I’m not sure if that’s selfishness speaking or because it’shimI don’t want leaving.
Lynx motions to our surroundings and the fence he’ll never be able to get very far from. “This is Hell.”
“Give me thirty seconds to send you back permanently.”
His eyes harden with something that looks like betrayal and panic. He points an accusatory finger at me. “All this time, you knew the spell to?—”
I shove him because I can, and I want to touch something warm. “No, you idiot. I’m saying I’m going to kill you?—”
We both still when a car drives right past us. A police cruiser.
Toward the manor.
My attention catches on something bluish cream partially hidden under fallen leaves on the other side of the driveway. Swirls of ink decorate the meaty human arm crawling with maggots, and my gut falls beneath my feet. It looks fresh.
Someone else died here.
That means we’ve doubled the likelihood that someone new will take ownership of the house and turn my situation from bad to worse.
“What the fuck was that?” Lynx is all but gawking at the cop car that’s disappeared round the bend.
I frown at him before shaking my head. “We have to get back.” I don’t wait for him to follow. I fist a handful of his shirt and yank him forward. He stumbles along, clearly perturbed by something I can’t bring myself to give two shits about.
Keeping the police from finding the bodies is as much for his ass as it is for mine.
None of this is funny anymore. If the police find my body, they’ll know I’m dead, and again my thoughts turn to my parents. I’m not sure whether they’re even allowed to own property after what they did, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s a possibility.
As is them being let out of prison.
Then I’d be forced into a house with them. Watching them. Witnessing the vile things my mother says. Seeing them live their lives while Ella and I are both dead.
I can’t do it. Won’t. I refuse.
And I would rather die all over again than let them get a single penny from selling the manor.
The cops need to leave, and every single corpse on this property needs to be six feet under where no one will find them.
Lynx opens his mouth and squares up to me like he’s ready for me to stab him again, but the panic in my eyes and the factthat I’ve broken into a run must make the few brain cells in his thick skull register that I’m not playing.
“What type of beast was that?” He runs ahead of me, clearly pacing himself so he’s close enough to hear my response.
Beast?
“That’s a car.”
Lynx frowns like I haven’t answered his question, but his expression becomes one of pure determination. It’s the face of someone riding into battle.
My nonexistent pulse skyrockets when he looks over his shoulder at me and his eyes flash red. Horns protrude from his head, and I swear to God he grows almost a foot in height. As if this situation couldn’t get any worse, he speeds ahead in his demon form.
Fucking hell, I didn’t die just to finally take up cardio.
I put every ounce of energy I have into willing my legs to move faster and intermittently hiss out his name between pants. Whether by miracle or pure ghostly talent, when I manage to get a couple of feet away, I launch myself at him, tackling him a couple yards away from the tree line that breaks into the clearing.
I heave oxygen into my lungs, shivering from the adrenaline as the car drives around the fountain and comes to a stop right in front of the entrance.
A squeal escapes my lips when Lynx flips over so I’m straddled beneath his weight. All the air is punched from me as I take in the monster towering above me, his black shirt straining against the expanse of sprawling muscle. Heat seeps through the fabric and licks my skin as if it’s the first time sunlight has touched me. One hand is braced beside my head as he leans over me, fanning my warming flesh with his hot breath.
It’s almost enough to make me forget entirely about our unwanted guests.
