Cold Kiss

whatever it is you’re scared of.”
    His jaw is set so tight I’m surprised he can get words out. “I just want to help.”
    “But you can’t! I mean, thank you, but how exactly do you think it’s going to help to come with us, so Danny can freak out in the car? Or to leave Danny here with you, so he can freak out in the apartment?”
    “I managed yesterday,” he protests, and glances toward his bedroom door.
    Danny is still asleep, which is the only thing I can bring myself to call the way he hasn’t moved an inch on Gabriel’s bed since he lay down. He won’t be forever, though. I have no idea how long my spell will last, which is why he’s coming with Olivia and me.
    “And you looked like you went ten rounds with Holyfield by the time I showed up,” I argue, trying not to shout. I’m already vibrating a little bit, nerves and hope and anxiety mixed like a foul soup in my gut. “You didn’t even have a moment to call and tell me he woke up.”
    “Gabriel, sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is step back,” Olivia says quietly. She’s perched on the stool at the breakfast bar, bag and car keys already on the counter beside her.
    “Spare me the touchy-feely yoga wisdom, Liv,” Gabriel snaps.
    My mouth is the one to fall open this time, but Olivia just shakes her head and sighs. “He’s always pouty when he doesn’t get his way,” she says to me.
    His answer to that is to stride out of the room and slam the bathroom door behind him.
    “Oh, real mature. My hero.”
    Olivia stops me before I head into Gabriel’s room for Danny. “He means well,” she says. “He really cares about you, and it’s hard for him that he can’t make this easier for you. Cut him a little slack, okay?”
    Considering the things she could be saying to me about my own mistakes, it’s pretty mild, and I nod at her. I’m sure she doesn’t want me to, like, promise her my firstborn child or something, but at this point I’m so grateful for her understanding, I’m ready to at least build a shrine in her honor.
    And if the person we’re going to see today can help me figure out what to do about Danny, I’m going to be building it pretty soon.
    “Are you ready?” she says, and stands up.
    “I think so.” I take a deep breath. “I mean, I just hope he wakes up in a cooperative mood.” I want to say that I wish I could be sure he’ll wake up at all, but that’s not entirely true, as horrible as it sounds.
    So instead I open the door to Gabriel’s room and go in to sit on the side of the bed. Danny’s cold and still as always, his long lashes brushing his cheeks. One hand lies palm up on the comforter, and I take it in mine, rubbing it gently.
    “Danny,” I whisper, leaning down to press the word to his lips. “Danny, wake up.”
    He doesn’t stir, and for a moment it’s just as terrifying as Ryan’s phone call last summer, when I heard the word dead . It doesn’t matter that Danny and I can’t be together the way I wanted to, that everyone’s life would be easier if he just kept sleeping. I loved him, still love him, and God, this is going to suck so very much no matter what.
    This time, though, I want a chance to say good-bye.
    “Danny,” I say again, louder now, and concentrate on the energy inside me, drawing it tight and neat. “Wake up now, Danny.”
    I have to scramble out of the way, because he sits up immediately, eyes opening slowly, as if he hasn’t been in something like a coma since almost six o’clock last night.
    “Wren,” he says, and his smile is just as slow. But a moment later, it dims. “Wren.”
    I wish there was a way to make him forget again, to take him back to the moments before the accident, when there was nothing but music on the radio and the wind through the open windows and the sweet rush of a few beers in his blood, but the thought of using more magic to rearrange what’s in his head also terrifies me.
    “Hi.” I grip his hand tighter so he keeps looking at me, and I give my best smile. “Let’s go for a ride.”
    Beside me on the backseat of Olivia’s car, Danny shuts his eyes and lets his head fall back. “It feels good. The air.”
    I hold his hand tighter, meeting Olivia’s eyes in the rearview mirror. He didn’t question me when I explained that she was my friend, and he didn’t balk at the car, even though the last car he remembers must be Becker’s. As long as I’m holding on to him, he seems pretty calm, but it still feels