Page 54 of Ira

“I’m going to wash up,” she said, gesturing at the only other door in the room. “Um, make yourself at home, I guess? This is so grim. How about you go back to the shadow realm and I’ll wait here? You’ll be a lot more comfortable there. Harlow gave me enough cash that I could stay here for a few nights. Someone can just come back and get me. You know. Later. When everything is said and done.”

Whenwhatis said and done? I asked silently. I was frustrated by my ignorance of the human realm, trying to figure out what it was that Meera was trying to accomplish here. Perhaps that was what we should have been talking about in our brief excursion back to the in-between—though I had been a little distracted at the time.

Then again… we could always go back now? It was quieter than usual after the strange incident with the portals and the new Hunters who’d come through.

I drifted toward Meera subconsciously, and she shot me a look so deliciously challenging that I could have sworn I felt the knot I didn’t even have in this form.

“I know that… float. You’re floating at me like you’re going to sweep me into the in-between, but I’m not going, Verner. I’m going to see this through. I’m the only one who can.”

I drifted back, resigned, floating next to the bed.

“Thank you,” Meera said gently. “I know this isn’t easy for you. And for what it’s worth, I still think that you should go home—but I’m selfishly glad you’re here.”

She disappeared into the washroom, and I heard the sound of rushing water, on top of all the other strange sounds I could pick up around us. It was very loud here. And this room was very awful. Surely, it wouldn’t be hard to convince more Hunters to move to the shadow realm if everywhere was like this? I supposed Harlow’s home hadn’t been too terrible.

After Meera washed up, she re-emerged wearing only a towel, her face a spectacular shade of red. “I forgot I didn’t have any clothes to change into. And I should probably save what I have for tomorrow. I did wash my sweatshirt, maybe it’ll dry overnight…”

She sighed heavily, grabbing her purse and sitting on the bed, leaning back against the pillows. After a small pause, she pulled out the odd device she called a “phone,” and the book I’d seen her regularly writing in all those weeks ago. Opening it to the first page revealed a small white rectangle with some writing on, that looked like it had been attached to the page somehow.

Meera exhaled shakily, tipping her head back to look at me, the phone in her hand. “I think this has been the bravest day of my life. Just… a whole run of brave things in a row. In the spiritof that, I know that we haven’t really talked about anything, and we kind of need to—it’s a little up in the air right now, but…” She laughed nervously, and I desperately wished I could hold her hand.

“I really like you, Verner. I don’t usually like anyone, but it’s different with you. The problem isme. Whatever this is between us, whatever it turns into, it can never turn intoeverythingbecause I know I can’t be that for you. I freeze, and I run, and I clam up. I can’t… I can’t be what you need me to be.”

We’ll see about that.

There was no denying that Meera did all of those things—I’d seen them firsthand. But I also knew that she came back. And that I could be a steadying presence when her head was feeling stormy.

Most importantly, I didn’t think that was so much of a risk going forward anyway. Meera was finding her voice right in front of my eyes. She’d spoken more today than I’d ever heard her speak in one go. She was brave, and assertive, and fully focused on achieving… whatever it was that she was trying to achieve.

Meera wasn’t giving herself enough credit.

“Okay.” She laughed awkwardly. “Now that we’ve gotten all that out of the way, I guess I should probably message Adela Cooke, huh? Alright. I’ve got this. Brave new Meera, taking on the world,” she added under her breath.

I startled as the device in her hand lit up, backing a little farther away from the bed, though it wasn’t throwing off too much light at least.

“I’m just going to send her a message,” Meera muttered to herself. “And ask her to meet tomorrow night. I guess she’ll just have to come here,” she added with a grimace, glancing at the rather unsavory surroundings.

The moment she finished and set the device down, it buzzed on her thigh and she immediately snatched it back up again.

Meera exhaled shakily. “It’s done. She’ll be here tomorrow.”

It had taken Meera several hours to fall asleep, which was unsurprising. Aside from her general worry about how tomorrow would go, this place was unfamiliar to her and the street outside was incredibly loud.

I hoped my presence offered her at least some comfort. If any human attempted to enter this terrifyingly unsecured place, I would feed on their fear until they were a husk of a person—the king’s edict be damned.

Not long after she finally began sleeping peacefully, Meera was tossing and turning beneath the thin sheets.

And I knew she wasn’t wearing anything under there, since she’d wanted to keep her clothes as clean as possible for tomorrow.

My throat felt dry, even though I couldn’t feel my throat in this form. She’d carefully pulled the towel away once she was already under the sheets, so I hadn’t seen anything. But the way she’d looked at me while she’d done it made me think she wouldn’t entirely mind if I had.

Rather than settling further into her rest, Meera grew increasingly fidgety over the next few minutes. Her breathing had changed too. And her skin looked different. More flushed.

It was a curse not having my sense of smell to rely on. I felt trapped inside my noncorporeal form in a way that I never had before. Were her dreams distressing her? There had been some mention of a sister, though I’d struggled to make sense of Meera’s grumbled words of outrage. Perhaps she was remembering that altercation in her sleep—

No. No, that wasn’t what was happening at all.

With the kind of breathy sigh that I remembered all too well from our brief excursion to the in-between, Meera rolled onto her back, the sheet pulling taut across her full breasts, nipples showing through the fabric.

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