Page 125 of 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Forty-Two

“What can you do?” she asked, her defenses rising. Shelifted her trembling chin and said, “I was trying to keep you out of this.You’re just a human.”

“Ouch and... what?” He narrowed his gaze onher. “Does that mean you’re not?”

She sucked in a soft breath as though just realizing whatshe’d said. “No, of course, it doesn’t mean that.”

“Okay, what about Benji?”

Her head whipped around to him.“What about him?”

“He almost died, as well. On the exact same day youalmost died, actually.”

She lifted a shoulder.

“And you both survived against impossible odds. Don’t youfind that strange?”

“Not at all. I’m a doctor. I see that kind of thing all thetime.”

“Did you even go to school with Charley?” he asked, beggingher to open up to him. He decided to change tactics.To go for the jugular. “Or was that a lie, too?” He tilted his head and addedsoftly, “Leech.”

She stilled, and a fresh pool of tears gathered between herlashes. He was such an ass.

“You’re not human, are you? Not entirely.”

“You’re not acting very human either at the moment.”

“Maybe not, but at least I was born with this soul. Wheredid yours come from?”

She turned away, but he saw a tear escape through herreflection in the window and fought against the sympathy he felt for her. Itwould do neither of them any good.

“I don’t have much time,” she said after a long moment ofcontemplation. “You’re right. You need to know in case I don’t survive.” Sheturned and faced him to drive her point home. “It will come for Elwyn, andthere’s nothing you can do to stop it.”

Chapter Eight

The real problem with reality is the lack ofbackground music.

—Meme

She no longer had a choice. Sia had to tell the gangthat an entity of pure evil had somehow slipped onto the plane and that itwould come for their beloved Elwyn. Now that Sia knew for certain that Kurschwas responsible for the things that were happening, she had an obligation to report him. The soul eater was a master manipulator of themind, and they needed to know what he was capable of.

Then again, was this even real? Had Donovan really wokenher? Or was this all a part of Kursch’s sick games?

There had been no escaping him in the void. Here, however,there seemed to be obstacles and interferences. How else wouldshe have awakened from her latest horror fest? And why had Kursch left thatcorpse’s body when Donovan broke its neck? The woman was already dead. What dida broken neck matter?

Was it Donovan? Both times, he’d emitted an extreme amountof emotion. The first was when Kursch was about to shoot her. The second whenhe thought she might be hurt or dying in her car. Was that it? Was it humanemotion? Or was it...?

She dropped her gaze and noticed something she hadn’t paidmuch attention to before. Well, she had,actually. Donovan always wore several bracelets on his wrists. Forreasons she couldn’t fathom, she found that fact very sexy. But one of them wasblack with Indigenous symbols on it.

She reached out and touched it. He let her,despite the disgust he must’ve felt. “Is that iron?”

He twisted it around to give her a better view. “It is.”

She covered her mouth with both hands in astonishment. WhenDonovan touched the woman with his bracelet, Kursch had fled. And when hetouched Sia with the same bracelet, Kursch’s presence in her mind haddissipated. They had speculated that iron would hurt the soul eater—or, well,Charley had speculated. She’d given them the answer to defeating Kursch yearsago, and they never knew.

Sia grabbed her phone and texted Benji. Wewere right. Iron is his kryptonite. Tell the others.

“Now that we’ve gotten past the show-and-tell portion of ourprogram, care to elaborate on what exactly is coming for the teacup?”

She no longer cared what Donovan thought about her. He mayhate her. He may find her disgusting, but her elation couldnot be contained. She lunged forward and threw her arms around his neckyet again.