Page 68 of Pareidolia

Monstrous love.

The only love a person like me could ever know or need.

His hips finally start to slow and my body goes limp as the shadows slide away, leaving me pressed to the cool ground with only his hand in my chest still holding me.

And when he pulls back, I can see it—not shadows, but a thread. A solid thread of pure black that trails from his chest to mine. A connection.

“Never without.” It’s a growl, a demand.

A promise.

It’s love in whatever way he can show me, whatever way a monster like me can have it.

It’s Nox, and it’s the forest. Death and danger… It’s fate.

“Never alone,” I whisper in return, and Nox crawls on top of me to seal the promise with another kiss that tastes like blood and shadows.

CHAPTER 27

NOX

There’s something wrong with me. I lie with Aspen on my chest back on the bed in our cabin and stare at the thread connecting the two of us.

The thread.

A black thread instead of red, but it’s there. A tether that ties him to me, that lets me feel him.

Somewhere along the line of it, the slightest tickle of humanity grazes against the hollow of my chest.

He breathes in and I exhale, and the desire to be the only air in his lungs is so strong I nearly cut him open just to crawl inside him.

I’ve never wanted to be this close to something.

Never without.

I wonder if Aspen realizes that he’s tied himself to the shadow that spills from the center of the earth…

I wonder if this is love enough to make him never want to leave.

CHAPTER 28

ASPEN

It feels weird, turning in a job application for the first time in my life. I’ve worked odd jobs that didn’t require any kind of background check, and I’ve published books…

But the little piece of paper that I just handed across the counter with gloved fingers holds all the information about myself that I’ve spent the last eight years trying to hide.

My name. An address…

A physical address.

The key to my parents’ house feels like it’s weighing me to the ground where it sits in my pocket… but if I’m doing this…

If I’m actually going to do this, I have to do it right.

“I can’t guarantee anything, but I’d make sure you have your phone on you.” The librarian in front of me smiles, soft and sweet. She’s an older woman who was absolutely thrilled when I told her my pen name—she actually pulled out one of my books and handed it to me to sign.

And I can feel the excitement and delight as it comes off her in waves. Thankfully it doesn’t trigger another bout of vicious cramps in my chest, doesn’t wake that hunger that I couldn’t control.