Page 189 of Pareidolia

I sway—the man has a knife in Aspen’s chest. I was so distracted with the ranger, with drawing it out and making him pay…

And now I’m bleeding—bleeding, and the shadows spilling from my body are all going to Aspen to try to keep his guts on the inside of his body.

To try to keep my little monster alive.

He can have them all—I don’t know what will be left of me, but he can have it if it will keep his lungs clear of the fluid trying to drown him.

When the knife pressed into his chest sinks deeper and Aspen cries out again, I snarl and flare my wings wide.

“Seen them,” Ewan whispers. “Seen them a dozen times. In pictures, in my dreams. You can’t trick me, monster. But you can pay for what you did to my son. Now choose—you or him. What will it be?” He twists the knife and Aspen cries out again. I could kill him with one swoop of my tendrils, but even I’m not sure if I’m fast enough to outpace a gun. I have to be slow.

Steady.

I can’t be messy like I want.

Not when I have to keep Aspen alive. Not when the bullet holes in my chest…

Ache.

And I sway again as more of that black fluid spills out and tries to reach Aspen as his hands fall limp to his sides, no longer applying pressure to the wounds on his stomach.

Trying to spill out my tendrils to kill the man holding him drags the shadows back to me… away from him. Aspen’s face goes pale.

My little monster.

He needs me. And if I move, if I stop concentrating…

How fragile humans are that all it would take is a blink for mine to die in front of me. He’s that damaged, that broken.

He needs more. More from me. “Killed him,” I hiss at Ewan, and the gun swings back from Aspen’s head to me. “I devoured him. He’s still in my head crying, thinking that his father couldn’t save him, that his brother was a disgrace.”

Another shot from the gun.

More fluid on the ground.

Fluid that spills to Aspen and slides up along his leg, sealing the wound on his stomach.

Good.

Aspen looks—truly looks—at the way my body rocks, the way I’m not fighting because I’m fighting to keep him alive.

And then he blows out a breath.

“Hey, Ewan?” He sounds soft, a little weak. But his eyes blaze with a flash of moonlight… and I know.

“Don’t.” My demand falls on deaf ears.

“You know, when I went out to the tower with Rory that night, I didn’t know he’d be my first.” There’s blood on Aspen’s lips and a knife in his heart, and he still manages to grin when he speaks. “Not my first fuck, of course. My first kill. Fuck, it was good.” He slips his eyes to me, and the longing to stay that rolls off him battles with the longing to save. “Ask Noah who he stole that knife from, Ewan. I’ve had it this whole time.”

“Aspen, stop.”

And just like the first time, just like every time… he doesn’t listen. “You’re looking at the wrong monster, asshole.”

The knife in Aspen’s chest rises… and then stabs deep, straight into his heart.

CHAPTER 36

ASPEN