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“No one, really.Girls have never interested me—probably because of the curse.”

“So you think you don’t like, er, girls because of the curse the witch put on you and your Drake?”Avery asked, frowning.“Did you ever have an interest in other guys?”

I frowned.

“I told you I’m not a man-lover.Ididhave a friend—his name was Diego.We spent every waking hour together.And then one day…” I stopped, unable for a moment to go on.

“One day what?”Avery prodded gently.

“One day I woke up in the morning and went to find him, only to hear from a neighbor that he and his family had been banished from the Western Province,” I said tightly.I was surprised how much it hurt to remember that.I hadn’t thought of Diego in years.But now the feeling of intense loss came over me once more and I found I had a lump in my throat.

“Banished by who?”Avery sounded like he already knew.

“By my father, of course,” I said bitterly.“I think he was afraid that because I only wanted to be with my friend and showed no interest in the girls he was always shoving at me, I might be a lover-of-men.He thought that by sending Diego away, he was removing any temptation I might feel to commit…unnatural acts.”

“When he really just took your only friend,” Avery said softly.

I nodded, looking down at my hands again.

“My Drake liked Diego, too.Not as much as he likesyou,” I added honestly, glancing up at him.“But he liked him—and he likes almost no one.So he was already angry—soangry—when my father decreed that the daughters of all the nobles should be gathered for me to choose from.”

“Uh-oh,” Avery murmured.“I can’t imaginethatended very well.”

“It ended with three girls dead and two mortally wounded,” I said shortly.“I tried to hold my Drake back but I wasn’t strong enough.You can’t know what it was like, to watch as he killed and mangled them while I was unable to stop him.”I curled my hands into fists, squeezing tight as I forced the words out.“I tried…Dios, Avery, I tried so hard but he wouldn’tlisten…”

I shook my head, feeling sick to my stomach.Even talking about that terrible day made me want to hide my face in shame.I had been too weak to stop him—too weak to save them…

“God, Saint…that’sterrible.”His voice was hoarse and I saw him shifting uncertainly on the bed.

“For a long time after that, I wanted to take my own life,” I told him in a low, toneless voice that barely seemed to be my own.“For why should I live when my Drake had killed so many?”

“Saint…” Avery shifted again.Leaning towards me, he got an earnest look in his blue eyes.“Look, please don’t take this the wrong way because there’s nothing, er, sexual about it.But if Emma or Kaitlyn or Megan was telling me something like this, I’d want to give them a hug.And I feel like…I mean, you look like you could use a hug yourself right now.So can I…?”He trailed off, looking at me with eyebrows raised in question.

“You…you still want touch me after what I just told you?”

I could barely believe it.For so many years I had lived like a pariah among my own people.I was inextricably linked to my Drake’s murderous actions—everyone assumed that I could have controlled him, could have stopped the murders he committed—and that I hadn’t out of spite and evil.No one in the Sky Lands wanted to come anywhere near me.And now Avery was offering me ahug.I could scarcely believe it.

“Yes,” he said, nodding.“I do want to touch you.I want tohugyou—because I think you need it.”

DidI need a hug?It had been so long since anyone had touched me voluntarily, it was hard to say.But I knew that I wanted to be closer to Avery—that I felt drawn to him in ways that made no sense to me.

“Yes,” I said hoarsely.“Yes, I will…take a hug.”

He moved to sit beside me on my bed and put an arm around me.After a moment I turned to him and…very tentatively…put my own arm around him.Then Avery pulled me close and I found I was pressing my face to his shoulder as he held me.

There was, as he said, nothing sexual about it.But he touched me as no one—not even my mother or father—had in years.He stroked my back and shoulders as though I was worthy of such caring…such kindness.He didn’t shy from my touch like I was some unclean thing—a vessel for a murderous demon, who must be avoided at all costs.He held me to him as though he didn’t even see the sins that had tainted my existence for so long.

“Saint,” he murmured in my ear.“It must have been so hard for you.I’m sosorry.”

“It’s like living with a madman inside me,” I told him, my voice coming out low and rough.My eyes stung and the lump in my throat was so big it was hard to talk.“I can never tell what he will do next and I…I am not always strong enough to control him,” I admitted.

“I could tell you were doing your best to keep him from coming out all the way today in gym class,” Avery remarked.He was still rubbing my shoulders and back soothingly and I found that I liked his touch and his arms around me—liked it a lot.He was so warm and he smelled so good—like warm skin and clean clothes and kindness, I thought.

“I couldn’t have done it without your help,” I told him.“When you touched my cheek and talked to him…” I lifted my head to look at him.“He responds to you, Avery.In a way he has never responded to anyone else.”

“Well, I’m glad I could help you,” he said, sitting up a little and giving me a final pat on the back.It seemed our hug was over, though I wished that it wasn’t.

“I’m sorry I caused such a scene,” I told him.“I would have taken on Gonzales myself but my Drake wouldn’t let me—he wanted to come out and deal with him.Especially after he saw your wounds.”