She hovered over me for several more tense seconds, as we each fought our own inner battles. Then, the moment of temptation passed, and we were suddenly back on each other as though nothing had happened, with a fierceness that shattered the memory of her blood. I was awash on a sea of desire, drowning in everything about her. Her passion answered mine as she murmured my name and clung to me so tightly that her nails dug into my skin, as though she feared she might lose me if she let go.
Afterward, she collapsed at my side, still clinging to me as her ragged breathing slowed to normal. I draped an arm over her, my own heart beating frantically from what had just passed. I was no longer angry. Mostly I still felt scared at how close she’d come to death. But she was alive. I told myself that over and over as I tightened my arms around her. She was alive and safe. She wasn’t going anywhere.
And, to be honest, I had to admit I understood her reasoning for keeping me in the dark. I didn’t like it, but I understood it. If our roles were reversed, I would’ve done the same thing to protect her. It was also hard to judge when I’d done my own share of withholding secrets upon starting the mood stabilizer.
The last critical piece in all this was that their risk had paid off. I couldn’t deny the results. Olive’s blood had worked. Somehow, through our fumbling and guesswork, we’d actually created a magical vaccine against Strigoi. If only there were a way to replicate it.
“You know,” I mused, mulling over the story in my mind, “Angeline and Neil really put it all on the line tonight. I’ll never make fun of them again.”
“Never?” Sydney teased.
“Well, maybe not as much.”
“Eddie ‘put it all on the line’ too,” she reminded me.
“Yeah, I know, but that’s normal for him.” I then recalled her earlier words. “Wait. Did you say Jill kissed him?”
“Yup. It was actually very romantic, in a why‑did‑you‑just‑risk‑yourself‑you‑fool kind of way.” She paused. “Actually, it was kind of like what just happened with you and me.”
“It better not’ve been,” I growled.
“Okay. Let’s just say the motivations were sort of the same,” she corrected.
I sighed, making a mental note to have a talk with Jill tomorrow. “Seeing as everyone’s alive, I can acknowledge what a big deal this fiasco was. It’s going to blow their minds back at Court.”
“And tomorrow night we see Marcus and get to deliver the other big deal,” she said. “Maybe this is all crazy enough to work.”
“It always is,” I said. I trailed my fingers along on her shoulder, which was damp with perspiration. As I moved upward to her neck, my fingers touched a fine metal chain and I discovered she hadn’t taken off everything. She still wore the wooden morning glory cross I’d made her, and somehow, that was sexier than if she’d been completely naked.
“Escape plan number forty‑five,” I said. “Join nudist colony in Fiji.”
“Do they have those in Fiji?”
“Well, they’ve got to be somewhere warm, right?”
The panic of losing her still burned within me, almost enough to urge me toward sex again. But as we lay there, talking throughout the night, it was our minds and spirits that ended up connecting. There was peace and joy in each other’s embrace, and the balance we brought to each other’s lives allowed me to drift into a deeper sleep than I’d had in a long time.
I didn’t know what questions she’d face the next day. The Ms. Terwilliger excuse went a long way, but surely Zoe would wonder what had kept Sydney out all night. Maybe Sydney could say they’d been up so late that she just stayed over on Jackie’s couch. Whatever it was, I could see from Sydney’s resolve the next morning that she would handle it. This was her battle, not mine.
She scoured the ingredients that Cassie had left behind and found enough to make us pancakes. I didn’t actually have any syrup, but I did have raspberry jam. We slathered it on the pancakes, and it was the best thing I’d ever tasted. And as we sat there at the kitchen table with our pancakes and coffee, Sydney reading news on her phone while I leafed through the poetry book, I knew without a doubt that I could do this for the rest of my life.
“Escape plan number seventy‑three,” I said. “Open a pancake restaurant in Sweden.”
“Why Sweden?”
“Because they don’t have pancakes there.”
“They do, actually.”
“Well, then, it looks like we’ve got our market already in place.”
Dropping her off at Amberwood was bittersweet, mostly because it ended the spell we’d been in since last night. We both had things to do, though, and I was going to see her later anyway.
“You know I love you, right?” The urge to kiss her goodbye was so strong that I almost broke our rules.
She smiled, beautiful and golden in the late morning light. “Not as much as I love you.”
“Oh, man. This is my dream come true: having an ‘I love you more’ debate. Here, I’ll start. I love you more. Your turn.”
Sydney laughed and opened the door. “I’ve taken debate classes. You’d lose to my logic. See you tonight.”
I watched her walk away and didn’t leave until she disappeared inside the building.
A text chimed for me when I walked in the door of my apartment. For a moment, I thought it was the Love Phone, and then I remembered I was an idiot and had lost it. When I’d called the coffee shop I’d been to, they told me they had a couple phones in their lost and found, and I intended to go there later today. Meanwhile, on my regular phone, the message was from Lissa: Get on your laptop. We need to talk face‑to‑face.
I had a good idea what this was about, and when we connected, her radiant face confirmed it. “You heard?” she asked excitedly.
“About the dangerous and completely unauthorized field trip the kids went on last night? Yeah, I heard.”
Lissa ignored my snark. “Adrian! This is monumental. It’s amazing. It’s a dream come true. I know they shouldn’t have done it, but it’s over, they’re safe, and now we have a real answer.”
“I know.”
She gave me a puzzled look. “You’re awfully calm about this.”
“I found out last night. I’ve had a lot of time to process it.” That, and the thought of how Sydney had endangered herself took away some of the awesomeness of the escapade for me.
“You realize how big a role you had in this, right?” Those jade green eyes were piercing. “You figured out what none of us could. What happened is because of you.”
I shrugged. “Nah, one of you smart girls would’ve figured it out.”
“But you were the one who did. Now we’ve just got to find a more efficient way to do this that doesn’t involve restoring a Strigoi each time.” Her enthusiasm faltered. “I wish . . .”
“I know,” I said. I’d guessed this was coming. “But I can’t, Lissa. I’m staying on the pills.”
She nodded, resigned. “I figured. And it’s wrong of me to ask. You look good, you know–and no jokes about how you always do. There’s something different. A light. A happiness. I don’t know.”
“Hey, it’s not all sunshine around here. I was listening to The Wall the other day. Man, let me tell you my opinions on that.”
“Maybe some other time,” she said with a grin. “And for now, maybe you can just help advise the rest of us. Nina and I have brought back Strigoi. Sonya was restored. You and I have brought back the dead.”
“Impressive resume, Your Highness.”
“You know what I’m saying. Between all of us, we’ve done enough and seen enough to figure out how to make this work. We won’t let spirit beat us.” Her earlier rapture returned. “I don’t want glory and fame, Adrian, but I’d like to leave behind some kind of legacy. This could be it. I don’t want to be one of those monarchs who ‘just ruled.’ I want to do something for my people.”