Chapter 38

Wait.

My voice sounds hollow and distant, like it’s coming from far away. Felix hovers over me, a darkness dawning in his eyes as I speak.

“Wait, Felix,” I whisper. “This isn’t… I can’t do this.”

His dark hair falls in front of his eyes, and he pushes it back as he nods, releasing me as he sits up, leaning his back against the trunk of the tree we lie beneath.

I stay on my back for a few moments, trying to catch my breath as I stare up at the canopy of brilliant bright red leaves overhead. As I watch, a single, delicate leaf drifts down, landing on my breast like a drop of blood.

Felix reaches for it with a faraway look in his eyes, his fingertips leaving echoes of prickling electricity where they brush my skin.

He holds the frail crimson leaf up into the silver moonlight. He seems to be studying it intently, and I watch him, wondering what he’s thinking.

“I wouldn’t have done anything,” he says finally, without looking at me. “I know you’re not ready for that.”