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The only god I knew was aware of Leo’s location was Hecate, but what could she possibly want that would bring her here? She’d gotten my promise of a favor owed, and she didn’t seem to have any lingering interest in Leo himself.
Curiosity started to replace my fear, and I wanted desperately to know who had gone to the trouble of breaking into the apartment.
“Stay here,” I hissed, waving my hand at Leo without looking back at him.
“Uh, no.”
“Leo.”
“Maybe it’s the actual owners?” he suggested hopefully.
For some reason this idea hadn’t occurred to me, and I was briefly imagined it might be true. But the timing was too perfect, too coincidental. No way we could possibly luck out to that extent.
Not given the way this week was going.
“Please stay here for a second, okay?”
He didn’t answer me, but that was better than outright barging ahead into the apartment, so I’d take it. One thing at a time.
I’d have given my left arm to have my gun.
I’d have given much more than that for a cloudy day.
Edging into the apartment slowly, my whole body felt tense and alert. The slightest sound would likely make me jump out of my skin. The space was still, too stark, too quiet. The air felt thick with heat, rising up from the streets and turning the apartment into a sweltering, uncomfortable box. It was practically steamy, like we’d left the shower running when we went out and the whole space was now filled with an invisible, sticky mist.
I shrugged off my jacket in the doorway, overwhelmed by the humidity. If I needed to fight, I didn’t want a leather jacket clinging to me, hindering my movements.
The floorboards creaked under my feet, each step seeming to emit a wooden groan to announce my presence to whoever was here.
Though the space felt empty, that in and of itself suggested I was not alone. The way a forest goes quiet when a predator is near, it was as if the normal apartment noises had been silenced for fear of what lay within.
Goose bumps prickled my skin.
“Death is coming for you,” whispered a voice. The words were so soft and delicate I could have sworn I thought them rather than heard them.
The sensation of cloth swirled behind me, and I turned on my heel, almost tripping over myself. There was nothing there.
“Life is a bitter series of nothings.” Again, I barely believed the words were said aloud, because no voice could have spoken them so quietly. “You will die alone.”
“She is coming.” This voice was slightly different but no less ethereal.
I ignored the toxic chatter and continued to explore the apartment. Room after room came up empty, with no one hiding in the closets or bathroom
. The voices, three of them now, haunted me like a bad dream as I searched for their origin.
“You will not be remembered.”
“Death erases all footprints from the sand.”
“The mortal shell is easily broken.”
“Seth will not weep for you.”
Their taunts tripped over one another, pecking away at my patience one syllable at a time.
“We’ve seen her, she told us what she wants.”
“She wants you.”
