Chapter 6

Willow

My lungs were burning, and I could taste blood in my throat by the time I reached our street. I stumbled through the darkness, running along the cracked sidewalk, my left leg sending sharp jolts of pain through me with every step, but the adrenaline kept the pain at bay.

I didn't look back.

I was convinced that if I turned around, I would see his enormous figure emerging from the darkness, along with those unnaturally green eyes.

When I finally reached the rotting wooden porch of our house, my hands trembled as I fumbled with my key, desperately searching for the lock.

Just get inside. Just get inside.

The metal clicked softly.

I slipped in and closed the door behind me as quietly as possible before sliding the bolt into place.

The heavy, wet snoring coming from the living room nearly stopped my heart.

Victor was still sprawled on the couch in exactly the same position I'd left him. The empty bottle lay on the floor beside him.

I crept toward my room on tiptoe, keeping close to the wall. Once inside, I locked the door behind me and slowly slid down to the floor.

I pressed my back against the wood and pulled my knees to my chest.

I sat there panting in the darkness.

My palm throbbed from the cut, but something else was throbbing too.

My wrist.

I raised my hand in the darkness, staring at the place where Jace's fingers had wrapped around my skin.

I could still feel it.

The pressure.

The heat.

That inexplicable electric spark that had shot straight into my heart.

It was as though he'd branded me. As though a single touch had rewritten every defense mechanism my body possessed.

"Old blood... and bruises. Who did this to you?"

His words echoed in my ears, saturated with raw, suffocating fury.

I was terrified.

How did he know my name? How had he sensed my pain through my clothes, through my thick sweater?

Jace was a predator, the leader of the city's most dangerous elite, and I was nobody.

An invisible girl.

Why had he noticed me?

My brain couldn't process everything that had happened that evening.

The fall.

The bleeding.

Brad's humiliation.

And then Jace in the alley.

I closed my eyes and tried to shut it all out.

I forced myself to think only about the little metal box hidden beneath the floorboards, filled with the dollars I'd managed to save, and Ellie's blonde curls.

Just stay invisible, Willow. Don't let anyone notice you.

The next morning, sunlight pierced through my bedroom like a merciless interrogator.

Every movement was agony.

When I struggled to get up from my thin, uncomfortable mattress, the bruise on my thigh nearly made my legs buckle beneath me.

In the bathroom, my reflection looked even worse than it had the night before.

The purple bruise beneath my eye had darkened almost to black, and my split lip was swollen.

No matter how thickly I applied concealer, the evidence of the beating was undeniable.

I pulled on my baggiest navy-blue hoodie and brushed my hair forward until it almost completely covered the left side of my face.

I wrapped a thick bandage around my palm, something I'd dug out from the back of the medicine cabinet.

Victor was still asleep.

I didn't make a sound as I left the house.

The walk to school felt like an eternity.

My stomach twisted into tight little knots at every corner. I scanned the streets nervously, terrified that a black sports car might appear.

When I entered the school's main entrance, the hallways were already crowded with students.

I lowered my head, pulled my hood deep over my face, and tried to make my way to my first class by staying close to the wall and the lockers.

The first thing I noticed was the silence around me.

As I passed Chloe, Brad, and their group, I instinctively braced myself for someone to trip me, throw an insult, or burst into mocking laughter.

But nothing happened.

I raised my eyes.

Brad stood pale and rigid, staring into his locker, while Chloe suddenly became extremely interested in her phone.

Neither of them said a word.

They avoided my gaze.

And it wasn't just that they weren't mocking me.

I saw pure, unmistakable terror on their faces.

Jace.

The thought sent an icy shiver down my spine.

Whatever he'd done at the café yesterday had been enough to intimidate the school's reigning royalty.

I quickened my pace and finally reached my own rusty locker at the far end of Hallway B, in the darkest corner.

I entered the combination and opened the door.

I tried to calm my racing heart as I took out my books.

"You thought you could just run away and get away with it?"

The voice came from so close, and it was so deep, that the metal locker door almost seemed to vibrate.

The book I was about to place on the shelf slipped from my fingers and landed on the floor with a dull thud.

At that exact moment, the unmistakable scent of fresh pine and rain filled the air around me.

