Kiss of Frost

Logan's breath grew hotter on my face, and I knew that his lips were inching toward mine. My fingers dug into his shoulders, and I waited for him to kiss me. For the images and feelings to fill my mind. ForLoganto fill my mind until there was nothing else-

The door to the coffee shop banged against the side of the building. My eyes snapped open, but Logan had already drawn back. And there was this look on his face of… ofrelief. I knew it was because he hadn't kissed me. Because I hadn't touched him, hadn't flashed on him, which meant that his deep, dark secret-whatever it might be- was still safe.

Giggles filled the night air, along with flashing pink sparks. Daphne and Carson stumbled outside, both of them a little tipsy, and their arms wrapped around each other. Carson's glasses sat crooked on his face, and lip gloss shimmered on one of his cheeks. It looked like he and Daphne had been having averygood time inside at the party. The happy couple took one look at Logan and me, still locked together in the shadows, and their laughter cut off.

'Gwen?' Daphne asked, staring at the two of us. 'Is something wrong?'

'Let go of me,' I muttered in a low voice.

Logan dropped his arms and stepped back.

'No,' I said, keeping my gaze fixed on my friends instead of looking at Logan. 'Everything's fine. I'm ready to leave. Are you guys?'

The Valkyrie glanced at Carson, who nodded. 'Yeah. We're ready,' Carson said.

'Good. Let's go.'

I brushed by Logan, so close that I felt his breath kiss my cheek once more, before breaking free and heading toward the hotel. Daphne and Carson scrambled to catch up with me. I didn't look back at Logan, even though I knew the Spartan was watching me the whole time.

I'd be damned if I let him see the tears in my eyes.

'Who does Logan Quinn think he is?' I fumed, stalking from one side of the hotel room to the other. 'Can you believe him? He's got some nerve!'

Daphne rolled her eyes and hit a few buttons on her laptop. 'Yeah, yeah. That's the same thing you've been saying for an hour now, Gwen. If you don't stop pacing, you're going to wear a hole in the carpet.'

After my almost-kiss with Logan, I'd hurried back to the hotel as fast as I could, with Daphne and Carson right on my heels. They'd been worried about me, but I'd forced myself to put on a calm face, even though my emotions ate away at my heart like acid rain dripping everywhere. I'd already ruined their buzz from the party, so I told my friends that I was fine and was going to the room to take a shower. Then I'd gotten in the elevator and left them in the lobby so they could enjoy some time alone together.

Daphne had come up to our room an hour later, lips red, cheeks flushed, her magic crackling like crazy. She looked like a girl who'd just had a hot, intense, totally enjoyable make-out session with her boyfriend. I envied her. Oh, how I envied her.

I'd had some time to think while Daphne had been with Carson, and I'd gone from heartbroken and melancholy to seriously pissed at the fact that Logan had the power to make me heartbroken and melancholy in the first place. Now, I was in a 'bloody fit,' as Vic would say.

I glanced over at the sword. Vic was safe and snug in his black leather scabbard, and I'd leaned him against the dresser within easy reach. The sword's eye was closed, and his mouth was relaxed in a way that meant he was sleeping. No surprise. Vic usually snoozed whenever Daphne came over to my dorm room. The sword claimed that all the 'bloody girl talk' bored him.

'I can't believe the nerve of Logan,' I muttered again and resumed my pacing. Since the room was so big, it took me several seconds to stalk from one side to the other.

Daphne pushed down the screen of her laptop and crossed her arms over her chest. Her pink Hello Kitty pajamas matched the stickers that decorated her computer case.

'So what are you going to do about it?' the Valkyrie asked. 'Are you going to make a play for Logan and take him away from Savannah? The way he was staring at you outside the coffee shop, I think you could totally do that. He really does like you, you know. You should have seen the look on his face when he was holding you. It wasintense. Even for a Spartan. I've seen some of them in full battlerage mode who didn't look that focused.'

'Well, he's got a funny way of showing it.' I flopped down onto the bed. 'And I'm not going to take him away from Savannah. I'm not Morgan McDougall. I don't go around stealing other girls' boyfriends.'

'Morgan doesn't exactly steal them,' Daphne pointed out. 'She just sleeps with them on the sly.'

I thought about how sad Morgan had looked, first in the library earlier this week and then again tonight outside the coffee shop. I felt bad talking about the Valkyrie like she was just the school slut and nothing more. She had feelings, too, just like the rest of us did. 'Whatever. The point is that I'm not like her, and I don't want to be. Not even for Logan freaking Quinn.'

'So what are you going to do?' the Valkyrie asked again, opening her laptop once more.

I stared up at the ceiling. WhatwasI going to do? Despite everything that had happened tonight, I still had a crazy, crazy crush on Logan. But nothing was ever going to come of it. For starters, he was dating another girl. Sure, Logan said that he cared about me, but he still had this big, bad secret he wanted to hide from me, something that just wasn't possible given my Gypsy gift. As soon as I touched him, my psychometry would kick in and show me his secret whether I wanted to see it or not. I didn't even have to kiss him-just holding his hand long enough would do the trick. Kind of hard to date a guy when you couldn't risk even touching him, especially when that guy was Logan, who I so badly wanted to touch-in all sorts of ways.

And then there was Preston. Before Logan had interrupted us, we'd been having fun getting to know each other. I liked Preston, and I thought he liked me, too- at least enough to want to hang out with me this weekend. He had asked me to meet him for lunch tomorrow.

Maybe-maybe Preston could be my rebound guy. Someone to help me get over this stupid, hopeless crush I had on Logan. In fact, Preston would be aperfectrebound guy, since I wouldn't see him after the weekend and the Winter Carnival were over. He'd go back to the New York academy, and I'd go back to Mythos. So why not have a little fun while we were both here together?

I raised myself up on my elbows. 'What am I going to do? I'm going to have lunch with Preston tomorrow like he asked me to and forget Logan even exists.'

Daphne grinned. 'Now you're talking. You'll have to introduce me to Preston. I really want to see for myself how gorgeous he is.'

'You didn't see him tonight? We were sitting right outside the coffee shop.'

Daphne shook her head. 'Nope, I was too busy dancing with Carson and then keeping this trashy Amazon