Hold Tight

“Please go.” I felt his hands leave my shoulders. Missed his scent when it faded.

You’re fine, I told myself.

I tightened my grip on my bed and dared to open my eyes. Reed was gone. Relief filled me even as my vision swam sideways.

Just breathe, and whatever you do, don’t pass out.

My eyelids drooped, closing once more. I clutched my mattress and waited for the dizziness to pass. I’m not sure how long I sat like that before a hand brushed my arm.

“Madison, can you hear me?”

“Dad?”

“Take this.”

I forced my eyes opened and took the small paper cup from him. My hand shook as I raised it to my mouth and relished the cool water as it slid down my throat. “Thanks.”

“Are you okay?” he asked, only it wasn’t Dad’s voice.

I blinked several times to remove the fog clouding my head.

“Reed,” I growled. “I thought you left.”

“You needed me.” He pressed a cool cloth to my forehead. “Do you feel better?”

My gaze dropped to the cup in my hand. A faint blue glow coated the bottom of it.

“Son of a bitch!” I snatched the washcloth from him and used it to wipe my tongue, then dashed to the bathroom to shove my finger down my throat and throw up. I rinsed with mouthwash hoping to kill any lingering molecules of Reed’s wine before returning to my room. He had the gall to still be sitting there on my bed. “Get out.”

“You needed it. I confess it’s my fault. Once you’ve partaken in our fare, your need for it grows, and my prolonged presence in your room would only make it worse.”

“Get out!” I repeated and pointed at the door.

This time he got up and crossed the room, stopping next to me. I could see the ice in his stormy white eyes. “I can feel your presence, even when we’re apart. You’re already changing. You will call for me.”

He reached the hall and vanished from sight. I knew he’d really gone this time because I felt an emptiness inside that came with loneliness and a bitter cold that my powers couldn’t warm.

Reed had left his clear flask on my nightstand. The blue liquid cast shimmering lights across my carpet.

“It would take away that chill,” Reed’s voice cooed in my subconscious.

I whipped the flask into the trash can, sank onto the floor, and pulled my knees close to my chest. I wanted to call Kaylee, but no way could I ruin her birthday with my drama. So instead, I put on my headphones, blasted my party playlist to drown out Reed’s taunting, and prayed I’d make it to morning.

Chapter 17 Tethered

“Madison, you have to tell Isaac.”

“I’ll tell him as soon as I figure out how.”

Kaylee had arrived at my house exactly nine minutes and a gazillion seconds after I’d called. One look at how upset I was, and she suggested we ditch class. I caught her up on Reed and then, because I needed a break from the thought of evil faerie princes, I insisted she give me a minute-by-minute replay of her night with Josh. Afterward, we went to the only place that ever offered me comfort when I was as lost as I was at that moment. Frozen grass crunched under our sneakers as we crossed the cemetery.

It had taken every ounce of self-control on my part not to dig Reed’s flask out of the garbage. The longer I resisted, though, the more distant his hypnotic voice became until finally I could no longer hear him coaxing me to join him.

With the exception of a crow, the cemetery was empty. I crouched down next to my mom’s grave. Kaylee stood to the side, bouncing on her toes and rubbing her arms.

“It’s freezing,” she whined.

“Two minutes, and then the hot chocolates are on me.”

I cleared the brittle leaves from in front of Mom’s headstone and laid the spring bouquet Brea had given me there, its stems and petals still in the gossamer layer of ice that had to have been Reed’s doing.

“Hey, Mom,” I whispered. “I could really use your crazy advice right about now.”

I swiped at a tear with the palm of my hand. I missed how Mom had worked her advice into everyday conversation, casually giving her thoughts on things. On a couple occasions, when we’d been folding laundry, she had said, “This basket is a lot like a bedroom.” She’d put a pair of Dad’s boxers on top of his pile of clothes and add, “If we keep your dad’s stuff in one pile and yours in another as we fold, it will make putting everything away much easier.” That translated into, If you would just put your things where they go to start with, it wouldn’t have taken you two hours to find your bedroom floor. And once when she had added orange zest to Dad’s favorite chicken dish, she’d held her finger to her mouth as if saying, Shh, this is our little secret, but out loud said, “I’ve always wanted to jazz this dish up a bit.” That had loosely translated into, You should try softball; you might find you like it.

I didn’t like softball, and the chicken dish was better without the orange zest, but Mom had pointed out that we would never have known that if we hadn’t tried.

Kaylee glanced around us. “I feel like we’re being watched.”

I concentrated on our surroundings, using my powers to help me sense others. “We’re alone. Focus and your senses will become heightened. You’ll be able to tell too.”

Kaylee groaned. “I’m too cold to focus. Reed’s a faerie, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And humans can’t see faeries unless they wish to be seen.”

I stood back up. “Yeah.”

“So you can’t be sure we’re alone.”

I looped my arm through hers and guided her toward the gates. “Reed smells like winter and pine, and his presence is bewitching. Trust me, you’d sense him if he was here even if you couldn’t see him.” We followed the sidewalk to Kaylee’s car. “I had thought that feeling was Brea, but I realize now it’s Reed. He’s been watching me since the day I did that spell.”

She stopped walking to gape at me. “You’re able to sense his presence, which you described in the over-the-top gooey, omigod tone of a star-struck kid meeting her favorite actor.”

“I did not!”

Kaylee pulled her keys from her jacket pocket and unlocked the car doors. “That’s it. We are so going straight to Isaac’s house to tell him what happened.”

“He’s in school. Remember the place with all the classrooms and teachers?”

“School let out five minutes ago.” She got in the car. I still didn’t think my voice had been over-the-top gooey, but whatever.

“Isaac’s just going to freak,” I said as I buckled up.

“Good, because your lack of freaking out is freaking me out.”

She didn’t even stop to get the hot chocolate.

At Isaac’s, she pounded on the doorbell at a rate that would have impressed Chase, who tended to think his friends would get to the door quicker if he beat on the button a hundred times.

The door swung open. Mrs. Addington frowned at us. “Which one of you has lost your mind?”

I pointed to Kaylee.

“Ever hear of a united front?” Kaylee whispered out of the side of her mouth.

“Yeah, well, I’m here more than you, and you are the one who rang the doorbell,” I replied just as quietly.

Mrs. Addington removed her red-framed reading glasses, resting them on the top of her head. “Did you come over to chat amongst yourselves?” Her smirk gave away she wasn’t quite as annoyed as her snarky