Kimber seemed bothered by the gesture, her shoulders stiffening as she glared at Ethan. It was like she was a whole different person when Ethan was around. Even her body language was different, more tense and wary. I liked the Ethan-free Kimber better.

Ethan nudged me out of my frozen-rabbit impersonation by starting to walk. With his arm so firmly around me, I had no choice but to move with him. I swallowed hard and stared at the rain-slicked cobblestones at my feet.

Ethan’s body was warm against mine, and I actually stopped shivering. Okay, maybe having his arm around me felt pretty good, even if my heart was jackhammering and my nerves made me about as graceful as a three-legged elephant.

“Better?” Ethan asked, rubbing his hand up and down my arm and creating even more heat. Especially in my face, which must have been red as a matador’s cape.

I like to think of myself as being unusually mature for my age, and in a lot of ways, I’m sure it’s true. How many sixteen-year-olds are responsible for paying the bills and balancing the checkbook, after all? But I had about as much experience with guys as your average preteen, and it was showing. My tongue seemed glued to the roof of my mouth, and I was hyperaware of how he was touching me. I didn’t dare look at him and was glad my hair was at least partially shielding my face.

“Knock it off, Ethan,” Kimber said, but there was a hint of resignation in her voice.

“Knock what off?” he asked. “All I’m doing is keeping her warm, since you didn’t bother giving her anything thicker than a T-shirt.”

Kimber grumbled something I didn’t quite catch, but it didn’t sound complimentary. I wondered if she even owned anything thicker than a T-shirt, since it sure seemed that the Fae didn’t mind the cold at all. And the warmth that radiated from Ethan’s body was considerable, making me wonder what their normal body temperature was.

Maybe he was just trying to keep me warm. But I still couldn’t relax, and it was a minor miracle that the two of us didn’t hit the dirt in a pile of tangled limbs as our sides bumped in haphazard rhythm.

Walking got easier when we reached the main road. I was not a big fan of the cobblestone streets. Sure, they were nice to look at, but they were a twisted ankle waiting to happen. I bet high heels weren’t a real popular fashion choice in Avalon.

There wasn’t much on the far side of the road, just a strip of well-manicured grass and a super-strong-looking guardrail right at the edge of the cliff. Just the thought of being in a car accident on this road was enough to make my stomach shrivel. Maybe riding horses through the city wasn’t as weird as I’d first thought.

There wasn’t a whole lot of traffic, so the three of us had no trouble getting across the road, even with my uncoordinated gait. I couldn’t quite figure out where we were going, though. I looked up and down the strip of grass, and there was nothing of any interest as far as the eye could see.

Well, except if I looked out over the rail into the distance, but I didn’t feel much like doing that. It seemed I was more afraid of heights than I’d thought.

“Where are we going?” I asked, pleased to find that I actually was still capable of speech.

“Right here,” Ethan said, and we came to a stop.

“Here” didn’t appear to be any different from anything else along the strip of grass. I frowned, but I didn’t feel like asking any more questions. If Ethan wanted me to take this stupid test of his, then it was up to him to explain what I was supposed to do.

There was a noticeable stretch of silence before he spoke again, and I think he was annoyed that I managed to outwait him. Score one for me!

“Look out into the distance, and tell us what you see.”

At least he wasn’t asking me to look down. Slowly, I raised my head, having no idea what to expect. I braced myself for something scary.

But all I saw was a heavy blanket of mist that made it impossible to see very far past the moat.

“Am I supposed to see anything unusual?” I asked, but I was beginning to feel a flutter of relief. If I didn’t see anything unusual, that meant I wasn’t what they thought I was. Which meant I wasn’t important to anyone’s political ambitions, which meant I still had hope of moving in with my dad and having a close-to-normal life. Maybe the nightmare would soon be over.

I swayed, suddenly dizzy, and I was glad Ethan still had his arm around me. My stomach lurched, and I burped up the taste of Cheerios. Eww.

“I don’t think I do well with heights,” I said, quickly shifting my gaze back to the grass at my feet.

“Just give it another minute,” Ethan said.

“No thanks. Not unless you want me to barf on your shoes.”

He moved around behind me, and suddenly his hand was on my chin, forcing my head up. I felt the warmth of his breath against my skin as he spoke into my ear.

“One more minute,” he urged.

My first reaction was to close my eyes in protest. But he didn’t let go of me, and when I tried to jerk away, his other arm wrapped around me and held me still.

“Just look,” he said. “Please.”

It was the “please” that changed my mind. He sounded almost desperate, and I realized that whatever I saw—or didn’t see—meant a lot to him. I could deal with a minute or two of queasiness.

Besides, Ethan probably knew some kind of spell that would force me to open my eyes and look. I didn’t want to go there.

With a sigh of resignation, I slowly opened my eyes, braced for the dizziness and nausea. It was there waiting for me, and I held my breath, hoping I wouldn’t be sick. The warmth of Ethan’s arms around me helped steady me, and I gazed out into the distance.

I still couldn’t see anything but the mist. Except … There was something weird about the mist. I stared at it hard, trying to figure out what it was. Through the mist, I could see patches of the English countryside beyond the moat … only, there was a glimmer of something … else. A faint image that overlay the countryside, like a photo that had been double-exposed. I tried to focus on that elusive image, and suddenly, it came clear.

Just beyond the moat stretched a deep green forest. Not a pasture or building in sight, except as a faint afterimage.

“Whoa!” I said with a gasp, my heart leaping in my chest as my throat tightened in near-panic. I tried to back away, but Ethan was still holding me.

“What do you see?” he asked.

I shook my head, still staring out into the mist, trying not to believe what was right before my eyes. I blinked, and the forest was still there. Oh, crap. I shifted my focus to the afterimage of English countryside, and as I stared at it, it solidified once more, the forest fading into the background, but not disappearing.

“What the hell…?” I mumbled. I was getting dizzier by the moment, and I felt sure that I was going to fall down, into the mist that shifted continually before my eyes.

“Let her go,” Kimber said, and I felt her hand on my arm. “We already know what she sees.”

“I want to hear her say it!” Ethan insisted. He was still holding my chin up, his face right next to mine. I’d have freaked out about him being so close if I weren’t feeling so awful.

“Look at her face, you wanker!” Kimber said, her voice sharp as needles. “She’s about to faint.”

Surprisingly, fainting sounded like a really good idea. If I fainted, I’d be unconscious, so I wouldn’t have to see the impossible anymore, nor would I have to feel so dizzy and sick. Then maybe when I woke up, all of this would go away and I’d find it was all just a bad dream. The mist started to turn dark around the edges.