Page 161 of Mud

“Oh,” I said and stepped aside as if I wanted to see better outside the broken glass.

I had no clue how to tell him I wasn’t interested like a normal person, and damn it, I didn’t want to make it awkward.

“So, they just stay up there and keep watch?” I mumbled, trying to figure out how to get downstairs again without being rude. Ben had been nice to me since the beginning. If I could help it, I didn’t want him to hate me.

“Pretty much, yeah,” he said, moving to lean against the wall by the scorched window frame, arms crossed as he watched me. “We could help each other, Rora.” His voice was low, barely a whisper, like he didn’t want anybody to hear. “I know you have a plan. I have a plan, too. There’s a bar here with bones in it—a snake and an elf that I know of.”

“I—wait, what?”

A snake and an elf?That sounded terribly familiar, didn’t it?

“That’s right—the bones of a deceased snake and elf.” Holy shit, it did sound familiar! “Both, I believe, died of natural causes. Bones are not a whole body, but they’re parts of a dead body, and I really think it’s going to work. If you come with me, if you help me get in there, you can take one, and I’ll take the other.”

Oh, no.

“I, uh…I don’t really think bones are going to work, though,” I said, the memory of the enlarged skull with the ruby eyes that Erfes used as a table for her radio perfectly vivid in my mind.

And the large snake skeleton she used as a counter.

“Logically, it should,” said Ben, leaning a bit closer, catching a string of my hair between his fingers and putting it behind my shoulder. My cheeks were so flushed they were burning, but I wasn’t very focused on him.

I was focused on Erfes, on her husband Werry, his enlarged skull with the ruby eyes.

Could it really be that simple? Could a skeleton really work?

“Goddess, you are so beautiful…”

I blinked, pulled out of my train of thoughts violently, to see Ben had been leaning even closer again, and he was watching me like I was a goddamn miracle come alive before his eyes.

Oh, hell…

I should have moved away immediately. I should have gone back downstairs on my own, but I hesitated for just a single second, and Ben kissed me.

His lips crashed on mine, and his arms wrapped around me so fast the shock held me in place all on its own.

“I’ve wanted to kiss you since I first laid eyes on you,” he whispered against my lips, then kissed me again.

Alarms rang in my head.Move!my mind called at me, and I finally was in control of my body again.

“Ben, stop,” I said and stepped away immediately.

The second I did, he raised his arms to the sides and looked completely mortified.

“Fuck, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Rora. I didn’t mean to—I’m really sorry.” His every word rang true.

And now I felt even worse.Shit.

“It’s fine,” I muttered, smoothing my hair behind my head as I took another step to the side, just in case. “It’s fine, Ben.”

“I’m usually a gentleman, I promise,” he said, rubbinghis face furiously. “But this game…” His voice trailed off and he forced a smile on his face. His cheeks were flushed, too, same as mine, and it was easy to see he felt awful.

Which put me at ease again.

“This game gets to you, yep,” I admitted with a nod.

He laughed a little, like he was relieved that I got it. “Right? Death is more certain than life here, and it’s not like we have a lot of time.”

“No, we don’t.” And once again, I was reminded of the fact that Iwould diein this game. I was never going to make it out of the Roe, no matter what I thought or planned or hoped when I forgot to remember this small detail.

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