“You return me home unharmed, and I don’t tell anyone about you or your spell. I know.”
He nodded once and then turned to go. Just like that.
“Wait!” she said as he unfurled his wings.
He turned back with a brow lifting in question.
“How can I get in touch with you? In case I need anything …” She trailed off, wincing as he continued to stare blankly at her.
“I will come to you when it’s time to complete the spell.”
“I know, but how do I …” She shook her head. “Nevermind.” She was being ridiculous. She didn’t have any reason to contact him, and she didn’t need to worry about him not coming. He needed her blood.
He frowned.
“I’ll wait for you to come get me,” she said with a dismissive wave, forcing herself to sound unaffected. “You’ve proven you can track me down easily enough.”
He searched her gaze for a moment. Then he gave her that little half smile again and said, “See you soon, witchling.”
She lifted a hand in farewell.
He crouched and sprang, and with several pumps of his powerful wings, he was airborne. He flew up to the balcony and then was gone.
Alone, Suyin clutched her jacket over her heart. What the hell was wrong with her? Why did she feel like this?
I think … I might have feelings for him.
She closed her eyes. Surely she was not that stupid.
Swallowing the lump in her throat, she transferred her bag of food and goth-boot-camp clothes to the other shoulder and looked down the dark street. It was time to go home and pick up the pieces of her life after Murmur had broken it.
When Suyin made it home, she stood in the hot shower for at least thirty minutes. She thoroughly scrubbed her hair and then let the hot water pummel her shoulders until the stiff muscles started to loosen.
After blow-drying her hair, she threw on herNight of the Living DeadT-shirt and climbed into bed. She plugged her phone in at her nightstand, and when the battery charged enough, she fired it up. The first thing she did was check the date.
She cursed. She’d been gone for a whole month. It simultaneously felt like far longer than that and no time at all.
The same text with minor adjustments had been sent to all her regular contacts, which included Iris, a few of her friends, and members of her coven. Her parents were gone, and she had no living relatives that she was aware of.
In a way, she was just as much of a recluse as Murmur, wasn’t she?
All his creepy stalking had paid off too, because he’d known exactly what to say to make her friends not suspicious of her disappearance.
Iris had sent a reply, telling her to enjoy her time away and let her know when she was back in town. Her coven members assured her she was well deserving of some time off and they would cover her shifts at the shop as long as she needed. A few had emailed asking for help with their studies, but they all said their questions weren’t pressing and urged her to take her time and respond when she was ready.
And Murmur, that devious fucker, had phrased her messages exactly in her tone. Was he that masterful at impersonating her, or did they both just suck that terribly at communicating?
She hated that she didn’t know.
She hated that she’d been snatched off the face of the earth and thrown into a dungeon, and no one had been worried about her. She hated that one text message was all it took for the people in her life to forget her completely.
She’d done such a good job keeping everyone at arm’s length, there wasn’t a single person who would miss her if she disappeared. If Murmur had killed her, how long would it have taken them to start wondering where she was? Several months? A year?
It was a depressing thought.
The first person she replied to was Iris. She hadn’t come close to forgetting what Murmur had told her about Iris’s boyfriend.
I’m back. We need to talk, she texted.
