‘Avalon?’ he said in disbelief.
I shook my head quickly. ‘You have me confused with someone else,’ I squeaked. He dropped his hands, and I took the opportunity to duck under his arms.
I didn’t get far. He grabbed my cloak before I had taken two steps. The collar was tight around my neck. Coughing, I spun around ready to defend myself, but found that his expression was one of desperation.
‘I’ve been hoping to run into you!’ he said with wide eyes.
‘I’m sorry, I don’t know you,’ I croaked, positioned so I was ready to sprint at any moment. Part of me wanted to attack, the rest wanted to run.
‘Please,’ Noah said quickly. ‘Will you talk with me?’
I shook my head vigorously. ‘No … no. I have to go.’
This was not something I had planned on, seeing Noah. It was because of him I’d lost my Power for several weeks.
I pushed the thought from my mind. Don’t think about that, I told myself. Don’t think about what he did.
His hand clamped around my wrist.
‘Avalon,’ Noah’s gentle voice whispered. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
Noah stared into my eyes. Slowly, he raised a hand and took the fabric between his thumb and forefinger, tugging it below my chin.
He gave a sigh of relief as he observed my uncovered face, before removing the hood from my head.
‘What do you want?’ I said with as much venom as I could muster.
‘Please,’ he said, ‘let’s go somewhere and talk.’
‘You don’t deserve my time,’ I hissed, wrenching my arm from his grip.
‘You don’t understand-’
I was furious. Enraged. I stood on my toes and poked Noah in his broad chest. ‘How dare you,’ I said through gritted teeth. ‘How dare you even talk to me after what you did. You’re lucky I don’t set you alight at this very moment.’
Noah looked genuinely surprised. ‘You … you got your Power back?’ he asked.
‘No thanks to you!’ I spat.
‘Oh, thank goodness!’ He seemed genuinely relieved.
‘What?’
‘I thought … well … after Madeline-’
‘What does this have to do with her?’ I asked.
Noah chewed his bottom lip and looked around nervously. ‘Please … won’t you talk with me in private?’
‘Why should I?’
‘I need to explain … I need to apologise.’
‘Why should I trust you?’ For all I knew, Noah could be planning to hand me over to his father, with whom I was on bad terms; because of having broken his nose, destroying his possessions, and escaping his Human dungeon. Or worse, he could alert the guards and have me arrested.
Or, said a tiny voice inside my head, he might genuinely want to apologise. Would it be stupid of me to believe him? Probably. But then again, I wasn’t known for making the smartest decisions.
‘Say what you need to,’ I said, looking over my shoulder, worried that passersby might recognise me.
Noah looked around too, his heavy brow furrowed in concern. It seemed he was not too thrilled about talking in public, but one thing was certain; I did not want to go anywhere alone with him.
He nodded to a tavern down the way that had a large, wooden sign featuring a griffin hanging above the door.
‘Let’s go to the Griffin Inn,’ he said hopefully.
‘How can I trust you?’ I was breathing hard through my nostrils. Luckily, I was wearing my fireproof ensemble, because I could feel my core temperature rising at an alarming rate.
‘Look, it’s a busy place that gets a lot of weird folk. No one is going to pay any attention to either of us, even if your face is plastered across every city in the country. Just wear your hood and no one will ask questions, okay?’
My breath hitched in my throat. ‘O-okay.’
Noah stepped past me and led the way towards the Griffin Inn, a place I had never entered before. Without knowing why, I fell into step behind him, tagging along in his shadow. My legs felt as though someone else were controlling them because they were moving of their own accord.
We entered the crowded Inn; I followed the path that Noah created through the crowd as he led me to a two-seater table at the back of the room.
He pulled the chair out for me to sit on. I scowled beneath my scarf and yanked the chair from his hand before sitting down. With a sigh, Noah took the opposite seat and leaned against the table, staring intently at me.
‘What do you want?’ I said as calmly as I could muster.
‘I want to explain,’ said Noah. ‘I can see that you are furious with me, and you have every right to be-’
‘I should have set you on fire the moment I saw you-’
Noah held up a hand to silence me; I flared my nostrils angrily.
‘I know I did something terrible … and I know you will never forgive me-’ I opened my mouth to speak, but he continued quickly, ‘-and I don’t expect you to. In fact, I don’t want you to forgive me, because I can’t forgive myself. But I wanted to chance to explain-’