Page 27 of Wanted: A Roommate Who Isn't Evil

A face as terrifyingly attractive and as powerful as he could have ever imagined. He felt entirely out of control—she was in charge of his dreams now. What had he done?

“Dranian,”she said in a stern voice. She didn’t seem interested in sweeping him into a frightening nightmare by making him drown, or fall off a cliff into nothingness, or worse.“I’ve been looking for you everywhere,”she stated.“I have to tell you something!”

He blinked, even as his thoughts trembled. Even as he waitedfor her hallucinations of terror to consume him. He couldn’t help but wonder if he’d seen her face before.

“Your friend is here!”she shouted at him, yanking his collar a little like she wanted him to shake off his daze and pay attention.“He’s going to die!”

What had he done? What had he done? Dranian couldn’t think straight.

She looked back and forth between his eyes, and her face fell. He felt a slight loosening of her grip on his collar. And he took his chance.

Dranian tore away, falling backward on purpose with nothing to catch him.

He startled awake.

Dranian sat up in bed, his chest pounding, his panting filling the bedroom. His hands became fists as every clear thought melted into a swirl, as he began to shake, as his breaths became short. As he succumbed to an illness he had not faced in a long time.

Panic. Sheer, undiluted, crippling panic.

He hardly knew what he was doing when he dragged his phone over. When he dialed Shayne’s number for help. He couldn’t remember where he was, but he needed Shayne.

Dranian couldn’t count the number of times the phone rang. His muscles seized up as the ringing came to anend and a lady’s voice invited him to leave a message. The phone fumbled out of his shaking hands and tumbled off the bed, hitting the floor with a clatter.

His bedroom door swung open.

Luc stood there, eyes half open, hair tousled like he’d awakened from a deep slumber. A lit phone was in his hand. He took Dranian in for a moment, observing his trembling. Then he held the phone up.

“Who’s is this?” he asked in a raspy, sleepy voice. “It was tucked into a box of belongings hiding in my closet, and it keeps ringing.”

The walls were moving. The air was suffocating him to death. Dranian could hardly register Luc’s question.

He didn’t see Luc enter, but suddenly Luc was there, standing by his bedside. The fox tossed the phone to the duvet and grabbed Dranian’s chin, yanking his face up so Dranian locked eyes with him.

“Snap out of it, you fool,” he said. “One deep breath in. One deep breath out. Repeat.” His words sounded dull and uninterested, but Dranian obeyed.

One breath in.

One breath out.

In.

Out.

His spinning thoughts began to slow.

Luc dropped his chin and rolled his eyes as he left. “North Fairies,” he muttered. He slammed the door behind him, and the only sounds that remained were Dranian’s inhales and exhales as breathable air returned to the room.

Dranian looked down to find his nightshirt soaked with sweat where he gripped a fistful at his chest. When he realized, he released the fabric and lifted his hands to see them. They still shook, but it seemed it was no longer from panic.

He glanced toward his closed door where Luc had left. His eyes fell to the phone resting on his duvet. Slowly, he dragged it to himself, blinking back the moisture in his eyes to see it clearly. A pit sank through his stomach when he recognized the coffee mug phone case stickers and the crack down the screen.

This was Shayne’s phone.

But why was Shayne’s phone here?

It took Dranian a moment to recall what Luc had said when he arrived,“It was tucked into a box of belongings hiding in my closet, and it keeps ringing.”

The only box in Luc’s closet was one that held a few of Shayne’s things he’d left behind when he went on his trip.

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