Verum (The Nocte Trilogy 2)

those feelings were so intimate and familiar,

I can’t say no.

I nod. “Yes.”

“I’ll go get my sketch pad,” he tells me. “Meet me in the library.”

He leaves me at the door, and I curl up in the library and wait.

I wait in a window seat, bathed in the moonlight.

With my head pressed to the glass, I stare outside, out at the stables, at the trails, at the moors.

Something moves in the dark, and I focus, peering close.

The hoodie stands out in the night, the boy inside of it stealthy.

He steps out onto the trails and stares up at me,

But still I can’t see his face.

I breathe and count,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

When I look again, he’s gone.

He’s not real.

Clearly.

“Are you ready?”

Dare stands behind me, his pad under his arm, a chair in his hand.

I try to settle my trembling lungs, and I nod.

“Yes.”

Because this is real.

Dare is real.

My feelings for Dare are real.

“Tuck your legs beneath you,” he whispers, moving to help me pose. His fingers are slender

and strong, cool against my skin. “Hold your hand here,” he shows me, moving my fingers to frame my cheek. “There. You’re perfect.”

I smile and he tells me to look into the distance, to look toward the stars outside.

I do, and I force myself to not look down,