Page 52 of Autumn Queens & Shadows

“Who needs hugs?”

“Idiots like you.”

“Thora.”

“Stop saying my name like it is a full sentence and just tell me what’s wrong.”

“Put the necklace back on.”

Pulling back my sleeve, I lifted my arm up to his face so he could see the yellow stone dangling from its chain wrapped around my wrist. “It wouldn't go with my dress. Will you stop being pissy about it now?”

“Pissy?” he asked, almost offended.

“Yes, pissy. Why won’t you tell me what happened at the lake? It’s like…it was like…you were there and then you weren’t.”

“Don’t take that necklace off, ever,” he said, changing the topic entirely.

That was when I angrily began taking it off.

He was quick to wrap it back on and pull me to him. “Thora.”

“Not a full sentence,” I sneered.

“It is to me,” he calmly replied, putting it back on after I tried to take it off a second time. “Don’t take it off. Me and you are not tied beyond this realm. Something happens to me or you, I won’t be able to find you. I had Oryn place some of my essence inside the stone while you were sleeping one night.”

“Creep,” I murmured, my struggle dying off, but something else began knocking hard against my chest. “I’m going to heavens. We won’t ever be in the same place beyond.”

“Sure thing.”

Looking away so he wouldn’t see what his words had done to me, I said, “I’ve done nothing to grant me hells.”

“Talking back to me like this sure has, you little hellion.”

“Why should I even listen to you, Malik?” He wasn’t listening to me. He wasn’t talking to me. We were two people who had just learnt to comfortably share the same space without doing much, and I didn’t like that at all. Because I wanted to talk to him, listen to him. Since we’d left White Bridge a couple months ago, my mind wasn’t drifting off so much anymore. It had been long since I suspected it was because of him. Like he said, we were two sides of the same chipped coin. It felt comfortable sharing even the worst of my thoughts with him.

He lowered his eyes to mine, taking a little time to answer. Looking at me like he’d find the answer there. “Because I am your friend. Best friend. The very best, actually. Friendship bracelets, hair braiding, secret telling best friends,” he said ever so simply, folding my dress sleeve back so that the necklace was exposed, and then lowering it to my side.

The idiot. “Why would you want to find me beyond?”

After giving me one of those looks he usually wore to tell me he didn’t wish to answer me, he raised a hand to my fringe, pushing it to the side. “Don’t take the fucking thing off.”

I shook my head, letting my fringe fall back into place. “I want to put a leash on you, too.”

His mouth twitched. “You got your hands wrapped around my throat, isn’t that good enough?”

“Are you sure it is my hands?”

“I’m sure. Gangly and fucking cold all the damn time.”

My hands weren’t gangly. Sure, they were thin and bony, but I wouldn't call them gangly. “If I tell you a secret I’ve not told you before, will you tell me what happened back at the lake?”

“And those damn little, cold fingers just keep squeezing and squeezing.”

“You’re letting me, and you love it, you sadistic—”

He put a hand over my mouth and grinned. “What secret?”

“You first,” I sputtered, pushing his hand away from my face.