The anger dulls but doesn’t vanish as he peers into my face. “I understand, my love. But there are bigger risks if you return to the human world tonight.” He takes my fingers and leads me through the bedroom, around still, dark trees and out through a set of doors made entirely of intricately laced roots. “You are no longer human, but a soul. If you remain in the human world, you will go mad. You will mourn and fall into a pit of despair. You will see humans and long to be one. You will turn vengeful and demonic.”
“Like Aunt Laura?”
He considers that as we walk through an orchard in full bloom.
“Your aunt...” He pauses to pick his words carefully, though he doesn’t have to. I know what my aunt was. “Your aunt was dabbling in things humans should never touch. She wanted eternal life. Wealth. All the useless things mortals seem to think their souls are worth. I watched your aunt rip open pockets she had no business opening. I saw the malicuri she summoned. The one who killed her. I could not save her, Rina. She had tainted her soul. She was an Echo before she died. If you stay,” he continues softly, “you will be the same. You will haunt your parents. You will terrorize and brutalize them. You will be so angry and sad, you won’t be able to stop yourself.”
I wish I didn’t understand him.
I wish I didn’t believe what he was saying, but I’ve seen that movie. I know how it ends and it’s never good for the spirit, or the people it haunts.
I do not want to be like Aunt Laura.
I don’t want to be that rabid, bloody thing all deformed and demonic wandering the world, haunting my family.
I don’t want to be away from here, and him.
“Can I see how I died?” I ask, accepting that if I am truly dead, going back to hurt my parents is the last thing I want.
He casts me the slightest head tilt but asks no questions as he guides me along a dirt path deeper through a wild maze of trees.
“As you wish.”
We cross a moss-covered path through a bubbling brook that faintly glows in the shimmering hue of dusky blue. I stop at the center for a moment and peer down at the rushing stream flowing around the rock.
“I remember this place,” I say out loud, glancing back at the way we’d come, then ahead.
“I used to chase you through these woods,” he murmurs with just the hint of a smirk on his face. “You’d scream and laugh. These woods would ring with the sound.”
I narrow my eyes. “Let me guess, you’d cheat by using your vines.”
He purses his lips and tilts his face away. “It’s not cheating.”
Laughing, I hop to the next stone, the hem of my skirt twisted in my hand. “If you can’t catch me on your own, we might have a problem.”
I land nimbly on the bank. I barely take two steps when his arm hooks around my middle and yanks me back into his chest.
“Oh, I can catch you, my little queen. With or without my vines.”
A thrill scuttles down my spine to collect in the place desperate to have him back. But I tilt my head over my shoulder and meet his gaze with a raised eyebrow.
“I don’t think you can. Obviously, I’m too quick for you and that’s okay. I’m sure you’re better at other things.”
That hue of red illuminates behind his eyes and my adrenaline spikes with giddy anticipation. His chest expands against my back as he lifts a clawed hand and captures my throat.
“Easy, my sweet prey. It’s been too long since I’ve been gentle.”
Lies.
He’d been nothing but gentle with me since the stone archway, but the thought of him hunting me, chasing me down and taking me like a wild animal in the woods...
“If you can’t handle it—”
The claw at my throat tightens. Another joins it across the back of my skull. I’m lifted off the ground, feet dangling. His mouth closes over mine in a kiss that has me struggling to breathe.
When I open my eyes, his are a violent, predator red. His fangs are bared. There is no sign of the gentle soul who cradled me. This is the creature in the stories. The bloodthirsty demiurge.
“Run, my queen,” he snarls across my mouth.
