Page 65 of Muzzled

Alex and Bo looked to him for guidance, their matching confusion and concern doing nothing to assuage the fear swirling in his head. “The paper? The paper is fused?” he asked her quietly, stepping closer until her shoulders tensed.

She shook her head violently, her back hunching protectively over her last can of adhesive as she inched to the mural and pressed the palm of her hand against it. “The last,” she breathed, pushing on the wall. “Gone, not gone. See? He can see.”

“Ryan,” Bo hissed, his movements turning predatory as he skirted the room. “Take her down before she hurts herself.”

With another tentative step closer to her, he swallowed the lump in his throat. “What can he see, Micah?”

Ignoring him, she dropped to her knees and began overturning the empty art cases, shaking them and tossing them aside until a few broken pastels tumbled out. Covered in paint and glue that was starting to harden, she skulked to the far wall again and flung the cheap window covering open.

Alex and Bo were out the door in an instant. The sound of their footsteps barreled up the stairs, echoing against the thumping of his own heartbeat as the shade’s gnarled fingers skimmed the dirty glass.

He tore across the room, jumped between Micah and the spirit, and slammed his fist through the window, his bloodied fingers making contact with the rubbery skin of the shade before it slid out of his grip. Bo’s graveled howl cut through the early morning silence, Alex’s low snarl letting him know they were closing in on the elusive creature.

Micah swayed on her feet as the growls moved farther away, the twins in pursuit of their prey. She lifted her hands, examining the layers of cracking paint and glue that clung to her skin. “The images,” she whispered hoarsely, looking around as though seeing her creations for the first time. “They were coming too fast. I couldn’t…I can’t block them.”

Logically, he needed to take advantage of her lucidity. He should ask her what she’d seen, what visions were still pulsing through her head. What had fused, who was last. He needed answers, not the riddles of a possessed mind.

But when she took a tentative step toward him and bowed her head to his chest, all he needed to do was hold her as tight as he could before Hades’s curse and his own condemned love line ripped her away from him for good.

*

Mike lolled herhead back, her wet hair slapping against the faux leather of the chair as she held her phone away from her ear for a moment. “Logan. Logan. I need you to shut up for a few minutes and let me talk. Ryan already has a room booked for you at the hotel three blocks from there. He and I are heading out later to restock. No. I need you to shush. We’ll deal with it, okay? Just pack and go.”

The line went quiet and she glanced over at Ryan, the anxiousness in his eyes only adding to her own rising panic.

“You’d tell me if you weren’t fine,” Logan finally said quietly, half stating, half asking.

She closed her eyes, snapping them open when a rogue vision flashed through her mind. “I promise. Don’t you dare worry about me. I was just…” Trailing off, she drew a deep breath. “I need a break. We’ll talk when I swing by, okay?”

When Logan’s concerned rampage calmed, she stood and walked over to the bed where Ryan sat, his elbows on his knees. Hanging up, she sat beside him for a moment before she wedged under his arms and lay across his lap.

“This is bad, isn’t it?” she asked, staring at the hideous paisley curtains.

His fingers brushed along her temple and through her hair. “Let’s just say it’s unprecedented.”

She laughed humorlessly. “I’m not sure I like that any better, coming from a guy as old as you. It’s not very reassuring.”

The doorknob wiggled as a keycard activated the lock. Bo and Alex walked in silently and sat on the bed across from them, their expressions and poses mimicking Ryan’s.

“We need to bring Hades in for a consult,” Alex ventured, his blue-and-green eyes moving between her and Ryan. “Shades don’t have that kind of power without deity interference.” He glanced at Bo. “You were right. This is Eidolon territory.”

Bo’s jaw flexed. “Lachesis?”

Ryan shook his head. “For what end? Lach has nothing to gain by going after Micah.”

“No,” Alex said slowly. “But Seph does.”

The temperature of the room seemed to drop a few degrees and she shivered, reaching over to pull the blanket across her shoulders as Ryan stretched over her, grabbed a pillow, and tucked it under her head. “What purpose?” he demanded, his hand resting on her hip. “What would Seph gain by arming a shade with an Eidolon’s powers?”

“You.”

All eyes were on Bo as he shrugged and straightened up, rolling his shoulders. When no one spoke, he glared. “What? It’s a fucking reasonable theory. That goddamn curse is the only thing keeping you tied to them. They don’t need the protection, don’t need a guard dog on the banks anymore. I’m just saying that Seph doesn’t really think shit through before she does stuff, so maybe she sent the shade out here to spy on you, make sure you stayed in line.”

Ryan’s hand tensed in her hair a moment before he resumed the gentle toying. “Then why is it going after Micah? If it’s supposedly watching me, why go to her for all these years? Why attack her like this now?”

Alex stood and pulled his shirt over his head as he walked to the small table and chairs, then shoved them tight to the wall. “Let’s go ask Seph.”

She sat up as Bo followed suit, eying Ryan when his lips drew into a thin line. “What are they doing?”

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