It was as the Tube jerked to a stop at Goodge Street station that I saw it.

There it was, at the farthest end of the train. A flicker of black leather, in the corner of my vision.

I tensed. I gripped the lip of the seat, straining my eyes to see. The train chugged on, and the blonde teenager sitting next to me picked at her nose in a leisurely manner.

Nothing happened.

I told myself I was being stupid – my nerves were all over the place lately. A cool, disembodied voice announced the next stop: Leicester Square.

Only one to go. A succession of dark tunnels blurred past. Nose Picker seemed happy at a particularly promising catch. I began to relax again when I heard it, near me. The velvet of a deep voice, apologising to a woman.

Then I knew.

It couldn't be. Was this coincidence? It had to be. He couldn't have been following me, despite his claims the other day – London was too large a city to manage to keep track of someone successfully. At least that was what I thought. What I'd hoped. And maybe – maybe he hadn't even seen me. Maybe he was going on about his life and we'd just happened to be on the same train.

But I knew I was lying to myself.

He'd found me.

The train whistled to a halt at Leicester Square. My heart was beating hard, and as I rummaged inside my bag, my heart sank. How could I be such a prize idiot? I'd left my dagger back at home.

Crap.

Then the doors hissed open, and the crowd inside the carriage surged forward. I stood, abruptly. This was my chance. I had to make a run for it, even if it wasn't my stop. Although it rankled me to admit it, I was powerless without Sebastian against Kal. I wouldn't make it to lunch with Vanessa, but it couldn't be helped. I suspected she preferred a cancelling friend to a dead one.

He'd humiliated me the other day by leaving me curled on the grass. It had hurt more than the white-bright pain that had burst into me at the blow.

I'd make him pay for it.

The crowd swallowed me up as we spilt out into the platform. I hoped that way I'd blend in and he'd lose track of me. If he'd seen me before, that is. I glanced back over my shoulder, even though I knew it was a bad idea.

Among the jostling, sweating mass of people, Kal Mellketh's eyes rose, like a magnet. They met mine. He smiled a small smile, no teeth, all grimness.

I swore. I hurried my steps, shoving people out of the way. Not fast enough. I couldn't move fast enough. He was right there behind me. He was going to get me and I was going to be Forgotten and it would have all been in vain and I loathed him so and I wanted him so and I wouldn't stand a chance against him without my dagger, he was twice as large as me and why did people walk as though they were strolling through a sunlit meadow?

I broke into a trot. I collided with the man immediately before me, making him lose his balance and drop his briefcase. The people behind him slowed. That was good, I figured. That meant Kal got slowed down too.

"Hey, watch where you're going," the man said.

I didn't bother apologising. There's a time and place for niceties, and right now it wasn't.

Then, somewhere behind me, I heard my name.

"That, Rae," Kal said, "was rather rude of you, you know. Tut tut."

This time I didn't look back. I couldn't afford to lose a single second.

So I ran.

I ran out of the platform and into a wide corridor. I could feel people staring at me, but I kept running, not in the calculated way I ran at the Royal Park Station, all steady breathing and measured steps. I ran the way I did at races, the way I loved to run, skin bright, blood buzzing with adrenaline.

But this time I was running for my life.

A stitch burned in my ribcage, and my throat had dried up. I hated this, running away instead of facing him. It was weak. But it was wise too, I knew.

It was the only way.

Round a corner. Past a busker with a violin. Down a flight of steps. A woosh of warm air announced the arrival of a nearby train, and I sped up, tripping up in the process. I staggered to my feet again. My lungs were aching. The crowd had thinned to two or three people before me, who were bolting down the stairs too, hoping to catch the oncoming train.

I didn't know where these steps lead to. I didn't know where I was going. I didn't care.

Another step down, and another. I knew Kal was behind me, somewhere. The carriage doors were still open when I burst out onto a familiar platform. The train let out a loud hooting. The couple ahead of me squealed, and squeezed inside the carriage just as the doors whistled closed.

They closed in my face.

I slammed to a stop in front of the train, wheezing for air. Frantically I jabbed at the buttons on the door, to no avail. The doors remained closed. Then the train hummed into motion. With a growing sense of doom, I watched it pull away and disappear through the tunnel.

I was alone at Victoria station.

Except I wasn't.

A rustle behind my back. I spun around. And there he was, Kal Mellketh, all six feet of him, all glossy hair and black leather that shone under the glaring Underground light. He was smiling.

My stomach gave a painful somersault.

"Hey," Kal said, as casual as anything. He stood ahead of me, blocking the corridor. "Seems like we keep bumping into each other. If I were superstitious, you know what I'd call this?

I answered despite myself. "What?"

He lowered his voice, in a conspiratorial fashion: "Destiny."

Tensely, I looked about me – but there was nowhere to run. He started to walk forward, in my direction, and I retreated away from him, backwards.

"I'm getting a little tired of this, Rae," Kal said. "Of this cat and mouse game."

And now he was right in front of me, forcing me to back up against an arched wall that advertised the best burger place in the city. A beer can clanked under my feet. The blood was thrumming in my throat.

"That's a bit presumptuous of you," I croaked. "To think you're the cat and I'm the mouse."

I looked at his face. The delicate curve of his mouth, the shape of his bones. I felt an ache start inside me. I tried not to think about what we could have been. I tried not to imagine what his skin on mine would have felt like.

His lips twitched. "I never said I did, darling." He dropped his head forward and spoke into my ear. "You're not so bold today, without that cute little dagger of yours, are you?"

I glowered. "I can hold my own no problem."

"Of course you can," Kal said. "But you won't."

His hands blurred forward. A second later, my arms were pinned up against the wall, and his whole body was pressed up against mine, preventing movement of any kind. I stiffened. I could feel the heat that rolled off his skin. His smell wafted around me, drowning out my senses until I could think of nothing else but him.

"Let go of me, bastard," I hissed, thrashing, but his grasp was firm. "Let go!"

His hands were warm around my wrists. Maddeningly, a jolt of desire coursed through me, making me tremble with the force of it.

What was happening to me?

"I'm losing my patience, Rae," Kal whispered.

His mouth hovered over my neck, disturbingly near. My hair was standing on an end. An inch closer – just an inch closer – I imagined the feel of his lips on my tender skin and felt a shudder of delight run through me –

"I've got to kill you, you know," Kal said.

"Of course you do," I murmured. "But you won't."

He gazed down at me. His eyes were hard and bright. His chest was heaving. And then, not loosening his grip on my wrists, he leaned down and kissed me.

*

It wasn't a shy sort of kiss – Kal didn't do shy. It wasn't gentle, or even tentative, an awkward fumbling of skin against skin.

No. It was rough. Ravenous, delicious. Backed up against the wall, wrestling with one another. I could feel the hunger strumming his body. It sang in my blood and pulsed under my skin. He tasted just the way he smelled, of coffee, of the way the air feels just before a summer storm. My heart was juddering so hard it hurt.

He'd let go of my wrists. I felt his hands sliding down my back before resting around my waist. He pulled me closer to him, urgently, and I felt my whole body responding to his touch. I was powerless against it.

I weaved my fingers through his hair, marvelling at this glorious moment, marvelling at –

Hang on.

What was I doing?

I wrenched myself free, gasping.

"Kal?"

Breathing hard, he looked down at me. I saw a riot of emotions dashing across his face.

"Yes?" His voice was unsteady for the first time.

"That was nice," I said. "And I'm sorry about this, I think. Close your eyes, now."

I brought my foot up and slammed it into his groin.