FORBIDDEN by Megan Curd, Kara Malinczak Page A

privy to her soul information or to the way she would die baffled me. I’d never been left out in the dark before. Why would Owen not tell me these things now? Sure, he could be a pain, but even pains had to follow the boss’s orders at some point.
    What if Owen wasn’t telling me things to screw me over? He had always said I didn’t deserve a second chance. Maybe he was making sure I didn’t get one. Ethan could say all he wanted about Owen being a good guy, but I hadn’t seen it yet. Maybe I was just too hard on the guy. I resolved to try harder to see things his way. It couldn’t be easy being in charge of all of us Guards.
    “I’m cold.”
    Her voice quivered through the darkness. It was unusually cold. I hadn’t realized it, but my wings must have wrapped themselves around my body to keep me from the cold. I stretched and stood up from the window. “Do you need another blanket?”
    Her eyes peered over the comforter and she blushed. “Can you just stay by me?”
    “I haven’t left.”
    She rolled her eyes. “I mean stay by me. I’m supposed to die tomorrow and I’ve never even slept with a guy.”
    I blushed. “I’m not sleeping with you.”
    “Not like that!”
    Oh. Phew. Okay. Not that I didn’t like girls or whatever, but that just seemed weird. Plus, it was one of the rules I hadn’t managed to break. Yet. “Oh. Uh, sure. Let me just put my jacket on. Don’t look.”
    She laughed. “Are you embarrassed to let me see you put away your wings?”
    “Yes,” I said, not wanting to tell her how painful and quasi-gross it was. “It’s personal. Now close your eyes.”
    I had to chuckle at her as she dove under the comforter. Instead of walking up, I crawled under the end of the comforter at the foot of the bed. She lit her tiny space with the light of her phone. She shone the flash in my eyes, blinding me. “There really are monsters under my bed.”
    “Nah, there’s just monsters in your bed, not under it.”
    We both laughed as I surfaced beside her and barely hung onto the edge. I didn’t want to get too close. Touching her would be torture. Not because I didn’t want it, it’s just that touching a Call was strictly forbidden. The repercussions would be massive. I had to assume the pain would be beyond belief.
    “I have a queen bed. There’s plenty of room for both of your butt cheeks to be on the mattress,” she teased.
    “I want to be able to get out if something happens.”
    “You mean if something tries to kill me.”
    I didn’t answer. It wasn’t a topic I wanted to talk about.
    She scooted closer. I could feel her heartbeat. The heat of her body was so close. “If I wanted you across the room, I’d have left you to sit at the window.”
    She crossed the threshold before I could argue. Our bodies touched, and a fire filled every part of my body. I hadn’t felt like this before. It wasn’t painful.
    It felt good.
    I thought this was supposed to be bad? Why was it forbidden? This was the best feeling that I had felt since before I died. It was probably the best feeling ever in my life, dead or alive.
    I sighed under the softness of her body. Her arm draped across my chest and she curled into the crook of my arm. “I don’t really know you, but this feels okay. Is that wrong?”
    Yes , I wanted to say. “No,” is what came out, “It’s not wrong.”
    “Do you like it?”
    No is what I should have said. “Yes,” is what came out, “I do.”
    She let out a soft breath. “I didn’t think you’d let me do this.”
    “I can’t believe I am.”
    She laughed lightly. “What can I say, I’m just persistent when I want something.”
    There was no way I could allow her to die tomorrow.
     
    * * *
     
    Light streamed through the crack in the blinds of Hannah’s window, casting a thin ray across her body. She was curled up against me while I watched the dust swirl and dance through the light. It was the most peaceful I’d ever been in my memory.
    I ran my free hand