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I glanced at the door. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“No.” He sniffed. “I don’t suppose you do. I keep asking you what this little Grim of Reapers is up to, and you don’t ever seem to have an answer.”
My tongue was too big for my mouth.
“Does Charon plan to take Quietus from me?” Mr. Bub cocked his head to the side. When he blinked, there was a half-second delay between eyes. “Does Charon plan to take my circle from me? Does he plan to push me from my seat at the helm? Hm? Does he plan to steal all of the contracted souls for himself?” He moved so quickly. I hadn’t been able to blink since Mr. Bub had come into the room. My eyes were dry. I knew that I hadn’t blinked. Mr. Bub disappeared and reappeared in front of my face, pinning me to the bed.
“Tell me!” He hissed, spittle flying from his mouth.
My teeth unlocked, and I screamed, my hands flying up to cover my face. And Ipushed. He flew, and the walls didn’t seem to exist as Mr. Bub folded into the air.
My chest heaved as if I had run for miles. My heartbeat roared. My back pressed against the hard mattress, and my eyes fixed dead on the ceiling again as I tried to fight the fear that threatened to overwhelm me.
I didn’t know how long I laid there, but it felt like seconds before the door clicked open. The moment Maddox saw how out of breath I was and how red my face was, he looked guilty.
“I can wait outside if you want to finish whatever it was you were doing.” He muttered, his cheeks pink.
Maddox thought I was masturbating.
It was hard to speak. My tongue felt too dry and big for my mouth. “Come here,” I whispered.
Maddox did as I asked, his arms filled with candy bars and a bag of chips. He dumped them on the chair that Mr. Bub had just vacated. I shivered.
Maddox sat on the edge of the bed.
“I’ll be the big spoon,” I offered. “Just lie down.”
Maddox didn’t argue as he reclined and laid on his side. His front almost hung off the bed, but he didn’t complain.
I wrapped my arms around him. I needed to hold onto something real. I pressed my cheek to the space between his shoulder blades.
I decided just this once that it was okay to have a shield.
Maybe I didn’t have to be alone anymore.
My chest moved in time with Maddox’s, and the sound of his breathing lulled me to sleep. From the warmth of his body radiating through the thing fabric of his shirt, I drifted.
In the same way that my fingertips tingled, and my stomach screamed for me to run, I felt the dream as it slammed down onto me. The feeling akin to the veiled shadow world that the phantoms lived—the drudes that had managed to escape from whatever beast had driven them from hell.
It was the same forest I had dreamt of before, with barren trees stripped of leaves. There were no animals. The only sound was the stale wind as it races through the brittle finger-like branches of the bleach white trees.
I was on guard.
The forest was where I had gotten my first glimpse of the purgers, though I hadn’t known what they were then. Bent low, with my hands balled into fists, I paced through the undergrowth, spongy and rotten though my feet didn’t make a sound, swallowed by the crackling wind.
Every time I shifted, following the shadows on the edge of my vision, my hands drifted in and out of focus as if they didn’t exist from one moment to the next.
I cocked my head to the side, spotting a person in the distance. Someone familiar. Female.
I crept forward, squinting as I tried to place the stranger.
It felt like I was being watched from every direction, but I had to move forward. I had no idea why.
I was closer to the woman. Enough to study the long waves of her almost black hair running down her back. Completely still, like a mannequin.
I hoped to God it wasn’t a trap.
I reached out. I touched her shoulder.
