Page 24 (1/2)

She landed in a heap at the foot of the stairs An agonized grunt escaped her lips

Chapter Eleven

RUDE AWAKENING

"Are you scared?" Daniel asked His head was tilted sideways, his blond hair disheveled by a soft breeze He was holding her, and while his grip was firht as a silk sash Her own fingers were laced behind his shirtless neck

Was she scared? Of course not She ith Daniel Finally In his ar at the back of her mind was: Should she be scared? She couldn't be sure She didn't even knohere she was

She could smell rain in the air, close by But both she and Daniel were dry She could feel a long white dress flowing down to her ankles There was only a little light left in the day Luce felt a stabbing regret at wasting the sunset, as if there were anything she could do to stop it Soht were as precious as the last drops of honey in a jar

'Will you stay with me?" she asked Her voice was the thinnest whisper, alust of wind swirled around the Luce's hair into her eyes Daniel folded his arhtly around her, until she could breathe in his breath, could smell his skin on hers

'Forever," he whispered back The sweet sound of his voice filled her up

There was a sot it as Daniel cupped her cheek and brought her face nearer She tilted her head back and felt the whole of her body go slack with expectation

Finally, finally, his lips caency that took her breath away He kissed her as if she belonged to hi-lost part of him that he could at last reclaim

Then the rain started to fall It soaked their hair, ran down their faces and into their , like the kisses themselves

Luce reached around his back to draw hi velvety

She ran one hand over it, then another, searching for its li face

Sos Lustrous and iridescent, beating slowly, effortlessly, shining in the rain She'd seen the like thes consumed her vision and herher head hurt She tried to look elsewhere, anywhere else, but on all sides, all she could see besides Daniel were the endless pinks and blues of the sunset sky Until she looked down and took in one last thing

The ground

Thousands of feet below theht, her skin was too dry, and there was a splitting pain at the back of her head The sky was gone and so was Daniel

Another drea almost sick with desire

She was in a white-walled roo on a hospital bed To her left, a paper-thin curtain had been dragged halfway across the roo on the other side

Luce gingerly touched the tender spot at the base of her neck and whis She didn't knohere she was, but she had a distinct feeling that she wasn't at Sword & Cross any longer Her billohite dress was - she patted her sides - a baggy hospital gown She could feel every part of the dreas They'd been so real The touch of them so velvety and fluid Her stomach churned

She clenched and unclenched her fists, hyper-aware of their eht hand Luce turned her head quickly and winced She'd assue of a faded blue rolling chair that see out the color of her eyes

Luce wanted to pull away - or at least, she expected to want to pull away - but then Gabbe gave her the warmest smile, one that lad she wasn't alone

"How hed She had a pot of cuticle crea the white, lemon-scented stuff into Luce's nail beds "That all depends," she said, ers "But neverupside down, nothing grounds lanced down She'd never been much for nail polish herself, but Gabbe's words reo for manicures whenever Luce had a bad day As Gabbe's slow hands worked over her fingers, Luce wondered whether all these years, she'd beenout

"Where are we?" she asked

"Lullwater Hospital"

Her first trip off campus and she ended up in a hospital five minutes froet three stitches on her elbohen she'd fallen off her bike Her father hadn't left her side Noas nowhere to be seen

"How long have I been here?" she asked

Gabbe looked at a white clock on the wall and said, "They found you passed out froht around eleven It's standard operating procedure to call for EMT5 when they find a refor to let you out of here pretty soon As soon as your parents give the okay - "

"My parents are here?"

"And filled with concern for their daughter, right down to the split ends of your ma in paperwork I told theroaned and pressed her face into the pillow, calling up the deep pain at the back of her head again

"If you don't want to see the about her parents She was dying to see her parents She was re the library, the fire, and the new breed of shadows that grewevery time they found her

They'd always been dark and unsightly, they'd always ht, it had al fro force that had set her free