Page 141 of Pareidolia

My fingers wrap around the steering wheel as I stare straight ahead.

“Stop it,” I demand in a hiss, and the things beneath my skin pulse harder. “Let me go.”

Somewhere in the distance, I can almost swear I hear the shadows laughing.

Somewhere in the distance, I can swear I hear the hum of wings.

And somewhere in the distance, I think I see halos of red—red eyes, red wings.

Red like blood on the ground and my beating heart…

Red… and then it feels like the things in my chest burrow through my skin to tear out my eyes, and I don’t see anything else.

I’m back in the forest when I wake up, but I’m not in the fire tower this time. The ground beneath me is cold, and the smell of wet, rotting leaves and earth floods my nose.

I force my lids to open, and my fingers instantly find my chest. I must have torn my shirt open, because my hands meet bare skin.

As much as it felt like I was on fire, like I was splitting apart from the inside out… it’s just warm flesh beneath my touch. Nothing happened to me.

Nothing’s there.

But…

My eyes lift, and Nox is standing on the edge of the little clearing he obviously brought me to.

His eyes glow red in the dark, and the flash of his teeth in the moonlight makes me feel like I’m being hunted.

“I told you you’re mine.” No preamble, no pretending that this isn’t a completely fucked-up situation. Nox doesn’t have any humanity to him when he steps forward, and his wings flare behind him, starting to slowly fan and thrum again, that rhythmic noise I’m coming to realize means danger.

My cock perks up like some twisted Pavlovian response to the sound, and his grin grows wider.

“You can’t just keep bringing me back to this fucking forest any time you feel like it.” Even as I throw the accusation, I know it’s not entirely true. I probably would have come crawling back on hands and knees to the dirt that smells like pine with the way my chest felt like it was tearing itself apart. My eyes narrow as I push myself into a standing position. “You can’t make me stay here.”

“Can’t?” He echoes the word, tilting his head as he circles me slowly. “Can’t? Can’t… mmm… little monster, you’re here in these woods where I’ve chased a thousand humans before you and I’ll chase a thousand after. I can do whatever I desire, and you’ll beg me for it.”

“Fuck you.” I hate that a part of me knows he’s probably right, but that doesn’t stop me from moving forward. I don’t know what I plan on doing, but I know I’m not going to let this go down without at least trying to fight.

And like he can sense it, Nox opens his arms wide, tilting his head as he watches me approach. “What are you going to do, Aspen? How do you kill a shadow?” One of those tendrils snakes out, brushing against my chest. “And are you so sure that killing me won’t kill you too? I’m a part of you, whether you like it or not.”

My fingers clench at my side, before digging into my pocket and pulling out my knife.

“I’m willing to find out.” It comes out steady, even though I don’t want to die. Not like this.

Not when I know how good dying can feel.

And like he heard the thought, Nox lets out another low, rumbling sound as that tendril snakes up, wrapping around my throat. My hands automatically move, knife slashing at the shadow…

Even though I can feel it wrapping tighter around my skin, the blade spills through the air like there’s nothing there for it to catch on.

Impossible.

How the fuck do you kill a shadow?

“You can try,” Nox answers like he heard the question in my head, and maybe he did with that damn tendril wrapped around my throat. “Or…”

The word hangs in the air, and judging by his smug expression, I can tell why. He’s waiting for me to ask, and I think I’m going to hold out and make him stand there with his ridiculous wings fanning slowly, then faster and faster… but as the sound of cicadas hits my ears, and fucking fireflies twinkle behind him like this is some romantic scene instead of what I can only call a really fucked-up abduction… I realize he’d probably wait forever.

And I’m not that patient.