Page 6

Vic was the only one who knew the whole story, the only person Adam trusted enough to tell about what he’d seen and done in that gray place.

Some days the secret felt like a sea urchin twisting in his stomach.

Some nights he dreamed about the men he’d killed.

Even when he didn’t, he heard the song. Sometimes he found himself humming it while he worked at the garage. He blasted music through his earbuds, trying to chase it away.

Sometimes he dreamed of the mountain: tall and sheer-faced, with a stone door at its base to seal the passage within. Whatever sang the song was imprisoned inside, but whenever he saw it, the door was cracked.

Vic didn’t say anything. He let the song on the stereo carry them through the rest of the short drive.

Adam tried not to look at the time on his phone as Vic parked in front of their building.

The apartment wasn’t much, but it was theirs. It smelled like Vic and his cooking. That made it home, someplace Adam could set the secret aside.

Spider didn’t greet them when they came through the door. He’d probably slipped off to do whatever he did in the later hours. One benefit of having a psychopomp for a pet was that you didn’t need to let them out. The cat came and went as he chose.

Adam filled his food bowl anyway.

Vic wrapped his arms around Adam from behind when he straightened. Adam slumped against him.

He knew what Vic wanted, and as much as part of Adam wanted it too, he shrugged him off.

Sure, they both had work the next day, but it wasn’t that. It was the hotel. It was the restraints, the scalpel, and the hammer.

Sometimes it was okay, but not tonight.

Vic never pushed, but Adam could feel the disappointment as he kissed Adam’s cheek and went to brush his teeth.

He had to fix this, fix himself, but at the moment the weight of the secret dragged him down.

3

Something clattered against the garage’s concrete floor. The metallic ringing, too sharp in Adam’s ears, froze him in place. Juan, one of the other mechanics, had dropped a wrench. Adam could see it, but he couldn’t move, not even after Juan bent to pick it up.

“Yo, Wonder Bread, you should lay off the coffee.”

A few of the guys laughed and Adam’s heart calmed.

“Yeah . . . Maybe.”

He stayed there a moment longer, trying to get his breath back toward normal, to force himself to get a grip. He had to figure this out before it poisoned the good things in his life, especially things with Vic.

The nickname, given to Adam by his boss, Jesse, who also happened to be Vic’s brother, had spread among the crew. Adam didn’t mind it. It even helped, reminded him that he belonged here. Still, he counted backward from five, taking a long breath each time and calculating the days to his next therapy appointment.

The smells of the garage, motor oil and rubber, helped even more. Working as a mechanic—or an automotive technician, his official job title—had been his escape since the events at the Hotel Erythraean.

He even liked the class he was taking at the local community college on learning to repair electric vehicles. Jesse had wanted him to take two a semester, but Adam had agreed to dip his toe in with one. Jesse had compromised and was sending him and Carlos, another of the techs at the same time.

Planning for EV repairs was just one of the changes Jesse had made to the shop in the last few months. He’d added three chargers to the parking lot and painted a mural along the length of the building, a show of his newfound recommitment to his art. It was bright and colorful, a series of orange suns casting long rays into fields of green leaves.

Pondering the mural drew Adam’s eye to the coffee cart that Jesse had also set up in the parking lot, a way to monetize the customers’ wait for repairs or for their cars to charge.

Despite Juan’s comment, Adam could use the boost. Even if last night’s concert hadn’t ended in a battle with a thing from the Between, he’d be dragging from staying up too late. He’d already yawned his way through two oil changes and a tune-up. He wondered if Jesse would let him clock out long enough to take a nap in the office, perhaps on the dog bed he kept beside his desk.

But no, he had a lot to get done before his shift ended, so he headed over to get an almond milk green tea latte from Shiri, the girl who ran the cart. She had two full sleeves of tattoos and kept a laptop open to stream K-dramas and anime. Adam had gotten a few recommendations from her.

Drinks from the cart came with an employee discount, but Adam still needed to be careful. He and Vic got by, but he couldn’t afford to sip away his paycheck. They had plans for the future.