But I saw nothing. Nothing but a jumble of rocks and the gray, turbulent water.

Cal staggered up beside me. I met his eyes. He looked horrified, pale and hollow and weak. "Goddess, he's already gone," Cal murmured. "He must have hit the water, and the current…" He was breathing hard, his dark hair wet with snow and traces of blood.

"We have to call someone," I said softly, reaching out to touch him. "We have to tell someone about Hunter. And we have to take care of your wrists. Do you think you can get back to the house?"

Cal just shook his head. "Morgan," he said in a broken voice. "You saved me." With fingers swollen from hitting Hunter, he touched my cheek and said tenderly, "You saved me. Hunter was going to kill me, but you protected me from him, like you said you would. I love you" He kissed me, his lips cold and tasting of blood. "I love you more than I ever knew I could. Today our future truly begins."

I didn't know what to say. My thoughts had stopped swirling; they had vanished altogether. My mind was a void, I put my arm around him as he began to limp back through the woods, and I couldn't help glancing over my shoulder to the cliff's edge, ft was ail too much to take in, everything that had happened, and I concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, feeling Cal rest some of his weight on me as we slogged through the snow.

And then I remembered: it was November 23.

I wondered what time it was—I knew it was very late. I had been born and two-seventeen in the morning on November 23. I decided I must already be officially seventeen. I swallowed. This was the first day of my seventeenth year. What would tomorrow bring.