She heard James swearing and then suddenly he was back in the room with her. He slapped a piece of tape over her mouth and then leaned over to whisper harshly, “It looks as if your ex has found me somehow. I have to answer the door, but you will keep quiet. Not a sound!”
As soon as he was gone, she rolled onto her front and squirmed to get off the bed. Ethan was there? With Zach? She had to see them. Had to warn them. She fell to the floor with a loud thump, bashing her knees on the hard, wooden floor and straining her arms where they pulled back behind her.
James swung back through the door, glaring. “Why don’t you ever fucking listen?”
There was another impatient bang at the door, and he turned toward it, calling out loudly, “Just one fucking minute!”
He paused for a moment, his eyebrows drawn together in a dark frown. Then he pulled a small tube from his pocket, opened it, and poured something dark and sticky into his hand. He rubbed it between his fingers while pulling up a Shadow and swiftly mixing the two into an oily tar-like substance.
No. Kay knew what that Shadow felt like. The acidic, burning horror of it. She squirmed frantically, trying to escape, but got caught against the bed, where all she could manage was to flop uselessly against the floor.
She tried to scream, but it emerged as frantic squeaks around the tape as she forced herself up onto her knees, arms wrenched behind her. Before she could get any further, James opened his hand and slicked the black slime all over the back of her neck.
The immediate sense of dissociation was terrifying. It was as if she was watching her body from a great distance while tendrils of corrosive Shadow worked their way up into her hair, penetrating like an icy fog into her brain.
James spoke, his voice reverberating inside her mind, controlling her, as he whispered menacingly, “Now you’ll do as you’re told.”
He yanked the tape off her mouth and pulled out his knife to cut it away from her arms and legs.
“Sit. And keep quiet.” He gestured at the bed, and Kay found herself obeying the order, even as she tried frantically tried to force herself to stay standing.
Her body was filled with a pervading sense of wrongness, but she was trapped, unable to escape. She tried to speak but couldn’t move her mouth. Darkness gathered at the edges of her vision as the skin on the back of her neck throbbed, and her limbs refused to move.
Burning pins and needles flooded down her arms as the blood rushed back, and her body swayed, locked and helpless as she tried to scream but only choked on the dark Shadows.
Darkness. Pain burning down her arms. Something viscous and foul clogging her mouth. God. It was her dream. Elizabeth’s vision.
James stalked out the room, pulling the door half-closed behind him.
His attention moved away from her and the pressure on her mind eased a fraction. She twitched her fingers desperately, managing to move them just enough to form a tiny Shadow—a delicate tendril—which she sent crawling up her back to peel away at the leechlike Shadow that had settled under her hair on the back of her neck.
In the next room, she heard James open the front door and bark, “What do you want?”
Ethan’s voice came through clearly, low and angry. “Hello, James.”
Next, she heard Zach’s puzzled voice asking, “What’s this, James? Since when do you have another flat?”
“It’s no big deal, I’ve had it for a while. Sometimes I need a bit of space.” James’s laugh was loud and fake. “How did you even find me?”
Ethan ignored the question. “You and I have some things to discuss. But first, I’m looking for Kay.”
She closed her eyes against the helpless tears gathering. She had never expected to see Ethan again. Never wanted to see the look of disbelief and revulsion that he’d directed at her, ever again. And yet, here he was. He and Zach were her only chance of escape.
“She doesn’t want to see you,” James stated coldly.
Ethan’s voice was rough. “James, I don’t know what you thought you were doing this morning, but I know that it was a lie. I’ve spoken to Zach and Elizabeth. They know you’re not engaged to Kay, and I do too. I want to see her, and I think she’s here.”
Ever so slowly, fighting the compulsion, fighting her own frozen limbs, Kay managed to pull herself to standing. Her body shook as sweat broke out over her forehead, dripping down her back. Using every scrap of strength she had, she forced the tiny tendrils of Shadow that she’d freed to tug urgently at the darkness on her neck.
“If you see her, will you go away?” James asked, voice worryingly smug.
“Yes, if she’s well and she doesn’t want me here,” Ethan said while Zach grunted noncommittally.
“I’ll ask her.” James flung the door open, closing it quickly behind him and frowning when he saw she was standing. He strode across to her and lifted her collar, sliding her hair down to cover the black sludge on her neck.
“Go out and keep quiet.” The harsh pull of his command through the Shadow on her neck nearly took her back to her knees, but she couldn’t disobey.
She stepped shakily into the living room, forced to move by James’s order. And then jerked to a shuddering stop at a small shake of his finger.
