Page 79 of Immortal Sun

He starts lowering his pajama pants.

I squeeze my eyes shut and bite my tongue to keep from screaming. “I mean the anklet.”

“I already told you. I can’t. It belongs to you, and it won’t leave until…” He doesn’t finish the sentence. I lock eyes with him. “The end.”

“Of the world?”

He laughs. “That’s dramatic. No, your end.”

The panicky feeling returns as do the rest of the scenes from my “dream.”

“So, I have this until I die?” I shriek.

He shrugs. “It won’t be long.”

“Can you stop for a minute? Just stop saying cryptic things like that and pretending that you’re some ancient deity. You need a therapist, seriously.”

His gaze turns to me. “You can pretend all you want, but you’re mine now, aren’t you? And yet you ignore it, the most primal thing.”

“And what’s that?” I ignore his tone, hands shaking while I pour a cup of coffee.

He walks over to me.

I gulp and try not to look like I’m nervous as I pour into my plain white mug.

He stands behind me.

I can feel his warmth, and I want so badly to lean back into him, to let him embrace me as if it’s going to be any sort of comfort from someone so violently cruel, even in my dreams.

Nothing makes sense.

I clear my throat and take a sip of coffee. “I think I’ll just work in the warehouse today for a few hours, unless you needed something?”

“Need.” He laughs. “What a funny word. How’s the memory? Better yet, how were your dreams again? Care to recite them to me?”

I frown and stare into my coffee. Do I admit it? Or pretend not to have dreams, feelings, thoughts, emotions? I feel like a kid who closes her eyes and imagines that things in front of her don’t exist. But I have no other choice.

“More like dark nightmares,” I snap. “I think I might go see Dag later and ask about my brother. Apep might stop by later too. He’s been super helpful and also not creepy and rude like some people.”

Behind me, Cyrus freezes; it’s almost like I can feel the heat from his body evaporate into thin air. “Oh?”

“Yeah.” I turn and stare up at him, attempting not to shake.

His face is completely blank of any and every emotion. He simply stares down at me. “You know nothing.”

“All I know is I’m here to find my brother, so I’m going to ignore everything and do it. Now, if you’re done with your weird psychotic ramblings, I’ll just be going.”

His face slowly transforms, a small smile forms on his lips, the same lips I can’t stop staring at no matter how hard I try.

Again, he’s messing with my head.

He’s not Ra.

None of what he said is real. It was a nightmare.

And that anklet’s some sort of weird trick from a magic shop. Just an anklet that knows how to reattach itself to its owner.

There’s always an explanation, right?

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