Slowly, terrified, I turned around.

Jace stood there.

Barely an arm's length away.

His enormous body blocked the hallway light.

He wore a black T-shirt and dark jeans, which only emphasized the dangerous, predatory aura surrounding him.

His green eyes weren't blazing today.

They were dark, deep, and unreadable.

But his gaze immediately locked onto my face.

Instinctively, I tried to step backward, but my back collided with the cold metal locker.

Trapped.

"Please..." I whispered, my voice breaking.

Jace stepped closer.

His towering, dark figure almost completely shielded me from the rest of the hallway.

He raised his left arm and braced his hand against the locker beside my head.

He didn't touch me, but the heat radiating from his body, that impossibly hot, comforting yet terrifying presence, enveloped me completely.

"Last night," he began in a low, silky voice that almost sounded like a purr, "I asked you a question. And you ran away."

I didn't dare look into his eyes.

Instead, I nervously twisted the drawstring of my hoodie between the fingers of my bandaged hand.

"We have nothing to talk about. You don't know me. Leave me alone."

Jace let out a quiet snort.

There wasn't a trace of humor in it.

Slowly, his gaze dropped to my bandaged palm.

"Show me."

"W-what?" I blinked in confusion.

"Your hand. Show me your wound," he said.

This time, his voice wasn't asking.

It was commanding.

"It's bandaged. It's fine," I protested, hiding my hand behind my back.

Jace's jaw tightened.

His green eyes narrowed as he looked at me.

"Willow. Don't push me. Show me your hand."

Hearing my name from his lips sent that strange flutter through my stomach again.

I didn't want to obey him, but something about his very existence, that dark, overwhelming power radiating from him, made it impossible for me to resist any longer.

Slowly, trembling, I brought my hand out from behind my back and held it toward him.

Jace didn't take it.

Instead, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small white box.

When he opened it, I saw expensive, medical-grade bandages and antiseptic ointments inside.

"W-what is that?" I whispered in astonishment.

"I owe you for yesterday," Jace replied quietly.

He still didn't touch me, but he leaned closer.

His breath brushed against my ear.

"What that idiot did to you... things escalated partly because I was there."

The air froze in my lungs.

The ruler of the city, the guy everyone feared, was explaining himself to me?

An invisible nobody?

"I don't need your pity," I blurted out before my brain could stop my mouth.

My defense mechanisms immediately kicked in.

"I don't need you to protect me. I... I can take care of myself."

Jace's expression suddenly hardened.

His green eyes ignited.

In one swift movement, he leaned forward and caught my wrist with his free hand, extremely carefully, avoiding the cut.

That spark again.

That electric, scorching jolt that raced up my arm.

I gasped for air, but he didn't let go.

His thumb settled directly over my pulse, feeling the frantic, uncontrollable pounding of my heart.

"You can take care of yourself?" he hissed, so quietly that only I could hear him.

His gaze swept over the hair concealing my bruise.

"If you can take care of yourself, Willow, then why are you so full of fear? Why does your heart race every single time someone comes near you? Why does your scent..."

He stopped abruptly, as though he'd said too much.

Then he continued through clenched teeth.

"Why are you trying so desperately to hide the fact that someone is hurting you?"

"No one is hurting me!" I whispered desperately. "Please, let me go..."

"You're lying," Jace said.

His words were merciless, but his touch around my wrist remained gentle, as though I were made of glass.

"And I'm going to find out who it is."

He stood so close that his chest almost brushed against mine.

His dark energy completely paralyzed me.

"I don't belong in your world, Jace," I whispered as tears began gathering in my eyes.

The walls I'd spent years building because of Victor were beginning to crack simply because this boy was standing so close to me.

Jace stared straight into my soul with those green eyes.

The anger vanished from his expression, replaced by something entirely different.

Something deep.

Something dark.

A promise.

"It's too late, Willow," he whispered, his voice hoarse and filled with possessive desire.

"You're already in it."

At the far end of the hallway, the bell signaling the start of class rang sharply.

But neither of us flinched.

All I could see were those predatory emerald-green eyes.

And I knew one thing.

The shadows that had hidden me from the world until now were no longer worth anything.

Jace had found me.

And he had absolutely no intention of letting me go.