Page 65 of The Whispering Night
“Okay,will yougo with me to the ball? Say yes, and then be my girlfriend too.”
“Oh my god, Jay, what don’t you understand aboutquestions?Willyou be my girlfriend?”
“Okay, Winnie. I’m sorry.” Jay moves even closer. So close now, Winnie has to tip her head all the way back. “Let me try this one more time. I have liked you since we were kids. You were the first person I kissed, and for four years, that kiss haunted me.”
“Oh.”
“And if I’m being honest, Winnie, it still haunts me. Becauseyouhaunt me. Waking up next to you Saturday morning, after a night on the hunt, was probably the best feeling I’ve ever had in my whole life, and I want to do it again. And again. And again. For as long as you want to do it with me too.”
“Oh,” she repeats.
“You’ve asked me a million times about where I take girls to make out, and the truth is I don’t have anywhere. Because no one has ever been you, Winnie. Soplease,will you be my girlfriend? And then will you go with me to the Masquerade Ball on Saturday? Oh, and…” He reaches up to remove her glasses. “Will you let me kiss you?”
“Yes,” she tries to say. Except all she can manage is a shaping of her mouth. A curt, almost desperate nod.
But Jay doesn’t kiss her. Not right away. Instead, he lifts a single finger and taps her nose. “Boop.”
Thenhe kisses her.
So hard it pushes Winnie’s back against the column. Or maybe she’s the one pulling Jay. It’s impossible to tell, and she definitely doesn’t care. All that matters is how her shoulder blades rub against cold stone. How the boom of the music vibrates into her ribs. How Jay’s hip bones feel so pronounced as they press against her.
Here is his waist, defined and firm. Here are his lips, kissing not just Winnie’s mouth, but her jaw, her neck, her collarbone.
She feels like she did when she drank melusine blood. Her whole body sparkles. Her neurons light up with the need for more Jay, more nightmare, more forest. She can’t think, she can’t breathe, she can’t do anything but pull Jay harder, harder against her.
His teeth tug at her earlobe. “Homeostasis,” he murmurs, and a laugh bubbles up from her lungs.
“Ah Jay,” she murmurs on cue. Then he is kissing her again, his tongue meeting hers while her fingers explore his back.
The night’s cold is gone now. Winnie is hot enough to scald. She is a phoenix burning into something new. A lantern shining against the night.
Until a voice charges over her: “Oh mygod,you guys. No one wants to watch that.Pleasejust get a room.”
CHAPTER
27
“I’m sorry, Winnie,” Erica says in a tone that is decidedlynotsorry. “But when were you going to tell me you put a message in your locket?” She stands with her hands on hips, several paces from Winnie. A strobe light from one of the few windows not boarded up flashes over her like a thunderstorm. “We’ve been togetherhow many hoursin the last few days? And still you couldn’t bother to mention this?”
“I didn’t keep it from you on purpose.” Winnie lifts her hands. Now that the whole WTF gang is here—and actually standing in an approximation of a right triangle—Winnie has explained why she summoned Erica and Jay to meet her. “I assumed it didn’t work. Because it didn’t until tonight. And well… there’s been a lot going on.”
“But itdidwork.” While Jay sounds less pissed about this development than Erica, it’s clear he too feels Winnie should have kept them updated.
Although, that rasping strain on his voice might also be from what he and Winnie were just doing two minutes ago. Like, Winnie still has her back against the column (which shall henceforth be known as Location #1 on the list of Great Make-Out Spots in Hemlock Falls), and Jay’s lips are visibly swollen.
“So who answered the message?” Erica demands. “Show it to me.” Unlike Jay, who is dressed as always in jeans and flannel, or Winnie in her ancient hoodie, Erica has actually put on a costume: cat ears. This in combination with the same all-black ensemble she wore yesterday, and she really has transformed into Catwoman. Which adds one more Sexy Superhero to the party.
Winnie pulls the message from her hoodie. “I have no idea who sent this, E. Only that it says ‘museum, elevenP.M.’… Wait, now it doesn’t say anything at all.” She pushes out of the column’s shadow to hold the paper into the blinking light, but no. There’s nothing written there.
Erica doesn’t seem surprised. In fact, she rolls her eyes so aggressively, her head swings. “You have to put the paper back in the locket, Winona. It’s like an auto-deleting text message—”
“Those exist?” Winnie asks.
“—and if you keep it out of the locket, the message vanishes. Here.” Without asking permission, Erica scoots in and snaps the paper back into the locket. “Now we wait a few seconds.”
Erica’s hands remain clasped around the locket. Her eyes go hazy, as if she’s staring into the future. Or maybe just counting to ten.
Jay clears his throat.
