Page 82 of Autumn Queens & Shadows

“Thora, please,” he begged, eyes tightly shut and his breaths fast. “Please get out.”

Bracing both shaky hands on the bath, I pulled myself out and ran outside, heading to hide inside my dressing room.

No idea how I managed to get myself out of hiding, but when he came out of the bathroom, I was already changed and tucked in bed. My cheeks flamed against the cool side of the pillow until I had to release a chill in the air for everything to cool down.

I heard him drop on the sofa he normally slept in. “Drop it, little ice princess. I’m going to catch a fucking cold.”

“Oh, so you worry about a little cold?” I bit at him, pushing my blanket and sitting upright. “What about drinking yourself to stupor? No?”

He covered his face with both hands and groaned in them. “Thora, where are your own night clothes?”

“These are my own night clothes,” I said, frowning.

“The normal ones.”

“They are my normal ones.”

“Why can I see down to your sixth rib, little bird?”

I looked down. “The fourth at best.”

He laughed, his whole body shaking, and I threw a pillow at him. That only made him laugh harder. “You’re so damn mean sometimes.”

“And you’re so damn you all the time.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

His laughter began to die down, and he sighed. “Don’t ever leave me or I’m going to lose my mind.”

Curling my arms around my legs, I pulled them to my chest and rested my chin on top of my knees, trying to collect all my senses that had gone haywire upon all recent events, and shake away those silly words he so carelessly used with my delusional self. “Where were you?”

“Right where you’re thinking I was.”

“I know that is not true. There was mud on your shoes, and you didn’t have that stinking perfume on you or any of their lipstick. Which all means you’ve just lied to me.”

“I did,” he confessed.

“Your father is not alive, Malik. Nor is he here to haunt you. You can tell me if you were to visit Driada.”

“How do you know he is not here to haunt me?”

“I’ve burnt sage corner to corner in this room.”

He threw his head back and laughed. Once he was done mocking me, he sighed and said, “This is the safest I’ve ever felt from him.”

Could have jumped from joy, but he already thought of me as childish, so I resisted the urge. “Great. I’ve got some saved up,” I said, standing and reaching the vanity to pull my stack of sage. “I’ll let one burn all night long.”

He was still grinning when I went over to him and banged two stacks of sage together over his body in an attempt to banish any clinging souls attached to him. Like I’d been told to do.

“Not because of the sage,” he said, plucking them from my hands and throwing them to the ground. “Sage only works with roasted chicken. Won’t even keep away the ants in the summer, little bird, let alone spirits.”

“But—” I gasped, my eyes wide. “Helenia Drava, I will kill you.”

He stretched an arm out and reached to touch my leg, his fingers tickling the back of my knee. They went a little weak, but he didn’t let me fall.

“What am I going to do with you?” he asked, lifting me on his lap as he sat up.

I had a few ideas, but thankfully, I managed to keep my mouth shut.