Page 18 of The Whispering Night
“Still worried ormoreworried?”
He sighs. Then kisses the top of Winnie’s head before pulling away. His fingers lace through hers. He draws her to the bed. The springs squeak. And here, with the pale light of a rising sun to creep through the curtains, Jay looks less nightmare and more boy.
“I’ve been digging through Grayson’s stuff,” he tells her. “Anything he left behind in his office… which is nowmyoffice.” Jay shakes his head. “There’s not much useful. I found all the clan banners he stole—three of which are Saturday banners because I guess he just thought it was hilarious to piss off Dryden.”
“I mean, itishilarious,” Winnie says.
And Jay huffs one of his quiet laughs. “True. But I also found this.” He shifts on the bed, creasing the blanket’s sunflowers into yellow smears while he withdraws several folded papers from his back pocket. “These are just the first pages, but look. They’re all from Monday research papers on werewolves.”
“Oh.” Winnie takes the pages and frowns at diagrams and tiny print, at theories and descriptions of werewolves from around the world. “You think… he knew what you are?”
Jay shrugs—but it’s a falsely casual movement. “Maybe. Remember all that nightmare contraband you found in the office? The vampira blood and the mist we didn’t understand? Well, I didn’t collect most of that stuff. Grayson did.”
“So maybe he was watching out for you? Protecting you, even?”
“Yeah. Maybe.”
“He was a really good friend, Jay.”
Jay wets his lips. He doesn’t look at Winnie.
“It’s all right to grieve him.”
“It’s not that. I mean, that’s not the only thing bothering me. I just wish I could remember what happens in the forest when I turn, you know? Then I’d know if Grayson was helping me or not. I’dknowwhat really happened that night when the Whisperer killed him.”
Winnie sets the Xeroxed pages on her lap. Then she takes Jay’s handsback into hers. They’re cold. “When I jumped off the waterfall, I couldn’t remember what happened for almost two weeks. And that hole—thatmissingtime… It was awful.” She shudders. “I can’t imagine how hard it is to have hundreds of those holes you can’t fill.”
Jay doesn’t answer.
“I’m here for you—”
“Yep.” He pulls away. Springs squeak. Then his face pinches up and he shakes his head. “I’m sorry, Win. I know we said no more hiding things from each other. I’m just… I’m not ready to think about this stuff. Or Grayson.”
“Okay.”
“But I’ll keep looking in the office. See if there’s anything else…” A yawn takes over now. “… that might be useful.” He yawns again, a full-bodied unfurling that sends his arms up and his back arching.
It’s a pose that makes Winnie want to kiss his rib cage, his abdomen, his chest.
She very pointedly does not. And once Jay has folded back over, she says: “Thank you for looking, Jay.”
“You don’t need to thank me. It’s not like I’ve found anything useful.”
“But you’rehelpingme. Even though you don’t trust Erica—and that means a lot.”
He shifts toward her, and Winnie thinks how very unsparing this light is. He’s so clearly exhausted, so clearly hunted. She wishes she could make it better; she wishes she could cure the nightmare curse that suddenly struck him four years ago; and she wishes she could bring his friend back from the Whisperer who should never have claimed him.
Instead, Winnie kisses Jay.You are safe here,she wants her lips to say. Her hands too as they rise to cup his face.I won’t let the nightmares have you.
Jay returns the kiss. Gentle, almost ghostly. Gone is the urgency from before. His touch is softer, matching the storm outside as it fades to spindrift. Until eventually they lie down. Until eventually, Winnie swivels so her back presses against Jay’s chest. His arms wrap around her, and they fall asleep.
A lost nightmare from the forest.
And the hunter who found him.
CHAPTER
8
