Whose Bed Have Your Claws Been Under: Chapter 5

I swept from the ballroom and raced down the huge front staircase, nearly breaking my leg and falling when my heel caught on the carpet. Once I reached the foyer, I fled to the back door, snatched one of the red velvet capes off a hook, and bolted outside.

“Paige, wait,” Darrow cried from behind me.

I kept running. I was done. Way past done. I’d let him hear the truth, and he sat there, staring at me. He still didn’t believe me. Well, who needed him? Not me. Not me!

Tears streamed down my face, making it hard to see the path. I lost track of where I was and somehow ended up behind the church. Spying a tall hedge maze ahead, I lumbered up the hill and darted through the arched opening.

Darrow’s footsteps rang out behind, but he’d give up and return to the party. I could make my way to the center of the maze and hide. No one would expect me to make an appearance until morning. Monica and Trevor, so in love, would be busy together. She sure wouldn’t need her maid of honor.

I took a right inside the maze and raced to the end, where I went left. Ha, this was easy. Hopefully not so easy that Darrow could follow. Partway down the next passage, I came to an intersection. Spying a dead end ahead, I turned left. I wove through the maze, turning this way and that, and even once found myself exiting the back side of the maze, though I turned around and trotted back inside again.

“Paige,” Darrow called from somewhere behind me. “Where are you?”

“Not where you’ll find me,” I whispered, turning at each corner, snaking my way toward the center of the maze.

Crashes rang out to my right, followed by groans, but he sounded lively enough that I didn’t feel the need to turn back and make sure he was alright. He’d survived his supposed death already. I doubted the maze would attack him.

Finally, the sounds behind me faded, and I emerged into the center of the maze. About twenty-by-twenty, and peppered with tall statues, they’d placed a pretty fountain in the center of the open area. Winter had been warm this year, and the water danced, sparkling in the twinkle lights they’d strung around the area. Truly, it was a gorgeous location. Too bad my mood didn’t match the lovely place.

I strolled on the path edging the outer part of the clearing, taking in the small flower beds dusted with snow. Even here, they’d kept the festive atmosphere going with holly adorned with bright red berries. Eventually, I sank onto a wooden bench, leaning back to watch the nymph fountain spray water upward from her open mouth. She held her hands up poetically, her face tilted toward the sky.

Clouds parted overhead, and moonlight shone down. The water glistened, and the trickle should be enough to soothe even the weariest bones. Instead, I churned inside.

Maybe I should’ve waited to hear what Darrow had to say.

No, no. I wasn’t that much of a sucker.

But he was alive, something I’d prayed for since I was told he’d died.

“Paige? I know you’re in here. Let me know where you are.” Desperation came through in his voice. “Let me know you’re safe!”

Safe from what? This wasn’t a monster’s hunting grounds, though monsters did live in the area. It was Petrified Woods, the infamous home of monsters by a scientist more monstrous than those he experimented on. The monsters living in the rest of the world now had been born that way.

Just because I didn’t want to see Darrow didn’t mean I was dangling precariously off the side of the castle, ready to slip and tumble to my death.

More crashes rang out. Really, wasn’t he going to give up?

I had to admire his persistence even if it irked me. It hurt that he hadn’t believed me, that he’d needed my parents’ convenient phone call to convince him. I thought we’d been better friends than that. While I was thrilled he was still alive, I couldn’t reconcile my excitement with his disbelief.

“Paige? I’m not giving up.”

My lips thin, I shook my head. He could wait until tomorrow; allow the steam still blasting from my ears to blow away. Then I might actually be willing to speak to him in a pleasant manner.

Or not.

Twigs and branches crackled as he made his way through the maze. Was he taking the paths or crashing straight through? I almost wanted to call out to him just to keep him from destroying the pretty maze.

Scraps and mangled curses rang out as I assumed leaves and stems ripped at his clothing. A tragedy right there; I imagined he’d rented the tux and would need to pay for any damage.

Birds shot up into the sky not far away, and I braced myself. If nothing else, Darrow never gave up. Back when we were younger, he’d bang his head against a wall until it fell and prod me until I joined him in whatever he wanted to do. Like jumping off the railroad tracks into the lake, something I’d been squeamish about doing. He took me tandem parasailing on that same lake, and while I’d been scared to do it at first, I was willing as long as he held my hand. Funny, but he was the one who was nervous as we soared through the sky while I pointed and exclaimed about everything we saw.

We’d shared our first kiss while floating through the sky. The memory made my chest tighten.

He’d died not long after that.

And now he was alive.

I closed my eyes, trying to shut out the tears trickling down my face. My emotions tumbled through me. Everything I’d ever wished for had come true, but instead of rejoicing in it, we’d argued.

“I’m coming, Paige,” he yelled from not far away. “I’m not letting you go. Please!” He clawed his way to the top of a wall encircling the center. Spying me sitting on the bench near the fountain, he released a grim smile. “There you are.” Standing, his arms spiraled to hold his balance. When his feet started to sink into the hedge, branches snapped.

He plunged forward, landing hard on his belly on the top of the hedge. His grunt rang out. Momentum kept him going, as did the hedge that gave way on my side of the wall. He fell headfirst into the center, flopping over to land with a solid thud on his back.

Only the trickling fountain echoed in the small open area.

I stood. “Darrow?”

Oh, shit. He’d died again.

I raced around the fountain and ran over to where he lay on the ground.

He wasn’t moving. Had I ruined the one chance we had to start over?

When I dropped to my knees beside him, I laid my palm on his chest. Did his heart still beat? I couldn’t tell. “Darrow? Please, Darrow!” I bent forward to press my ear against his chest.

He latched onto me and rolled us until I lay beneath him. Holding me tight, he braced himself up over me. “You are going to listen to me.”