Ollie is silent for a moment. I take in what he’s said. He’s not wrong; his logic isn’t faulty. But blaming himself—that’s so unfair.

“I guess if you have monster DNA…” Ollie says, and I can’t be sure, but I think he’s fighting off tears. “You’re little more than a monster yourself.”

I have no words. I have no idea what to say, so I do the only thing I can think of. I stand up and bridge the gap between us, wrapping my arms around him. I feel the softness of his gray sweater on my cheek, and his body underneath. I feel his breath mingling with my own as we both stand there, holding on for dear life.

Then I feel his lips on mine. I’m so taken aback at first, I don’t react.

Ollie’s hands are on my body, and every one of my nerve endings is standing at attention. He’s kissing me, and his hands are cradling my face. It’s the gentlest kiss I’ve ever experienced—not that I have much to compare it to, anyway—but all I keep thinking is that it’s so tender. He tilts his head slightly to the side, deepening the kiss, and the entire world becomes background noise as we stand there, our bodies closer than they’ve ever been in the nine years since we’ve been inseparable. But never like this. Definitely not like this. And he’s not Levi, and I know that, because Levi doesn’t feel like this… Familiar and knowable and constant, warm like the cookies Jane used to pull from her oven…

I push away from him, flustered, confused, and utterly stunned—but it’s too late. I don’t know how many seconds passed while we were kissing, but enough that it happened. Enough to make that kiss real.

I gasp for breath, the reality of this sinking in—you kissed Ollie you kissed Ollie you kissed Ollie.

Is it possible to go into shock…from a kiss?

“Levi?” I say, feeling like I’m seeing a ghost.

“No, not Levi,” Ollie replies, his voice rough and low and, in a way I never noticed before, actually sexy. “Oliver.”

“No,” I gasp. “I don’t mean that you’re… Look.” Ollie turns now to follow my gaze, and he sees for himself what I’m talking about.

There, across the grass, standing in the late-afternoon light, is Levi.

The Legacy Project

Levi is here.

Is my mind playing tricks on me? Levi can’t be here, at Darkwood. Not when Gravelle told me he wouldn’t be coming back here. Not when… I can’t even let myself think about it. Not when he saw you and Oliver kissing, seconds ago.

Levi won’t know that Ollie kissed me, and not the other way around. It’s too mortifying to consider.