"I can choose again!" Adrian said, desperate. "Give me one more chance. I'll prove—"
"No."
Snow gathered on his lashes. Without warning, he drove his injured right hand down into the steps. Again. And again. Blood from the reopened palm bled into the snow. "I was ungrateful. I took your patience for granted… Cassandra, please, don't look at me like that…"
"Like what?"
"Like I'm a stranger."
I didn't answer. He was worse than a stranger. A stranger wouldn't have known my most closely guarded weak points, or stood on the enemy's side holding the gun I gave him.
The door to the main house opened behind me. Leon came out in a black shirt. The wound at his waist hadn't healed, but his stride gave away nothing. He opened an umbrella over me, keeping the snow off my head and leaving his own
