He didn’t reply, just snickered as we scooped the hellblazers’ pellets. Laken and I’d been feeding together, but aside from that, he did his own thing and I did mine. Not that I expected him to spend every waking hour with me—or even wanted him to for that matter.
“You said the other day the Wraiths call you Ghost; do you all have nicknames?” I asked, desperate to escape the silence between us and itching to know more.
“They aren’t nicknames,” he corrected, cracking open the chickens’ gate. I’d grown more adjusted to the smell, but it remained gross. “They’re like aliases. I can’t go around chanting, ‘I’m Laken Augustus,’ can I?”
Entering their enclosure, I followed behind him, ready to use his body as a shield if needed. “Have you ever been recognized?”
We stepped around the pen, going around the coop to their feeders. Laken did it with ease, but I still didn’t trust the mother-cluckers.
“No,” he sneered, tossing a quick look at me. “We wear masks. Nobody has seen my face.”
Wrinkling my nose, I glared at him. “You know, you have a way of answering my questions that’s…”
“Informative?” he guessed.
“Infuriating,” I corrected.
He finished pouring his feed out; I was already checking for eggs. “You have a way of asking questions that’s…”
“Inquisitive?” I yelled, deep in the nest box.
“Insufferable.”
What?I banged my head on the edge. Unusually snappy for him. Pulling out with two more eggs, I watched him stand from the feeders. “What? You don’t like talking about your secret life?”
“Not particularly.”
Fine.“So what’ve you been up to? What do you do when you aren’t helping me?” I don’t know why I asked—or… okay, I did know, but I’d rather not acknowledge it.
“Nothing much,” he replied. “I’ve gone to Rabbit’s Foot a time or two, seeing old friends. Roman and Will still live here, did you know?” I shook my head. “Been at my parents’ place a bit as well, helping my mother with another school project. You know how she is.”
Oh.“So that’s it?”
Laken raised his brows over his shoulder.
“I meant, you’ve been back longer than I have, I didn’t know if you… you know, you spent your time with anyone specific or anything…” My voice trailed off.Spent your time with anyone specific?Who was I? A fifteen-year-old girl?
Laken faced me at the gate with his arms crossed over his chest. “Well, if I were spending time with anyone specific, I think they’d be pretty upset about how much time I spend with you.”
He straightened and narrowed his eyes. “Is there a reason you care?” he asked, his words clinging to his lips as he watched me. “About who I see and spend my time with?”
Scoffing, my cheeks heated more than I would’ve liked. “No.”No, I said, and yet my mind spiraled at the mere discussion of him seeing someone. I couldn’t remember how to act, I didn’t even remember I stood in a chicken coop. With hellblazers. Smoke started to rise in front of me and my feet got really,reallyhot—“I’m on fire!” The trim of my dress—which I’d stopped wearing for this reason, but it was laundry day—burned. “I’m on fire!”
I’d never seen Laken move so fast. “Sit still, Reece.” He grabbed my arm and I listened because those flames crawled up my skirt. He stomped the bottom layers, and the fire began to die out, but they were seared.
Heat poured onto my legs, the back crease of my knees grew soaked with smothering sweat. Until water poured onto me.
Drenched, roasted, and shocked, my jaw dropped open as I dragged my eyes from my extinguished skirt up Laken’s body to see him soaked as well. His dirty-blond hair hung there a shade or two darker, clinging to the edges of his face. His white tunic had turned sheer and stuck to his skin so tight I wished I hadn’t seen it.
“I thought y’all could use some help,” a third person said. Neither of us had realized anyone else stood nearby, but I’d recognize that voice anywhere.
“Maggie?” My dearest friend stood in the doorway withan empty bucket, once holding water. Her brown curls peeked out from under her bandanna. As usual, she wore lovely green loose pants tied around her high waist with a white shirt.
Moving to greet her, I also hadn’t realized Laken had thrown his arm in front of me, guarding my body from what he knew to be an intruding stranger. It took one look at him and his worried side-eye to see what’d happened. Laken instantly prepared for a fight.
I brushed my hand along the length of the arm covering me, grabbing his hand. “Laken, this is Maggie.” I smiled and nodded to my friend.
Snapping out of the trance he’d fallen into, he grinned. “Right, my apologies.”
