Page 113 of Some Kind of Haunted

He doesn’t even look at Logan. It’s like I’m the only light he sees. Jack nods. “This is ours.”

I know Logan wants to argue more, but I wrap my arms around him. We don’t hug. We’re not that kind of close. But I hug him hard now. “Trust me,” I whisper.

He hugs me back, harder. “Always.”

Jack and I move toward the rock, but as we do a sickening slurp seems to echo through the night. It’s revoltingly loud.

One of the lanterns explodes, just as the clock tower begins to chime.

And something creaks in the distance.

“Midnight,” Jack says grimly. “The Feed is upon us.”

I peer into the dark pressing against the lanterns and the spotlight. And I might not have seen it before—at least not in real life—but I know at once that the creaking is the flood wall beginning to shut.

While the first part of the clock tower’s song rings out into the dark, late night.

We have to hurry. Before the clock finishes chiming. Before the flood wall closes.

Jack’s hand clasps mine, but before we can take another step toward the rock, Harrison’s voice reaches us from the dark.

“Jack,” he cries out, sounding hurt and human and like him. “Please, Jack, let me into the light!”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I keep my grip on Jack tight. Harrison is at the edges of the shadows, just beyond the lantern light. I can kind of make out his form on the ground, like he crawled here.

And when he speaks again, he sounds weak, bloody, beaten.

“She tried to kill me,” he says, coughing up something. “She told me she killed Cleo, too. The harbinger is evil, like I always said.”

I am in utter shock. I didn’t see this coming. I look at Jack, my heart kicking hard. “He’s lying.”

But Jack says nothing. He doesn’t look at me. His gaze is on Harrison, crumpled in the shadows.

And I think, he won’t believe me. He will believe his grandfather, because he’s known him longer, because he’s always trusted Harrison. Because he loves him.

Why would he believe the girl who rolled into town barely a month ago, dispensing doom wherever she goes? I wouldn’t.

But he told me he loved me, and I know he meant it. I saw it. I felt it.

I can’t make this man do anything.

I can only try to actually trust him, when historically speaking, it’s only the twin I shared a womb with who I trust. Everyone else is suspect.

Yet I understand what’s at stake here. Yes, the world. But also, if we survive, I don’t get to have a man like this if I can’t trust him. I shouldn’t want a man if I can’t trust him.

I’m standing still, but it feels like I throw myself off the top of the clock tower when I face him. It’s my turn to move his head with my hands so all that concerned dark green is looking my way.

“Jack, I love you,” I tell him quietly, and with all the conviction I have in me. I hear Logan breathe in, hard. “I know this hurts. It’s unfair. But he’s one of them, and we cannot let him into the light.”

Jack’s green gaze is steady on mine. “I believe you, Lexi.” He gives me a faint nod and pulls my grip from his arm. And I have to trust him as he moves toward Harrison. Because he said he believed me.

Now I have to believe him back.

I try to move with him, but Logan holds me in place as Jack heads for the shadows. Where only one lantern still burns.

“Jack.” Harrison is gasping now.