I can hardly believe it when she nods, and my legs get all weak and wobbly as I lead her toward the house.
I forgot to bring a key to the front door, so we head toward my bedroom, and I can’t help turning toward the date grove—where Feng will never wait for me again.
I swallow the lump in my throat as I try to open my window. It’s locked too.
Audra laughs and nudges me aside, sending a draft under the sill that clicks the lock and slides open the window in one go, like she’s done it a thousand times before. I smile when I realize she has.
But this time is different.
This time I’m not asleep, and she’s not sneaking around.
She climbs in first and I copy her steps, for once making it inside without scraping my skin on the thorns. And as soon as my feet hit the rug, I pull her against me, kissing her forehead, her cheeks, her—
“I thought you were going to be the perfect gentleman,” she whispers against my lips.
“Well, maybe not perfect.”
I feel her mouth twist with a smile as she slides her hands up my neck and tangles her fingers in my hair. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
She kisses me then, and the sparks are so hot, so bright, I swear they almost blind me—but when I open my eyes, I really am blind and it has nothing to do with the kiss.
The lamp by my bed is now switched on, and as I squint through the glaring light, I see a movement in the covers.
I have just enough time to think, Craaaaaaaaaaaaaap.
Then Solana tosses her hair and says, “I guess this is the real reason why you canceled our betrothal.”
CHAPTER 28
AUDRA
I don’t know what to feel as I watch Solana untangle her long, tanned legs from the covers of Vane’s bed.
She’s prettier than I remember. Soft curls and bright eyes and toned, graceful limbs.
And Vane only seems a little surprised to see her.
Mostly, he looks guilty.
I try to pull my hands away but he tightens his grip. “It’s not what it looks like.”
“Really?” Solana snaps, before I can form a coherent reply. “Because it looks like you’re bonded to another girl.”
Vane turns around to face her. “Well, okay, I guess it is what it looks like to you—and I’m sorry you had to find out like this.” He turns back to me. “But I promise, she’s only here because she offered to protect my parents while I was gone. And she wasn’t even supposed to be home,” he adds, turning back to Solana. “You said you’d take them somewhere safe.”
“I did. And then I heard on the winds that the Gales had turned back, so we did the same.”
“That doesn’t explain why you’re in his bed,” I say, wishing I didn’t sound as jealous as I feel. She has just as much right to be there as me—probably more, since she’s the one with the promise link on her wrist.
Still, an irrational rage makes me want to claw at her face when she crosses her arms and says, “Vane and I have been sleeping together.”
“Just sleeping,” Vane corrects—glaring at her before he turns back to me. “And only because I was desperate. I told you Raiden was giving me nightmares, right? Solana knows a trick that blocks them.”
I want to nod—want to make the pieces of his story fit together into a truth that washes away the sour lump in my throat.
But I can’t stop staring at the dent in Vane’s pillow, imagining Solana lying in the dark, waiting for him to crawl into bed next to her.
Is that what he wanted?
“Hey,” Vane says, turning my chin toward him and forcing me to look in his eyes. They’re wide and worried and focused only on me. “I promise, I dreamed about you the entire time.”
“You did?” Solana and I ask at the same time.
I’m mildly triumphant when he ignores her and tells me, “I dreamed about the day I tried to run away when I was seven. Do you remember that? It was snowing and I got lost in the woods and then I fell and couldn’t get up and I thought I was going to die out there all alone. But you found me, and you called your dad and he brought me home. And even though we weren’t friends, you stayed with me that night by the fire until I fell asleep. I asked you to stay and you stayed.”
I hear Solana mumble the word “stay,” but I can’t pull my eyes away from Vane.
I’d blocked out that moment with everything else about that time in my life. But I do remember finding him in the woods, trembling like a fallen fledgling and clinging to my hand like I was the only thing that mattered in the world. And I remember staring at him later that night, as the firelight danced across his skin, and thinking he had a nice face.
I was seven and I didn’t even know what that thought meant.
But it was there.
Before Raiden’s Stormer broke our lives apart and the Gales made their grand plans for Vane.
“Vane—is that you?”
Vane grumbles something under his breath as his mom bursts into the room. “Thank God—I’ve been so worried. . . .”
Her words fade away when she notices me.
“Oh.” Her eyes dart from Solana to Vane. Then back to me. “Oh.”
“Don’t start, Mom,” Vane warns as he reaches for my hand. “It’s been a long day.”
Start what? I wonder as his mom steps closer to examine the bruise on his shoulder. It looks so much more painful in the bright light—though the one on his side is worse. I can’t even look at the wide blue-black splotch without feeling my eyes burn.
“What happened?” she asks, her hand shaking as she reaches for the cut on his cheek. “I thought Gus was taking you somewhere safe—where is he? And when did Audra—”
“Can we save the twenty questions for later?” Vane interrupts. “I’m fine. Gus is waiting for the other Gales, and the rest is a really long story I don’t have the energy to tell right now. But it involves Raiden. And a giant haboob.”
“You saw Raiden?” Solana whispers.
He nods and she shivers and wraps her arms around herself—which makes her dress cut even lower on her chest.
I glance at Vane to see if he noticed, but he’s not looking at her. He’s looking at me—at the wound on my side.
He leans down, lifting the hem of my shirt, and even I can’t help gasping when I see the gash in the light. The Westerly is keeping it clean for me, but the cut is deep and the jagged skin is practically shredded.
I try to cover the ugly wound, but Vane grabs my hands to stop me. “Do we still have a first aid kit, Mom?”
“She needs to go to the hospital. You both probably do. I’ll go wake your dad—”
“We can’t do that, Mom. The doctors would have all kinds of questions about how we got hurt. Plus human medicine makes us sick, remember?”
“Right,” she mumbles. “Not human.”
She stares at the three of us, looking lost and helpless.
“I’ll be fine,” I tell everyone, lifting Vane’s hands and draping his arms around my shoulders, which I know he won’t resist. He takes my cue, pulling me against him, and I can’t help glancing at Solana.
She glares at me before she looks away.
She still wants him.
“Please let my mom treat the cut,” Vane whispers, his breath grazing my cheek. “I’d rather not have it turn into a giant, gangrene-filled hole in your side.”
I shudder, unable to stop myself from thinking of Aston.
“We have to do something,” his mom chimes in. “Come on, I’ll get you the gauze and ointment.”
I hate the idea of leaving Solana and Vane alone. But I feel better when I see Vane’s sweet, worried eyes focused completely on me as I follow his mom out of the room.