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Hurt flickers in Sunday’s eyes, and his pain wraps around my throat like barbed wire. I’ve been through several versions of hell, and I know in my gut there is more to come. I would walk through them barefoot if it gave me a chance to keep Sunday safe.
I turn to Delphine, who looks every bit as angry as I was when I arrived in Salem.
“I know you’re trying to protect me, but the past is the past. We were young, and everything felt like the end of the world back then.” I know she means well, but it’s the truth. The rug was swept out from under me, and I couldn’t deal with my emotions. I’m better at it now, I think.
“You are my world, Bellamy. And I’d rather die a thousand times over than watch you die once because of another man,” she cries. She’s never raised her voice at me, not once.
“And I appreciate that, I really do, but I need to help him. You must know—you feel it, right?” I say, pleading with her to understand. She must sense this thing, what it’s doing to him. I can sense it now too, now that I’m aware of it. All the times recently I’ve felt the flickering pulses of his emotions, it must have been this. Not just his energy. Something deeper, more horrid.
“You need to leave, Bellamy. This only ends one way,” she seethes, spitting at me like a scared cat. This is so unlike her, it’s frightening.
“Why are you being like this? You’re supposed to protect me. Help me.”
I turn my head, just slightly, to check on Sunday. He’s typing furiously on his phone, pacing up and down beside the bed.
“I am protecting you, Bellamy. So listen to me.” She points angrily at Sunday, who keeps throwing worried glances our way. “If you stay with him, you are putting yourself in danger, and there’s only so much I can do to stop it.”
Her words should sink into me like gospel, but they just don’t. The thought of leaving him to deal with this on his own doesn’t feel right at all.
Because I had to.
I had to learn it all on my own—the spirit realm, my power, taking souls through my body. I was alone in that for years. I was terrified of the dark, every shadowed corner, and myself. I won’t let him feel the same.
“She’s right, Bels,” Sunday croaks, shoving his legs into his combat pants. “I…my neighbor, Dallas, he’s—he’s coming to deal with that.”
He nods at the carcass, but I avert my gaze, still queasy.
“I shouldn’t…I need to go.” He brushes past me, jogging down the stairs. “I need to get away from you—for your own safety.”
I lean over the banister, looking down at him as he slides his feet into his boots, not bothering to lace them. “Sunny…”
He looks back up at me, eyes wild and frightened. I start running down the stairs just as he opens the front door. “Just stay here, Bels.”
“Sunday!” I yell, skidding on the second-to-last step and almost twisting my ankle. “Sunday, wait!”
The door slams, and I hear his boots thundering down the stairs. Like hell am I ever going to keep up with him.
I run to the window, slipping again, my knee bashing into the window seat. I grit my teeth and pull myself up, fighting with the window to get it open. There’s a knack to it. I whine impatiently, giving it one last shove before it gives.
Cool air filters in immediately, sea brine tickling my nose. I look down the street, just catching the edge of Sunday’s silhouette as he rounds the corner.
I leave the window open to get rid of the smell, reaching with my toes until they find the floor. As soon as they do, I whirl on Delphine.
“Why would you say that to him? He’s scared, Delph!” We’ve never argued like this, but there’s a first for everything.
Her visage quivers, the colors bleeding away. “As should you be! You have no idea how much danger he could put you in, Bellamy. That thing inside him will stop at nothing.”
“What thing? What is it? Stop what?”
She falters, lips pressing into a hard line before she continues. “Y…ne…keep…dra…” Her words stutter and skip like a dropped signal. I step toward her, but proximity does nothing to stop our tether fading.
“Delph? I can’t understand what you’re saying. What the fuck is going on?”
She opens her mouth one last time, but the tether snaps. Delphine vanishes, leaving me alone with a rotting corpse.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Sunday
