Page 1 of Sapphire Tears

1

JUNE

The insignia on Adrian’s ring winks at me like it’s alive.

He smells different than I remember. Laundry detergent, mildew, stale sweat. He’s dressed differently, too. His clothes are old and baggy, as if he wants to disappear into them.

The only thing that remotely resembles the man I used to know is his smile.

Somehow, that just makes it all worse.

“I’m sorry about the gun,” he says. He sounds like he actually means it. “The mask, too. But I wasn’t sure if Kolya’s men would be following you and I didn’t want to take a chance.”

A chance at what, exactly?I’m on the verge of asking before I stop myself. Am I talking to a ghost? A figment of my imagination? A reincarnation?

Or just another lie?

“Stop the car.”

“I’m sorry, babe, but no can do. We need to get off the road now.”

I look out the windshield. The world has never looked more desolate than it does right now. It’s desaturated, as if someone drained the life and color out of it.

I must be dreaming, I decide. That’s the only way for any of this to make sense.

I rattle the passenger door handle, knowing even before I do that it’s locked. When that doesn’t do anything, I smack my fist on the window. The glass wobbles but doesn’t break.

“Let me OUT!”

“June, babe, calm down. You don’t have to freak out anymore. I’m here now. I’ve got you.”

I turn wildly to him. “How are you here? You died. I was at the damn funeral!”

He sighs miserably and nods. “I know. And I’m sorry for that most of all. I will explain everything to you. Just let me get off this road.”

He tries to touch me, but I jerk away from him. He flinches and his brow wrinkles, but then he puts his hand back on the steering wheel and doesn’t try to touch me again.

We drive silently for a while. I look around the car like there might be answers hidden somewhere in here.

But I find nothing. It’s a beaten old sedan, completely unremarkable. Scuffed cloth seats, a backseat brimming with fast food wrappers, half-empty plastic bottles of whiskey. Nothing that looks capable of raising a man from the dead.

Adrian senses my growing frustration and dread. He was always good at that when he put his mind to it. He knew what I was thinking before I did sometimes.

In the beginning, it was cute. Towards the end, it was infuriating.

Now? Now, I don’t know what to make of it. Ofanyof it.

“Babe—” he starts to say.

But that’s the last thing I want to hear. I don’t want “babe” or “Junepenny” or “I’m sorry.” I wantanswers,goddammit.

“Don’t call me ‘babe,’” I snarl ferally at him. “And stop the fucking car!”

His jaw clenches hard and his fists clench harder. But finally, he veers the car to the left and stops on the side of the road.

“There, the car is stopped,” he says wearily, as if I’m the one being ridiculous. He still doesn’t release the child lock, though. I decide to ignore that for the time being. “I know you have questions—”

I twist around in my seat so I can face him head-on. “You’re supposed to be dead.”

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