Page 68 of Petrify

“Lonely?” He cocks his head. “Are you lonely, Mallary?”

“Why would you care?”

“Are you serious?”

I laugh, backing away, because this doesn’t make sense,hedoesn’t make sense. “Bastien, you don’t have to pretend?—”

“I amnotpretending,” he says with such vehemence that it scares me. “You asked me to leave you alone during the day. I don’t leave you alone because Iwantto.”

“Oh mygod.”

“If it were up to me, we’d be chained together. You wouldn’t go one second without being by my side. None of these other things would matter. I’d give you everything you’d ever need.”

“Do you hear yourself?” My hands begin to tremble.

These promises are toobig, too much. He doesn’t even know me. Except he says he does. He’s told me too many times that he knows everything. And still he crawls into my bed.

“Mallary, you’re not listening.” He reaches for me, a hand outstretched, but I don’t take it. His voice is a whisper that has my every nerve ending attuned to him. “Please. What will it take? I’ll do anything. For you.”

“You can’t just say things like that. It’s not funny.”

“I’m notjoking. I’m not pretending. I mean it when I say I’d get rid of them all if it means you’ll look at me again.”

“Stop.” My fingers press into my eyes. The floor tilts like I'm standing on the deck of a ship, my feet stumbling beneath me until my hips find the piano again. The room only stops spinning when I open my eyes—when I look at him.

“You still don’t know, do you?” He advances on me.

“Don’t know what?” My fingernails dig into the wood of the piano.

He just laughs, and then he’s too close. There’s nowhere to go. I tell myself to flinch, to cower away from him—to feel afraid, to see him as anysaneperson would.

All I can think about is that I hope whatever he’s about to tell me doesn’t make me want to run away.

There’s a smug satisfaction in his smile. “Take a guess.”

“Are you playing with me?”

“Yes,” he says, immediately. “We’ve been playing this game since the beginning, Mallary. Jumping around the truth. Acting like we can benormal.”

I shake my head. “I don’t know what you’re?—”

“Yes you do.” He moves closer, the smile faltering. “I need to hear you say it.”

“Hearwhat?” I want to lean away. To put distance between us. “That you’re crazy?”

“No.” His eyelids lower, his gaze flicking to my lips. “Yes. Just say it.”

The look he’s giving me—like he wants nothing more than to skin me alive just to see what color I’d bleed. Like he wants tobreak me apart, piece by piece. Cut open my skull, just to have access to my thoughts. Suck all the air out of the room, just to see how desperate I can really become.

I force myself to look away, squeezing my eyes shut.

No.

They wouldn’t have hired me if?—

If—

Rough fingers grip my jaw, forcing me to face him.