"Come on!" Michael yelled, holding out his hand to me.
I wasn't sure if I was more terrified of the knife guy or what I'd just witnessed Michael do. But I grabbed on to him with my mitten-covered hand. "He was going to kill me!"
"We need to get out of here now."
Instead of taking a typical route out of the park, Michael pulled me along with him up the side of a steep hill and through a broken fence. After a few minutes, we emerged on a side street near the main downtown area. Before I could say anything else, he yanked me behind him into an alleyway.
I put my hands on my knees as I tried to bring my breathing back to normal. My head was screaming in pain now-it didn't seem to matter how many pills I took, the headache was here to stay. After a moment, I turned to look at Michael warily, a million questions bubbling to the surface.
He didn't look so good.
"What's wrong with you?" I asked.
His face had turned pasty white. There was a sheen of perspiration on his skin. The amulet wasn't glowing or even pulsing anymore. In fact, it had gone from an intensely vibrant emerald green to a dull, listless gray. Strangely enough, his eyes had lost their matching color.
He collapsed to his knees. "I'll be okay." His voice was weak. "I just… I just need a minute."
And then he passed out, crumpling heavily against me.
"Michael-" I crouched down and shook his shoulder. "Wake up!"
We were tucked into the alley behind a big green Dumpster belonging to a place called Dave's Diner. I could hear the guy who'd pulled a knife on me-I was sure it was him-as his army boots pounded against the pavement and stopped right at the alley.
I held my breath, clinging to Michael's unconscious form, hugging him tightly against me, too scared to move.
After what felt like an eternity, the heavy boots pounded again and soon I couldn't hear them anymore. I let out a long sigh of relief but didn't feel safe enough to move. When I finally shifted position so I could see Michael better, his eyes were still closed.
I pushed the dark hair off his forehead so I could clearly see his face. "Michael. . please wake up."
The amulet lay heavily outside his sweatshirt. The stone was still gray, but not as colorless as it had been before.
I moved Michael to lay him down on the snow-covered ground completely, cradling his head on my lap so it wouldn't hit the hard pavement. He suddenly looked so helpless. Not like somebody who'd gone from scaring the crap out of me to saving my life.
What had he done, anyway? The green pulse. I saw it with my own two eyes. It looked like magic, but that was impossible.
I chewed my bottom lip. Maybe it wasn't so impossible.
Magic or not, there was no doubt in my mind that, based on his current state of unconsciousness, whatever he'd done had almost killed him.
He saved me.
I forced myself to be patient while he slept, sensing that he needed to regain his energy. He was breathing, though. I checked his throat to feel a pulse and it was there. I looked down at him. His eyes were closed and I stroked his dark hair, surprised at how soft it felt sliding through my fingers.
He saved me, I thought again, stunned by this revelation.
His mouth was parted a little and I still couldn't see his breath in the cold air like my own. Such a small thing seemed so incredibly odd. I moved my hand from his hair to his mouth, tracing a line along his bottom lip. I could feel his breath warm against my skin, but it didn't leave an impression in the air.
"Who are you?" I asked softly, as my touch moved from his mouth to his cheek and along the left side of his face. When he was asleep like this, I felt much more confident. I knew I wouldn't be doing this if he were awake.
I looked down at his chest where his amulet lay, and I watched as the stone became greener and greener the longer Michael slept, until it looked like it had before. What was it? I knew the amulet had to have something to do with what had happened in the park. When the emerald-like jewel had lost its color, its power, so had Michael.
I touched the chain, being careful not to touch the stone itself, but studying it closer than I had been able to before. It was very beautiful but very strange. I moved my hand until it was only an inch away from the amulet itself, in the center of Michael's firm chest. I absently noticed that his heart had begun to beat faster than before.
Quick as lightning, his hand shot out to grab my wrist, squeezing it tight enough to hurt. His eyes snapped open and they were nearly as green as they had been before his little display of. . magic. Or whatever. When he saw me, his brows drew together and his grip on my wrist lessened slightly.
"I thought I asked you not to touch me," he said weakly.
My cheeks suddenly blazed with heat as I realized that I'd practically been groping the guy while he was unconscious.
I tried to pull away but noticed that his voice was the only thing that was currently weak. "I… I wanted to make sure you were still breathing."
That's all it was. I sounded convincing enough, didn't I?
He let go of me, took a moment to sit up, and then grimaced as if it caused him pain. "Are you okay, Princess?"
My eyebrows went up. "Am I okay? I should be asking you the same question."
He blinked slowly. "Well, are you?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." I let out a long shaky breath. "But you're going to have to tell me what's going on because I'm really freaking out here."
He winced as he slowly got to his feet. "I already told you what's going on. And we're wasting too much time. We have to get to the Shadowlands and see your father. He needs to know that somebody tried to attack you."
"Who was that guy?"
"I don't know. I've never seen him before." His jaw tensed. "You're a demon princess-the first one in a thousand years. This will attract a lot of. . unwanted attention, now that your existence can't be hidden any longer. But I don't understand how he got here. I was the only one allowed to leave the Shadowlands. Your father was right to fear for your safety."
A shiver ran down my spine. "My father. The demon king."
"That's right."
Same story, different day. But today it sounded bigger, broader. . and way more possible.
Too much had happened for me to sanely continue to think that nothing strange was going on anymore. Strange and, by the look of that knife, potentially deadly.
"You saved my life." My throat hurt as I said it, and when I looked up at him our eyes locked. "You saved my life back there and it nearly killed you."
His expression was firm. "You shouldn't have stayed with me. You should have gone home."
"You thought I was just going to leave you here? You were unconscious." "I recovered."
I cleared my throat. "I know I haven't exactly been all that nice to you-" "You don't have to be nice to me," he said firmly. "I only did what was necessary to ensure your safety, Princess."
I frowned. "Please don't call me that."
He didn't look angry or impatient with me, instead he looked concerned. "I know this is a lot to grasp. I do. And so does your father. But it doesn't make any of what I've told you less true. You're the heir to the throne of the Shadow-lands. Since you're part human, you've been shielded from this knowledge and any potential danger until your sixteenth birthday."