“Nice try, Romeo,” I said, though I doubted I sounded as sophisticated as I was trying to. “Kimber gets to be the center of attention at her party, not you.”

Ethan rolled his eyes. “Obviously, you’ve never been to a Leigh family party before. But I get the point. Just save me a dance, okay?” He gave me another grin. “Friends are allowed to dance with each other, aren’t they?”

Internally, I groaned. I had a feeling dancing with him would entail another battle of wills—angel me vs. devil me.

“Sure,” I said. “As long as you keep your hands to yourself.”

He raised one eyebrow, and I remembered how badly I’d enforced that rule tonight. I think I blushed again, but I met his challenging gaze as boldly as I could.

Mischief twinkling in his eyes, he winked at me, tweaked my nose like I was a little kid, then headed out into the rain, not seeming to care that he had neither a coat nor an umbrella. I watched, unable to turn away, until he’d rounded the corner at the end of the block.

Chapter two

Ethan spelled trouble for me, but if he were the only trouble I had to deal with now that I lived in Avalon, I’m sure I could have dealt with him a lot more smoothly.

I’d come here under the mistaken impression that life with my father would be closer to normal than life with my mother. What a joke! I’d been in Avalon only a handful of weeks, and already I was looking back at the days when I’d been my mother’s keeper with something almost like longing. I’d really thought it sucked at the time.

I’d been a total loner at school, not because it was my natural inclination, but because my mom made us move every year or two to keep my father from finding us, and because I couldn’t risk letting my classmates/potential friends find out my mom was a drunk. I’d learned that the hard way at one of my least favorite schools, where I’d been ridiculed relentlessly.

I’d also had to act as the adult in our family, because my mom was often too drunk to bother with little things like paying bills or buying groceries. And let’s not even talk about how closely I had to watch to make sure she didn’t get behind the wheel when she was plastered!

Never in a million years would I have imagined myself looking back on that life with nostalgia. But then, there wasn’t a single aspect of my life in Avalon that met the hopes and expectations I’d had when I decided to come.

Instead of living in a nice, normal house in the beautiful city of Avalon, I lived in what was basically a glorified cave, located deep within the mountain. My safe house had all the modern conveniences, such as electricity, running water, and an Internet connection. It was nicely decorated, and if you could get over the total lack of windows, you might even say it was comfortable. But it still felt like a prison to me, complete with a guardroom that was situated between my suite and the front entrance.

I think my dad would have preferred it if I stayed in my safe house twenty-four/seven, but—thank God—he seemed to understand that I would go nuts if he didn’t let me out on a regular basis. I never got to go out alone—I always had to have either my dad or Finn at my side—but at least I wasn’t a full-time prisoner. I still spent half my time feeling completely stir-crazy, though. I understood Dad’s caution, and I didn’t want to risk getting myself killed, but I hated living in such isolation. Sometimes it was hard not to hate my father for it, no matter how well I understood.

Mixed feelings or not, when my dad showed up unexpectedly one Sunday at noon to take me and my mom out for brunch, I was so happy at the prospect of going out I could have hugged him. I restrained the impulse, though. He carried himself with the typical icy reserve of the older Fae, which meant a pat on the shoulder was a gushing display of affection in his book. He might not have known what to do with a hug.

My mom was another story. The moment she saw me, she threw her arms around me and hugged me as if she hadn’t seen me in years. It had actually only been three days since the last time she’d visited me, but my mom was as much my dad’s prisoner as I was, seeing as how he’d bribed or manipulated the courts of Avalon into declaring her legally incompetent. It had been one hell of a dirty trick, but there was a definite upside. As long as my mom was under my dad’s thumb, he wouldn’t allow her access to alcohol. This was the longest she’d been sober for as long as I could remember, and I found it hard to be mad at my dad for what he’d done.

He took us to one of Avalon’s best restaurants, having secured us a table on the balcony. For once, it was a clear, beautiful day in Avalon, and the view from our table was spectacular. At least it would have been if I were willing to look at it. Because I’m a Faeriewalker, when I look out across the borders of Avalon, I see a disorienting, nausea-inducing double image—called the Glimmerglass—of both the English countryside and the forests of Faerie. I therefore kept my gaze strictly within the borders, which was pretty enough as it was.

The picturesque streets and houses of Avalon stretched out below me. The main road that spiraled from the base of the mountain all the way to its peak was a very modern asphalt, but almost all the side streets were cobblestone. The street lamps were made to resemble old-fashioned gas lights, and many of the buildings had existed in more or less their current form for centuries, giving the city an ancient feel despite the occasional chain store.

The mountain was densely populated, the residents of Avalon having crammed as many buildings as possible into the limited space, and yet it still managed to be lush and green. Everyone here seemed to have window boxes overflowing with flowers, and ivy took advantage of every unpaved spot to take root and crawl up the façade of the nearest building. Practically every inch of the city was a postcard waiting to happen.