Page 27 of Jacinth

“The problem was, I let myself be in that role. I told myself I was protecting you—playing gatekeeper to keep you safe—when really, it was easier to hate you than to admit I was jealous. You have these rules and guidelines on how to live life and protect those around you, and I’ve always felt lost. Well... I did. I feel like Jacinth is changing that.”

He seemed to run out of steam at that point, so I wrapped him in as big of a bear hug as I could.

As we stood grinning at each other, I asked him the one thing I couldn’t figure out.

“What the fuck is a DUFF?”

He snorted. “Google it, asshole.”

I felt grounded. Better than I had in a while. With the mood came a more serious question, though.

“What about the drinking? The drugs?”

“Done with it. I can’t honestly say I’m not a relapse risk—addiction doesn’t work like that—but I’m going to do the work to stay clean. I can tell you that I don’t feel the need to have anything at the moment, and I really don’t intend to have any later.”

I nodded. “We’ll go from there and see where it takes us.”

This time it was Niko who instigated the full body wrap.

“So... tell me about this ability of yours.”

We talked. Truly talked. Possibly for the first time ever. Niko described the shadow realm and how he could physically interact with spirits regardless of which realm they were in. He explained—in far too vivid detail, I thought—what I had happened across when I saw him at Jacinth’s grave the day before.

Then he told me about older stuff.

The things Niko had suffered alone broke me in a way I couldn’t describe. I was the eldest and trained to be the protector. Nothing should have happened to my brothers on my watch... but it had.

“So... yeah,” he said at long last. “I think that’s about everything. I guess us assholes need to learn to communicate or something, right?”

“Yeah,” I said roughly. “I think we do.”

Niko nodded and made to rise. If I let him go like this, I worried about what might happen. Sure, he planned to stay sober, but he’d ripped open a ton of old wounds.

“Niko?” I asked quickly, jumping up with him.

His mismatched eyes turned toward me, and I wondered why I had never seen the significance: a blue eye in the spirit world, and a brown eye in the mortal one. I had no idea what to say. I just wanted to help him pull the pieces back together a little.

“So... is Jacinth your ghoul-friend now?”

Niko groaned.

“No... seriously, are you like Romeo and Ghouliet? Star-crossed lovers existing in two different realms, or some shit?”

The corner of his mouth twitched. I almost had him.

“You want her to be your boo? Hey, I’m just keepin’ it incorporeal here.”

“Oh my god, your ghost puns are as bad as hers! And yes, she has been calling me her boo. I only just got that one because stupid millennials use that term as an actual way of referring to their partners. Jesus, that’s terrible. I think when you guys sort this out, you’ll probably get along really well. You both have shit senses of humor.”

He was laughing all the way through his rant, which was mission accomplished in my book. Though really, did he have no appreciation for a good pun? I was on fire!

“Hey,” Niko went on, changing the subject abruptly, “where’d that dog come from? It’s been riling Harley up something fierce.”

“Harley, your pet ghost? Hey, does Jacinth know about her?”

“Yeah, they’ve met. Kind of. She’s a bit of a weird one, though. Doesn’t always act like other spirits. She can also disappear completely.”

“I thought you could see them in their other realm.”

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