Page 16 of Moon Cursed

Nyx wasn’t looking at me. He wasn’t looking at anything. “We were almost a mile in when we saw them. The ghosts.”

My brow crumpled.Ghosts?

“They were beautiful,” he whispered. “So happy. So peaceful. The pack was chasing each other through the trees, and we wanted to play too.”

“The pack?” I softly cut in. “Were the ghosts wolves?”

Nyx nodded, his eyes out of focus. “Ravi and I shifted and chased after them—laughing, jumping, running with the pack—we weren’t scared at all. Not for a second. We just knew the ghosts wouldn’t hurt us.”

But something did, or the ghosts of the past wouldn’t be living in his eyes.

“We kept following them... until they ran tohim.” Nyx’s face changed so fast, twisting into a mask of hatred that made me lurch back. “He was just standing there in the middle of the clearing like he was waiting for a bus or something—so casual.

“We saw him, shifted back, and just like that... Ravi started screaming.”

“Screaming?” I croaked. “Did the man attack him?”

“He didn’t lay a finger on him, Daze. He didn’t even move. He just looked at us, and then Ravi was on the ground—screaming and clawing at his chest.” Nyx grabbed his own chest, his claws piercing his shirt and spreading pinpricks of blood on the fabric.

He didn’t seem to notice. “Before I could move— Before I could think, Ravi’s ghost ripped from his chest... and he was gone.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, biting hard on my lip. “His ghost was his soul, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Nyx, I’m so sorry.”

He gave no sign that he heard me. “After he... After what he did to Ravi, he got mad. He rushed and grabbed me—yelling and shaking me for being where I didn’t belong. I tried to fight him off but my body caught fire. It felt like someone poured gasoline down my throat and then tossed a match in after it.

“Everything started going dark. I couldn’t breathe,” he whispered. “I was dying.”

“How did you get away?” I asked, matching his soft tone.

“I didn’t.”

My nose wrinkled. “What? But you said—”

“I didn’t get away, Daze. I was saved... by Ravi.”

“You mean by his ghost?”

He nodded. “The wolf that was his soul attacked him. Ravi went through his chest and the guy freaked out.” Nyx probed the back of his skull. “He dropped me and I must’ve passed out because when I woke up, they were all gone. The man and the ghosts. No one was there except for me and Ravi’s body.”

I found myself rubbing his arm, comforting him like he did me when he pulled me out of my own grave. “That’s horrible, Nyx. I don’t have words.”

“I carried Ravi’s body all the way home. I told them what happened, but they didn’t believe me. Father”—his lips twisted—“convinced himself thatIkilled Ravi. I took the whole sibling rivalry thing too far, killed my brother, and then was so horrified by what I’d done, my mind snapped and invented a story of ghosts and strange men lurking in the forest.

“He was raging,” Nyx spat. “So insane mad, Mom had to drag him off me.”

I hissed, hating that man more than I did at the start of the story.

“Mom didn’t think that I did it. She couldn’t. She was a healer and could see for herself that there wasn’t a mark on him. No ten-year-old was so sophisticated a killer they could kill someone without leaving a trace. But even though she didn’t blame me, she didn’t believe me either. No one did,” he said, gaze rising to meet mine. “And because of that, Ravi’s killer has walked free and clear for twelve fucking years.”

“Your brother deserved so much better, and so did you.”

He tossed his head. “I didn’t tell you this for sympathy, Daze. I wanted you to know so you’d have no doubt that I’m in this fight with you—one thousand percent. If you trust anything, you can trust that there’s no one alive who wants that soul-stealing bastard in the ground more than me.” His eyes pinned me through. “No one.”

Gazing back, I did what he asked of me. “I believe you.”

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