I grinned stupidly at him fumbling over himself. He removed the corsage from the container, and instantly I smelled jasmine. The delicate, satiny white flowers dotted a mixture of green leaves and smaller flowers whose colors matched my dress.

“I know how much you love jasmine,” he said, his eyes on my wrist as he slipped the corsage over my hand. “I told Kate that’s the flower you would want.”

I nodded, fighting the tears again. If I was really going through with this, I’d have to clean up my face and put on makeup. I didn’t have a whole lot of time to do it all if we weren’t going to be late. I took out the boutonniere and started to pin it to Will’s tuxedo as he took a deep breath and set his jaw tight. I looked up to meet his eyes.

“Nervous?” I asked with a quick smile before going back to pinning the boutonniere so I wouldn’t stab him accidentally. He seemed to get impaled a lot during fights, so I didn’t want to be guilty of that too.

“Yeah.” He softened and forced himself to relax a little more. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“It’s not so bad,” I promised, finishing and straightening the boutonniere. There were jasmine flowers in it that matched my corsage. “Humans do it every year. I think you’re tough enough to survive prom.”

“I want to do this, though,” he assured me. “For you, because it would make you happy.”

I looked back up at him, feeling the sting of more stupid tears. I was such a crybaby. “Thank you.”

“I’d do anything for you,” he said in a quiet voice. “Gladly.”

“I know,” I replied.

“Are you about ready? What else has to be done?”

“I have to do my hair,” I said, sniffling very unattractively.

“Leave it down, just the way it is. I like it when it’s down.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of folded satin. Within was the beautiful phoenix hair comb. I nearly choked on another sob. “Wear this in it.”

My hands shook as I accepted the comb and headed to the bathroom down the hall. I studied my hair, deciding what to do with it, and settled on pulling bits of it up and pinning it with the comb. The deep shades of red, purple, and gold swirling through the firebird burned in my dark chocolate red hair, matching my dress perfectly. I adjusted the comb and turned my head side to side, admiring the piece. Then I washed my face and dug through my makeup bag to make myself look presentable.

I only needed one more thing. I went back into my room to my dresser, feeling Will’s eyes on me. I grabbed my winged necklace, and before I could put it on, Will was there, lifting the necklace and latching it around my neck. As soon as the glossy pendant touched my skin, I felt warmer, more contented, braver, as if it had a power of its own.

I turned around to face Will, and he was smiling down at me. “Ready?” he asked as his hands settled on my hips.

“Almost.” I threw my arms around his neck and pulled him down to me so that his forehead touched mine. Tears rolled down my cheeks and I cupped his face in my hands. “I love you. I don’t think you have any idea how much.”

He smiled. “I do.” He dipped his head and I tilted mine back to let him kiss me, but he stopped halfway, his mouth inches from mine. His body was stiff against me, his hands unmoving on my hips.

“What’s the matter?” I asked, searching his eyes.

“If I kiss you now, I won’t be able to stop,” he breathed. “We’ll miss the party.”

I considered suggesting that we just stay here in my room, but he’d gone through so much trouble to make sure I went to my prom. Still, it was feeling more right by the second, more right to just take this silly dress back off and stay in.

I slid my hands from his cheek and down his neck and chest, not wanting to let him go, and I wound my fingers around his collar. “We should get going.” The disappointment in my voice was obvious, and I didn’t care.

“Kate said to meet everyone at her house,” he said.

“Okay.”

“She’s having a party there after we get back,” he added. “She said you should bring a bag to stay the night. I’ve already talked to your grandmother about it.”

“Or we could go back to your house,” I suggested carefully. “After Kate’s party.”

His eyes searched mine. “Okay. If you want to.”

I smiled and tugged on his collar so that his face came closer to mine. “I want to.”

He smiled back, his eyes on my lips. “Okay.” Then he kissed me lightly, briefly, and pulled away—only just—and hovered there, as if he was contemplating doing it again. When he didn’t, I tugged on his collar one more time, closing the last few inches between us, and I kissed him. He hands came up and held my face as he kissed me deeper, and with a groan, he pushed himself away and let me go. “We should get out of here.”

I was breathless. “Yeah. Kate’s going to be mad if we’re late.”

“I don’t want Kate to be mad at me. I wasn’t kidding when I said she scares me.”

I laughed and grabbed a bag to shove my overnight stuff into. When I was ready, I came back to him.

He took my hand and held my wrist to his lips. “Let’s go.”

I followed him downstairs and out the front door, heading toward a wonderful night.

33

I’D NEVER HUGGED KATE SO HARD IN MY LIFE. SHE was amazing. We both cried so much that we had to go inside and redo our makeup, but that was okay. The boys didn’t quite understand why we cried, but that was okay, too. Will and Marcus hung out together in the we-ancient-angelic-reapersare-too-cool-for-you-but-that-really-just-means-we’re-boring club, away from most of us as we goofed around and had pictures taken. It was so nice of Marcus to let Will use his car, but he wasn’t above bantering with Will about it every few minutes. Finally we all climbed into the limousine that would take us to the hotel. None of my friends treated me like a freak, or like they needed to walk on eggshells around me. They treated me like Ellie, just plain old me.