I sigh.
The problem is, I don’t really know what happened. I thought electricity had ignited from me, but the bathroom was fine… I hadn’t set anything on fire this time. Rubbing my head again, I lean back on my other hand, wondering if Sepher and the last few hours happened at all, if I didn’t just slip and hit my skull really hard.
It’s plausible. When he vanished, I fell and banged my temple, and when I opened my eyes, I was alone. Perhaps what I had thought to be reality was all a dream.
I’ve been feeling lonely lately.
No… I’ve been lonely for a while.
Since returning from college and not knowing what to do next in my life… back living around my hometown and helping my parents for money… It’s been hard not to dwell on the past and all the good and bad times. Coming back to Cobbin Lake was supposed to help me. Instead, it has put me in an uncomfortable suspended limbo.
I’ve avoided my past as best I can, but it’s hard when the place of my trauma is literally next door.
Shifting my eyes across the water to the dock to my left, I’m relieved to find it empty, and the boat tied to it covered. I didn’t want to see Zack’s parents, not even a glimpse of them.
I didn’t want to see Zack’sdad.
Water hits my shin, and I glance to my other side. Realizing the waves aren’t strong enough to splash me, I frown, quickly searching the water for the source. A fish? I wipe the water off my shin.
The world abruptly grows hazy around me, and a blanket of fog descends. No longer gray or golden, everything is dark and murky as the lake at night, when the sun is long gone and the only source of light is a flashlight.But the sun had just been setting…
Alarmed, I go to pull my legs out of the water, but a black hand shoots out and grabs my ankle.
A scream tears from my throat as I’m dragged into the lake. Quickly submerged, I struggle, thrashing wildly until hands catch me against a hard chest. The waterwooshesaround me and I emerge from it with another scream, elbowing blindly to fight off my attacker, though I’m already aware who it is.
Dark laughter fills my ears, and I whirl to face him, blinking the rest of the water out of my eyes. When they clear, Sepher’s haughty grinning face is staring back at me, his fangs on full display, his hair wet and gleaming around his shoulders.
“Did you think I would be gotten rid of so easily? You surprise me again, Grace.”
“Sepher,” I spit his name like it’s a curse and push at his chest. “I hate being scared! Why did you have to do that? Anyone can see us—you—and now I’m wet again!” I try to stay angry, but relief floods me at his return, knowing he’s all right. “Surprise you? What do you mean? How are you out here? What happened?” Questions fall from my mouth in disarray. “Are you hurt?” I stop pushing away as his tail comes up to support me in the water. In fact, I ease closer to him, unnerved by the change in scenery around us now that I’m looking around. The shores have disappeared, and the dock is merely a shadow in the distance. “Where are we?”
“So many questions,” he drawls, clearly amused, his eyes unwavering from my face. “To answer the most important one, we are in my home, in the dark waters of my rightful domain.”
What?
Home?“I’m in Hell?” I squeak, pressing my entire body against him as he wraps his arms around me. Suddenly I’m unable to see anything in the distance, or into the black waters immediately around us. The breeze has stopped, and even thesky has gone a dark, churning gray. There are no golden traces of the sun shining behind them anymore.
Stormy and wild, yet eerily silent—we are not in Cobbin Lake.
This is Hell.
I press deeper into Sepher’s arms, sliding my legs around his waist and locking my feet behind him. One of his tentacles comes up to caress the exposed skin of my upper back.
“Yes, but do not worry, little witch.” He seems to relish my tight grip on him. “You are safe with me.” Eyes hooded, he runs his finger down my cheek. “I will keep you safe from those who’d like nothing more than to possess your soul and rend your body in two.”
“Rend me in two? Take me home,” I beg. “Please!” I practically shriek, clasping my arms around his neck and pushing my face into the crook of his shoulder.
I’ve never wanted to be back in Cobbin Lake more in my entire life. Fuck the rest!
“Sweet, innocent Grace.I already have.”
Chapter 12
A Second Summoning
Sepher
“Sepher! This isnotmy home!”
