Torment - Lauren Kate [65]
“Are you okay?” Daniel whispered, his voice soft, his lips so close to hers.
“Yes.” She could feel the beating of his wings. “You caught me.”
“I will always catch you when you fall.”
Slowly they dropped back to the world they’d left behind. To Shoreline and the ocean lapping up against the cliffs. When they neared the dormitory, he clasped her tightly, and gently coasted to the ledge, alighting with a feather-light touch.
Luce planted her feet on the ledge and looked up at Daniel. She loved him. It was the only thing she was certain of.
“There,” he said, looking serious. His smile hardened, and the sparkle in his eyes seemed to fade. “That should satisfy your wanderlust, at least for a little while.”
“What do you mean, wanderlust?”
“The way you keep leaving campus?” His voice held a lot less warmth than it had a moment ago. “You have to stop doing that when I’m not around to look after you.”
“Oh, come on, it was just a stupid field trip. Everyone was there. Francesca, Steven—” She broke off, thinking about the way Steven had reacted to what had happened to Dawn. She didn’t dare bring up her road trip with Shelby. Or running into Cam under the deck.
“You’ve been making things very difficult for me,” Daniel said.
“I haven’t been having the easiest time either.”
“I told you there were rules. I told you not to leave this campus. But you haven’t listened. How many times have you disobeyed me?”
“Disobeyed you?” She laughed, but inside she felt dizzy and sick. “What are you, my boyfriend or my master?”
“Do you know what happens when you stray from here? The danger you put yourself in just because you’re bored?”
“Look, the cat’s out of the bag,” she said. “Cam already knew I was here.”
“Of course Cam knows you’re here,” Daniel said, exasperated. “How many times do I have to tell you Cam is not the threat right now? He won’t try to sway you.”
“Why not?”
“Because he knows better. And you should know better too than to sneak off like that. There are dangers you can’t possibly fathom.”
She opened her mouth but didn’t know what to say. If she told Daniel she’d spoken with Cam that day, that he had killed several of Miss Sophia’s entourage, it would only prove his point. Anger flared up in Luce, at Daniel, at his mysterious rules, at his treating her like a child. She would have given anything to stay with him, but his eyes had hardened into flat gray sheets and their time in the sky felt like a distant dream.
“Do you understand what kind of Hell I go through to keep you safe?”
“How am I supposed to understand when you don’t tell me anything?”
Daniel’s beautiful features distorted into a scary expression. “Is this her fault?” He jerked his thumb toward her dorm room. “What kind of sinister ideas has she been putting in your head?”
“I can think for myself, thank you.” Luce narrowed her eyes. “But how do you know Shelby?”
Daniel ignored the question. Luce couldn’t believe the way he was talking to her, like she was some kind of badly behaved pet. All the warmth that had filled her a moment ago when Daniel had kissed her, held her, looked at her—it wasn’t enough when she felt this cold every time he spoke to her.
“Maybe Shelby is right,” she said. She hadn’t seen Daniel in so long—but the Daniel she wanted to see, the one who loved her more than anything, the one who’d followed her for millennia because he couldn’t live without her—was still up there in the clouds, not down here, bossing her around. Perhaps, even after all these lifetimes, she didn’t really know him. “Maybe angels and humans shouldn’t …”
But she couldn’t say it.
“Luce.” His fingers wrapped around her wrist, but she shook him off. His eyes were open and dark, and his cheeks were white from the cold. Her heart was urging her to grab him and keep him close, to feel his body pressed against hers, but she knew deep down that this wasn’t the kind of fight that could be cured with a kiss.
She pushed past him to a narrower part of the ledge and slid open her window, surprised