyto you this morning too. Why are you ignoring me?”

The lock released. I threw the door open and rushed through it. He ran up the stairs, reaching to catch the door.

I threw my body into the door, trying to get it closed. I expected his body to be in the doorway, for his boot to block my way. The door slammed shut, harder than I expected with no obstacle, my body stumbling against the door. I rushed to close the lock with shaking fingers.

As soon as the lock was shut, some of panic ebbed away. Or maybe it didn’t go away, so much as it became crowded with other feelings.

Maybe I was being ridiculous. Maybe he hadn’t been about to attack me. Maybe I was always seeing things that weren’t there.

The glass on the door was frosted. I backed away, half expecting it to shatter.

But I didn’t see him on the other side of the door.

There was no shadow there.

And then, suddenly, there was an enormous shadow, tall and broad shouldered andhorned.I let out a gasp, horrified at seeing someone there after all, so dangerous close, and fled up the stairs. I unlocked the door to my apartment, fled through it, closed it fast. Backed away from the door, my heart hammering in my chest.

My little apartment was quiet, as always. The hum of the fridge. The quiet tick of the clock. The drone of the rain against the window.

Moving quietly—though there was no one to hide from now, I was behind two locked doors—I went to the window. I stood to one side of it and leaned against the wall, trying to look beyond the filmy white curtain without moving it. I couldn’t shake the feeling there was someone watching me from the street.

There was no one out there. A clap of thunder made me jump, and I pressed my palm to my chest, laughing at myself. Or trying to. That ridiculous imagination again.

“Looking for me?”

It was a deep, gravelly voice, and panic rolled through me.

I spun to face the sound.

It wasn’t the man who had accosted me outside. The speaker was all the way on the other side of the room, leaning against the wall, his powerful arms crossed over his chest. His head was slightly bent, because he was too big to fit in the room. Rams’ horns curved to either side of his face, and brilliant gold-flecked green eyes glittered against his bronzed skin. His posture was relaxed, but that didn’t make him any less terrifying when he wasin my apartment.

I gauged the distance to the door. I couldn’t make sense of the confusing flutter of my emotions; fear, yes, raw and slick at the back of my throat, where my pounding heart had also gathered.

But also… “Tor?” I asked uncertainly. “Are you… real?”

His face shuttered. “I’m here to escort you to the Fae world.”

“Excuse me?”

“Come along.” He held out an enormous hand, one that dwarfed mine. “The Fae prince needs you.”

“Then why isn’t he here asking me himself?” I shot back. I edged along the wall, although there was really nowhere for me to go.

“It’s complicated.”

“Are you Tor?” My voice had risen. I sounded slightly unhinged. Could I go out the window?

He tilted his head to one side, studying me. “Will you calm down if I am?”

“Yes.”

“Then yes.”

“That doesn’t sound very convincing.” I reached the window that never quite closed properly and—keeping an eye on him—I tried to ease it open behind my back. It let out a groan that broke the otherwise-eerie silence of my apartment.

He raised one eyebrow, although it was hard to tell if the other would’ve moved were there not a thick scar running through it. Another scar began just above and wound up his temple, ending in a rut through the base of his horn. I couldn’t imagine what could’ve damaged him so badly. He looked invincible.

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