A steel storm stirred in his intense eyes. “Haven’t you witnessed enough? I am the dark, cursed stranger they all warned you about,” he mocked, his chest rising and falling heavily, and he slapped his palm over his chest. “I could kill you. Ishouldhave killed you,” he said with a battle in his eyes. “It’s who I am.”
“I don’t know what exactly happened last night, but whatever happened, it wasn’t your fault …” I started to say, and he dropped his head, shaking it as if he was refusing to hear it. “I saw you. You were scared, and it was almost like…”
Julian tilted his chin and looked at me from the corner of his eyes. “Like what?”
My mouth went dry. “I don’t know, like you needed me…” The words sounded strange outside my head. “And something tells me you would never intentionally hurt me or anyone, and maybe I can help.” I paused to catch my breath. “I don’t see you the same way they do, Julian. I’m not afraid like the rest of them.”
“Don’t be stupid. You’re afraid ofsomething,and that’s enough.” Julian raised his brows. “Do you have any idea what I can do?” he asked, and I snapped my jaw shut. “Whenever you see my face in its entirety, all you’ll be able to see is your fears. And when you looked at me last night, I was there with you in that dark place you’re so afraid of. I felt your terror. I heard your screams. I felt it in my own throat! Whatever happened between us in the woods,” he leaned over, looked me in the eyes with my head in the palms of his hands, “Whateverthatwas, it was torn away as soon as you looked at me. You should have died.”
Oxygen had frozen in my lungs, and my heart raced as if all the stars had died and shot across the skies of my chest.
Realization dawned in Julian’s eyes at how close we were, and he pulled his hands away and ran one through his hair, gripping the back of his neck.
Everything Fable and Monday had told me about the Hollow Heathens were true. They were cursed, and I witnessed it first-hand. I had looked at his face and was thrown back into the well of my childhood.
The reality of it all crept along my spine. “How did I get home? I don’t remember going home after that.”
“You passed out, and I brought you home.” Julian released a heavy breath and tilted his head. “I can tell the difference, and your fear seemed more like a memory. How did you end up in that place? Is that why you are afraid of the dark?”
My brows snapped together. “Thedark?” There was an unintentional bite in my words, and I didn’t mean for it to come out that way. I shook my head. “It’s not the dark I’m afraid of.”
“Then what is it?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes,” he snapped.
“Why?”
Julian sat beside me at the edge of the mattress and dropped his elbows to his knees, hanging his head between his shoulders. A heavy exhale left him as I held mine, waiting for a response.
When he lifted his head, his gaze slid to mine from the corners of his eyes. “You’re the only person who’s looked into my face that I haven’t killed. You survived, and it doesn’t make sense. No one has survived me before.”
For some reason, I trusted the stranger in my room who had the power to pull me back into my fears. I had no reason to trust him, but I did. If all this was true, Julian had experienced that terrible night from when I was a kid right along with me less than twenty-four hours ago, and he was the only one who could understand it.
We were connected in some kind of way.
My entire body shifted on the mattress to face him.
“Confinement,” I spilled, my fingers fidgeting in my lap. I’d never told anyone before, and it felt as if a burden lifted with my confession. “Small places, walls, confinement, my freedom taken away … being trapped. All of it. If I can’t escape …” I couldn’t finish the sentence. I couldn’t think more about it, so I let it die off there, and it was as if the world had gone silent with my declaration. Even the cold wind blowing in seemed to calm.
Julian turned too, giving me all of his attention. “Tell me what happened.”
And his hand came over my naked thigh. It felt so new and familiar at the same time, and a shudder ripped up the ladder of my spine. He was here, making places tingle that had never been touched, gazing at me with a fierce tenderness. He was here, making me feel things I’d never felt before.
I scanned the room, questioning if I was even awake. Maybe I’d never woken up at all.
Reality bends here. “Isthisreal?” I think I asked aloud, the sound of the clock sitting on my nightstand ticking, playing behind the silence.
Julian tilted his head, catching my eyes with his. “Do you want it to be?”
“Yes.” I’d said it so quickly, not having to think.Yes, I did.
“Tell me what happened,” he insisted.
Casper meowed from the armoire, watching our exchange closely, and Julian removed his hand and leaned back against the bed, bracing himself up with his palms on each side of him. The man was gentle and intense. How was it possible? The moonlight dragged a shadow across him, and his light eyes punched through the layer of darkness, probing for me to continue. So, I did, but not without a shaken breath.
“I was only seven. The kids on my street constantly teased and harassed me, followed me all the way home from the bus stop. They used to call me the spawn of Satan, an evil witch ...freakshow. Whatever evil thing you could imagine, that’s what they called me.‘Don’t look into her eyes,’they’d say,” and my words broke at the seams of my childhood.
