Page 99 of Serpentine Valentine

Click, click, click.

Little pings againstthe windowpane.

I dropped the play into my lap and pressed my face to the icy glass so I could look down at the ground four stories beneath me.

A woman stood in the glow of the streetlight. All in black, she looked like a living shadow, totally obscured even in the warm glow.

A shiver worked light fingers down the knobs of my spine.

I knew it was Lex.

The tangled mess of emotions knotted in my stomach rose to lodge in my throat. My fingers found the glass as if I could reach out and touch her.

Beside me, my phone buzzed.

Lex: “O that I were a glove upon that hand, That I might touch that cheek!”

I grinned despite myself at the quote fromRomeo and Juliet.

Luna: I thought you didn’t enjoy the romantic plays.

Lex: I didn’t enjoy a lot of things before I met you.

I touched my fingertips to the screen as if to make sure the words were real. My chest ached and throbbed, a warning and a yearning all at once.

Don’t go back there, my voice of reason screamed.Don’t go back to a woman who might not ever be capable of loving you back.

But the voice was garbled in low under the rush of blood in my ears calling me to go to her.

To go home to her.

Lex: I know I don’t deserve it. I know the moon belongs in the sky far from my earthly desires and horrors, but would you come down to me, Luna? I have things I want to say to you.

I bit my lip so hard blood bloomed on my tongue. My fingers were moving across the screen before I could tell myself to stop them.

Luna: Okay.

I was moving then, quickly so I couldn’t second-guess myself.Adrenaline brought me to my toes as I raced through the kitchen for my thick wool coat and boots, then I grabbed my scarf and twirled it around my neck. I paused to look at myself in the mirror, noting the bright spots of color in my freckled cheeks and the luminous excitement in my green eyes, close to glowing. I looked enraptured, even with the fading bruises from Beckett’s fists, recklessly following a siren’s song, uncaring of the danger of drowning in the dark depths of the sea.

I shook off the fear and left the apartment, closing the door loudly behind me as if it would trap my concerns inside.

The air was cold and clear outside, a slap to the face, urging me to wake up and think straight. I ignored that too.

Because Lex was there, that shadow in the lamp light. The girl in black I’d met in the library, the bold rebel I’d seen across the quad, the beautiful girl I’d fallen in love with.

“Hi,” I said, a little breathless, my word a hot plume of air between us.

I bounced on my toes and wrung my hands together so I wouldn’t go to her.

She moved closer until I could see the paleness of her silvered eyes and the dark arched brows above them. I wanted to trace them with my fingers, run my thumbs over the edge of her cheekbones, and drag her mouth to mine to remind me of the way she tasted.

She seemed so much likeminestanding there in front of me it was hard to remind myself she wasn’t.

Maybe she’d never even wanted to be.

The thought doused me in cold water like nothing had before, and I took an instinctive step back.

Lex took another forward, face firm with resolve.