The voice was unperturbed by my violent outburst.“Very macho. Can we eat cake now?”
“Who iswe?” I yelled. “Come out of wherever the hell you’re hiding now!”
The voice sighed.“Chase, I know you’re a big strong jock, but you’re smarter than this. Can you try rubbing two brain cells together for me? Pretty please?”
My fists curled at his audacity. Who was this pretentious prick? How dare he break into my house, insult me, and boss me around? As if last night’s party wasn’t bad enough, now I had to deal with this shit, too?
Then I paused.
Did Jared’s ritual have anything to do with this?
“Now you’re on the right track, darling,”the voice chimed.
I jolted as if stung by a wasp. The voice just replied to my thoughts—not something I’d said out loud.
Could hereadmy thoughts?
Dread washed over me.
“Oh, fuck,” I muttered.
“Yay, we’re getting somewhere!”
“Shut up,” I said offhandedly, then paced into the living room.
“Well, that was rude.”
I ignored him. If it was a him. He sounded like a typical flamboyant gay dude, so that’s the pronoun I was sticking with for now.
“Yes, sweetie, I am definitely a him. Though I appreciate your willingness to change your mind.”
I grunted in frustration. “Just—be quiet for a second, I’m trying to think!”
The voice was in my head. It had to be. It was too close, too... intimate. And not in a fun way.
I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to remember last night in better detail. A sinking feeling pooled in my stomach when I recalled the blackness that erupted from Jared’s book. The book that Hot Stranger was so intense about acquiring. The one he’d insisted was a matter of life or death.
I suddenly felt very stupid for not taking Hot Stranger seriously.
Raising my palms, I groaned loudly into them. What kind of shit-pile did I just step into?
The voice cleared his throat.“I’ve been quiet for two minutes. Now can we eat cake?”
Growling, I held up my fist as if confronting a physical entity. “Hey, asshole, you lied to me. You said you’d show yourself, but all you did was make me look at my reflection.”
“My name is not Asshole, although that is a common name where I’m from,”the voice mused.
My eye twitched. Obviously, I wouldn’t get anywhere by arguing with him. I forced myself to play along. For now.
“Fine,” I ground out. “What’s your name?”
“Faust XIV. That’s the number fourteen, if you couldn’t figure that out.”
“How dumb do you think I am?”
“I’m still making up my mind, darling. Now go back to the mirror.”
Resisting the urge to talk back, I trudged into the bathroom. The mirror showed my reflection, the same as before, although my eye kept twitching from irritation.
