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“You’re not going to die, Aslan. Stop thinking you’re being hunted by death just because it came for your family!”
My head rushed with images of my mother being struck by men. Of my sister screaming. Of my father on his knees begging for our lives. Of my uncle’s mutilated body—
It would be so much easier to tell her. To make her understand that yes, I was afraid of death, but for a very good fucking reason. Instead, I grazed my nose against hers. “Seni seviyorum—”
“Let go of me.” Shoving her arms down, she broke my hold on her and spun to the door.
“Where are you going?” I tried to snatch her wrist. “Don’t go—”
“Don’t worry, I’m not running to tell my parents. Our dirty, dangerous little secret is still hidden.”
“Don’t do that. Don’t make it sound as if I wish we weren’t together.”
“Oh, so now you agree we’re in a relationship? You tell me you love me and expect all of this to be forgotten?” She snorted and ran her hands down her face. When she glanced back up, her anger was pinched with pain. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? I need...I just need some space. Before I say or do something else I’ll regret.” Ripping open the door, she looked back, and I fell into her agony.
I winced at the way she looked at me. At the hurt I’d given her with the truth. The hope I’d crushed by refusing to tell Jack and Anna.
“I’m sorry, Aslan.”
With that final whisper, she bolted down the three steps to the garden, flew over the steppingstones ringing the pool, and vanished into the house.
Every part of me screamed to go after her.
My heart flopped pathetically in my chest to fix this.
But...she’d asked for space.
I couldn’t give her much of anything...but I could give her that.
For an hour or so at least.
With a trembling hand and a snarling heart, I closed the door and fell face first onto my bed.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
*
Nerida
*
AGE: 17 YRS OLD
*
(Sea in Greek: Thálassa)
“MUM? DAD?” I FORCED MY LIPS into a smile, begging all my heartache to stay hidden. “You okay if I go see Zara?”
That question was a damn sight better than the statement I really wanted to say:
By the way, I gave Aslan a blowjob today. But don’t worry. He didn’t take advantage of me. We’re in love...or at least, I think we are. He loves me, but he’s not happy about it. Fun fact...he called me a mistake. Oh, don’t kill him, Dad. I’m more than capable of doing that.
Biting back those confessions, I stayed stiff and aching on the threshold.
Dad twisted on the couch and looked at me standing in the doorway to the lounge. The potted ponytail palms, dotted around the white-tiled space, granted the perfect splash of green against the dark grey walls and weathered tan couches. “I thought you guys had a falling out when you broke up with Joel?”
“We did.” I did my best not to fidget. “But...she’s come around.”
Oh, how I wish that were true.
I needed a female friend more than anything.
Mum shifted onto her knees and laid her arms and chin on the back of the couch, eyeing me up with her keen intelligence. “You sure you’re not just using her name so we’ll let you go gallivanting around town with another boy?”
I hid my wince. The only boy I wanted to go gallivanting with had just admitted everything between us was a mistake.
“No. I’m truly going to see Zara. I miss her, and I need her back in my life.”
Mum’s eyes softened like I knew they would. “You still think about Sophie, don’t you?”
Sophie.
My friend who I’d known was dying on the street, thanks to the strangest nightmare of fangs and claw. My friend who’d left a permanent mark on me.
“She’s gone, Mum. I’m well aware of that.”
“You don’t still talk to her?” She raised an eyebrow, hinting she knew more about my little chats with a ghost than I thought.
“Not in a while.” Those chats had helped me move on. I’d kept her close and denied her passing, but with each year and every conversation, I found it easier to accept she was gone, and eventually, I’d let her go.
Unlike someone I know...
Perhaps I could teach Aslan how to talk to ghosts because it was obvious he needed help. Help he couldn’t ask for, and therapy he couldn’t pay for.
“So...can I go?” I glanced at the large reef-inspired clock on the wall by the TV. Each number had a pretty anemone swaying through the digits. “It’s only 9.00 p.m. I can bike to her house, hang out for a bit—”
I was going to say ‘and be home before curfew’ but...I didn’t.
I didn’t have the strength to stay here tonight. I needed a break. I needed to be far away from Aslan because I honestly didn’t know what I’d do if he came to find me in the night. I’d probably either kill him or fuck him, and neither of those options was permitted.
