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There was nothing. Not a single thing inside the box. Just empty space and the dying embers of the hope that I’d allowed to burn inside me. Bitterness filled my chest as I shoved it back into Gabe’s hands.
“There’s nothing special inside this box,” I cried. “Seth was wrong.”
He looked at me, sympathy welling up in his eyes. But there was also some relief there—as if he had been afraid of its contents.
I was about to suggest we leave the useless box in Luke’s office when I felt a shiver run down my spine. It was electrifying, sending painful impulses to every nerve in my body. I cried out in pain, shrinking to the floor, my muscles failing me.
“Lizzy.” Gabe’s voice called out to me as if he were at the end of a long tunnel. I reached for him, only to find my hand defiant to my commands.
What’s happening?
My voice refused to work. In shock, I looked down at my hands. Nothing had changed. They were still my own. But it was as if I’d been hit with a paralyzing toxin.
Help me!
Internally, I flailed in a panic. It wasn’t until I felt a sudden stirring in the back of my mind, a reptilian-like stretching and groaning, that I froze. Feelings swept over me that weren’t my own. Excitement, urgency, relief.
And sweet, sweet victory.
Chapter Fourteen
Light pierced my irises. The sudden brightness caused me to flinch. A second later, I recognized the soft comfort of a bed under my body. Crisp, clean sheets lay draped across my legs and chest. An oversized pillow supported my head. The acrid scent of antiseptics and bleach filled my nostrils.
I knew this place. I’d woken up here before. This was the manor hospital.
My limbs felt oddly heavy, as if the bones had been replaced with cement. I tried to raise my arm to my face. It remained flat on the bed beside me. No ounce of effort could persuade it to move.
Panic began to course through me as I began to recall my last waking memories. Gabe and I had broken into Luke’s office. I’d opened Psyche’s Urn and not thirty seconds later, it’d left me stiff as a corpse.
I was paralyzed. That box had paralyzed me. I was never going to walk again!
“You’re not paralyzed,” a sultry voice answered.
The unfamiliar voice did nothing to calm my nerves. Urging all my strength into my fingers, I attempted to curl them the slightest bit. Nothing.
“You’re wasting your time,” the voice said in a bored drawl. “It’s never going to happen.”
But Gabe needs me, I frantically shou
ted inside my head. Without me, he’d have to find Seth’s inside man all by himself. I didn’t want him to have to face the traitor alone.
“Gabe doesn’t need you,” the woman’s voice answered, a hint of malice in her tone. “He’s got me now.”
Anger coursed through me. Of course, Gabe needed me. He would always need me. Who did she think she was?
It wasn’t until the anger died down did I come to a shocking realization. I hadn’t said that aloud. Those thoughts had been inside my head. This mystery person knew every word I was thinking. She was reading my thoughts! Confusion and then anger filled my head once again.
Oh, yeah? I demanded, hoping she would hear me. What makes you think he’d choose you over me?
She laughed, low and throaty. “Because I am you.”
Unbidden, my hand moved from its resting position on the bed and flexed in front of my eyes. I swallowed back my horror as I realized I couldn’t control it. I could feel it—the way the tendons in my palm stretched and relaxed. The way the cool breeze of the air conditioning made the goosebumps rise up down my arm. But I couldn’t take control. Someone else was behind the wheel of my body.
It’s you, I hissed.
My demon. My parasite. The very reason I’d been so afraid this last year. She’d finally taken over and pushed me to the back of my own head. I was looking out of our eyes, a silent prisoner, helpless to stop her. My worst nightmare had come true.
Relax and enjoy the ride, she replied inside our head. I had to spend twenty-two years in there, my own private prison. And thanks to that magical urn, you get to tag along for the next nine hundred or so years. Didn’t you ever hear that curiosity killed the cat?
