Page 114 of Possess Me! (I Want You To)

“Shit, Pru. That’s fucking horrible.” I didn’t even know what to say. He’d been stuck with her for over a decade—forced to help her on her twisted quests, like a fucked up soldier. When I glanced at his face, he looked bone-tired, like this conversation was sucking the life out of him.

Prudence shrugged.

“And the ‘password’ we’re getting?” I didn’t want him to have to see Lydia at all, but I needed to know the significance of what we were doing, now that he was opening up. “Why was that built into the spell?”

“On the day of the human’s death his companion ghost would lie beside him, and he’d say the ‘key’. Together, they’d pass on. The way they were meant to in the first place.”

Without the key…what would happen to Prudence? Would he just exist forever? Forever hunted by greedy people not willing to perform the illegal ritual themselves? Forced to watch everyone he loved die. Forced to live in a world that was not his own. Alone. In the dark.

No.

No.

Fuck it.

Fuck everything.

“The spell became outlawed when hunters began to abuse it,” Prudence continued, unaware of my spinning thoughts. “They wanted slaves, and with the treaties that were being put into place there was no room for error anymore.”

I was glad now, more than ever, that I’d decided to help him.

“Tell me how the commands work. Do I have to say them in a particular way?”

“No.” Prudence sounded wary, but I kept my voice perfectly light as I finished up the petals on yet another sunflower. “You just need to mean it.”

“So if I tell you, right now.” I inhaled raggedly. “If I tell you—that I want you to make your own choices. That I want you to interact with anyone, and everything you want to. That I want you to be free from my control—does that…did that, fix it?”

My heart was pounding unsteadily as I lifted my gaze to meet his. His pale eyes were flooded with warmth, a tender smile stretched across his lips, so full of wonder I hardly recognized him. Awe was etched in every inch of his expression as he cocked his head to the side and regarded me.

“I don’t know,” Prudence admitted. “There are rules, even I am not aware of. My knowledge comes from documentation I read from my mother’s library in my teens—and Lydia’s fucking villain monologues—which were not exactly reliable.”

I deflated a little, frowning. “Okay.” I bit my lip. “Dammit.”

Prudence snorted, using his free hand to ruffle my hair. My cap knocked off and I glared at him, before he leaned over and gave me the sweetest, gentlest, most amazing kiss I had ever been blessed to receive.

“We’ll figure this out,” I whispered against his lips, just to enjoy the way they twitched.

His breath was cool against my skin as he shook his head and leaned in for another kiss. This one meaner, sharper, harder. His body was a blur of rainbow marker, pastel, and black—an amalgamation of our complementary personalities, as he grabbed my face, and flicked his tongue piercing against the top of my palate. “Whatever you say, Pinkie.”

* * *

The next day felt like it was a decade long. We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked. All day—till the sun set again, and we were forced to camp a second night. My feet felt like they were more blister than skin at this point, but I didn’t complain about them.

We were almost there.

Just a few more hours and we’d hit the town limits—

But we’d had to stop because if I’d taken another step, I was sure I’d collapse.

All day, my unspoken secrets had squeezed like a noose around my neck. After everything Prudence had shared with me it felt cheap to keep him in the dark. But…then again—the struggles I had paled in comparison so starkly they felt silly to bring up now.

I couldn’t imagine what he’d gone through.

But somehow—instead of pity, all I felt was amazement.

Because here he was.

Grouchy, strangely earnest, and deliciously violent. He’d been through so much—but his trauma hadn’t made him unrecognizable. It gave me courage—that maybe—the sunshine I’d thought had been stolen from me wasn’t so far away after all.

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