Page 85 of Shadebound
KILLER HERE
AFTER JINX
The words stood out, white against the fog. Drops of condensation cut through them in thin, wavering lines. My finger stung faintly with the effort, like the heat in the glass was pushing back against my ghostly efforts.
Eris finally turned. She fuckingturned.
Her eyes locked on the mirror. Her expression changed—confusion first, then unease. She took two slow steps toward the sinks, bare feet making dull slaps on the wet tiles.
The effort to keep my hold on the glass dragged at me. My energy drained fast, like water slipping away. The K blurred at the edges, bleeding into the next letter. The rest of the message began to run as the steam crept back in. I tried to push more into it, keep it visible just a little longer, but my arms were starting to ache in that deep, bone-heavy way I’d come to recognise as the last of my ghostly effort burning out.
“No,” I said. “Keep looking. Read faster, or I swear to God I’ll really haunt you.”
The words faded. My grip slipped, and I let the mirror words go before they took the rest of me with them. My limbs hung heavy, like moving them would take more than I had. I could feel the heat of the room more now that I wasn’t channelling it into the glass, like the steam was pressing down harder.
Eris stayed where she was. Her mouth opened, but she didn’t speak. Her gaze darted toward the far stalls, then back to the mirror as if she wasn’t sure she’d really seen anything.
I could have tried again, but I was done. I’d already pushed further than I should have. If she had seen it and taken the warning seriously, she’d act. If she didn’t, then she’d go back to humming in the steam while the killer moved closer to Jinx.
Then I’d go back to haunting her until she got her shit together and helped me out.
I hated leaving it at ‘if’ so I stayed. My reach was gone, but watching her didn’t cost me anything. I needed to see which way she’d go.
Eris stood there a little longer, still looking at the mirror. Her breathing had changed—not faster, but more like her heartwas racing. She brushed her hair back from her face, then let her arm fall. When nothing else happened, she turned back to her shower and shut off the water.
She picked up the towel I’d soaked, wrapped it around herself without a second thought, and gathered her clothes from the bench. She didn’t look back once as she took another towel to dry her hair with.
“Brilliant,” I muttered. “I practically spell it out for you, and you’re going to take your time drying your hair.”
I waited. Patiently. Okay, not so patiently. I may or may not have tried to throw all the bottles and towels in the room until she was done.
But eventually she left the showers, the heavy door swinging shut behind her. My ghostly ass floating barely a few feet away.
If she told someone, ideally my sister, then maybe it would be enough. If she didn’t, then I’d just burned through half my strength for nothing and would have to wait to try again. And Jinx...
I pushed that thought away. I’d done my part. The rest was on Eris now.
And there wastotallya comfort in relying on the worst seer I’d ever met to save my sister’s life.
Field Journal, Entry #283 — Classified
They whisper that shadebound are nightmares wearing skin, predators cloaked in shadow, hungering for what lives. Humans fear us the way they fear lions—an old, primal terror, born in marrow and memory.
But terror is not universal. For some, the broken ones, the cruel ones, the ones who rot quietly in their own darkness—our presence is not a warning, but a balm.
We are the only creatures who make sense to them. Their jagged edges find a mirror in ours, their chaos steadied in our ruin. Where others see monsters, they see salvation.
Perhaps it is not courage that draws them closer, but recognition.
Chapter Twenty Six, Whispers Of A Madwoman
Iwasn’t planning on following the seer girl.
She came out of the bathroom in a rush. Her black hair wet, clothes stuck slightly to her pale skin like she’d dried off halfway and then abandoned the process altogether. Her boots squeaked on the stone floor loudly enough to make me want to wince.
Normally, I wouldn’t have looked twice. Mors was full of twitchy students making bad fashion choices. But then she opened her mouth. And started talking to herself.Loudly.
Too loud for a girl out of her dorm when it was dark and not allowed.
