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Chapter Six
This wasn’t real. No way had her brother been talking with Rafe. Except for a moment, there at the end, Kayla had seen him too.
“What the fuck was that?” Rafe rasped. The instant Aaron vanished, Rafe had pulled her behind him. Now he edged forward, swinging his free hand into the space Aaron hadn’t actually occupied.
“Rafe, it’s okay. That was our brother.” Kayla tried to rest her hands on his shoulders, but he shrugged them off with a jerk and spun to face her.
His eyes were wild; the skin around them, pinched and pallid. “What…? How…? What…is he?”
All at once, Aaron was there again. “Didn’t want to shock you. But don’t try to touch me—you won’t like it.”
Kayla could hear him inside her head and see his vague outline within the leaves, and from the way Rafe pulled back, he could hear him, too.
Opal huffed behind them. “Aaron, how can he see and hear you, and I can’t?”
“Don’t know.” Aaron’s voice echoed inside Kayla’s head, and the Ouija danced in quick, halting steps around the board. “I went to the bar last year, and he looked right at me like I was standing there. Maybe he’s in tune with the spirits.”
“This is crazy.” Rafe raked his fingers through his hair. “I don’t believe in ghosts.”
Aaron looked at Rafe and shrugged. It was almost comical, except it wasn’t.
Kayla tore her eyes away from her brother’s leaf display and glanced at the man who had held her through the night, afraid of what she’d see. He’d wanted her so much then, but he wouldn’t after this.
“Rafe, are you okay?” she asked.
His eyes darted back and forth between her and Aaron, and his mouth moved a few times before he was able to choke out a sound. Finally, his hoarse voice came through, and he met her stare.
“Kayla, come with me. You’ve got to get out of here.”
She shook her head, a little smile that didn’t have anything to do with happiness on her lips. “No. I don’t.” Before Rafe knew about Aaron, she’d fantasized about leaving. Never telling Rafe about this part of her life. Pretending the brother who, even in death, had loved her enough to stay with her and protect her… didn’t exist. But she couldn’t.
Aaron was a part of her. She couldn’t run from him. She didn’t need to be saved from him.
“This is my life, Rafe. Who I am.” She took a deep breath and nodded. “But you should go.”
“You tried to warn me.” He shook his head. “But I didn’t want to believe you. I’m sorry.”
Without another word, he walked slowly around Aaron, giving the entity a wide berth, and headed out the door, taking Kayla’s heart with him.
Opal swept the Ouija board off the floor and walked into the living room, kicking a path through the clothes and papers. “Aaron, bring your leaves and trash and get in here. What the hell’s going on?”
Kayla followed the disrupted air and walked to the window at the front of the room. She watched Rafe climb into his car, pull away and turn at the intersection. With a heavy sigh, she stepped around the coffee table and sank onto the couch next to her sister.
The leaves in the chair across from them were still. Kayla touched her sister’s arm and nodded toward the planchette. Aaron had made quite a show of himself by materializing, speaking to Rafe with a voice, and talking to Opal through the Ouija simultaneously. He couldn’t have much energy left.
Kayla rested her fingertips over the smooth plastic of the planchette and waited for Opal to do the same before she began.
“What’s going on, Aaron?” she finally asked.
“R.A.F.E.”
“Yep, he’s gone.” A single tear leaked from the corner of her eye and slipped down her cheek. “What were you doing with him? Why were you talking to him?”
“4.U.” The abbreviated speech confirmed what she’d suspected. Her brother was beat.
Kayla’s throat tightened with emotion. All Aaron ever did was run off guys he didn’t deem worthy of her attention. What was different this time?
Opal pulled her fingers back from the board and crossed her arms. “Do I need to be here for this?”
