Page 505 of Flirting with Darkness

“You’re going to leap out the window,” he narrated for me. “You’re probably going to break a leg. Then how are you going to run?”

He sounded so reasonable.

“Get out of my apartment!”

“I can’t.” He still sounded reasonable, as if he were talking to a child. “You are the one who keeps calling me back.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You were scared. You wanted me.” He smiled at me, although only one side of his face rose with the motion. The other—the scarred side—was fixed in place. “Now here I am, and here we go.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“All right,” he said.

He took a step toward me.

I turned and flung open the sash, and immediately tumbled out onto the steeply sloped roof. My foot slid on the rooftop, and I lurched to one side. I clung to the sash, and then he was there, reaching for me. I scrambled to get my grip on the roof. My feet slid away, and my hip slammed hard into the rooftop, followed by my head.

I careened down the rooftop toward the concrete below. My eyes squeezed shut. I braced for impact, hoping I wouldn’t break anything, that I’d be able to get back on my feet and run.

I landed not on hard concrete, but stopped with a jerk, cradled in someone’s arms.

My eyes flew open and I stared up at his face.

“Sleep, if you won’t be reasonable,” he said impatiently.

“No,” I said viciously. Darkness swam up toward me, my vision fading at the edges, but I scratched and clawed to get out of his grip. “I’m not going to sleep, I’m—”

Gone.

I was gone.

5

Iwoke as cold swept over my skin, contracting my muscles. A low, masculine voice whispered shushing noises into my ear, and a big hand rubbed my goosebump-covered skin. “It’s just cold going through the portal. You’re fine.”

My eyes flew open, despite the heaviness pressing them shut.

Tor was carrying me through the forest, but this wasn’tourforest. This was some eerie Fae forest. Behind his shoulder, I caught a glimpse of the door that hung in the woods, and two guards who stood beside the door, their heads bowed. Through the door, I caught a glimpse of woods so familiar they could have been the ones behind my house.

The forest in front of me was completely different. Tor was carrying me through the forest, but this wasn’t our forest. The twisted trees under the moonlight reminded me of monsters’ claws and teeth, gnashing and snapping with the whisper of their leaves. The ground was a tumbling ocean of dead leaves, swirling out of control, never settling. The trees’ claws scraped against each other like fingernails on a chalkboard, the leaves rustled, creaked and groaned like a tortured spirit.

This forest was cold and pale, the trees' leaves blue. They were wide and tall, but the branches twisted like tentacles.

Giant mushrooms grew through the branches of the trees, and vines curled around the trunks and branches, loaded with heavy, colorful blooms. Glowing golden lights moved among the trees, and it took me a second to see the fairies inside the glow. The scent of wet greenery hung in the air, along with a scent of spices in the air, like a curry left to stew for years. I could taste that scent in the back of my mouth, something spicy and bitter.

We were leaving my world behind, and once I lost sight of the door… I might never see it again. I craned my head over his shoulder, and I already couldn’t see it.

“I’m going to be sick,” I gasped. My stomach really was roiling. But the second my feet touched the ground, as Tor bent in front of me with a solicitous look written across his gnarled features, I took off running.

I raced into the trees in the direction we’d just come from, but I didn’t find the portal. Feeling sick as I plunged through the trees, as the woods seemed to grow ever darker around me, I couldn’t find my way back toward the door.

I stopped, breathing hard and shuddering, trying to orient myself in the twilight of the woods. Part of me wanted to call out for Tor.

I felt so alone in the world without him.

And then I made eye contact with someone in the bushes. I let out a gasp, took a step back, fear tightening my every muscle. I wasn’t alone at all, and suddenly I wished I was.

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