Page 25 of Corrupt Shadows

I wake up in my bed.

I can barely catch my breath, and I startle both Rosa and Gomez awake. The sun arrows through the clouds outside, illuminating the room in a dewy, noon glow. I wipe my sweaty bangs away from my forehead, and my eyes go straight toward the mirror.

I press my fingers against my temples as my brain feels like it’s swelling inside my skull. The headache comes, and I sit up, trying to piece together everything that happened. Rosa strokes Gomez, and he turns onto his belly, but my best friend isn’t sporting her normal smile. Her mascara has streaked below her bloodshot eyes, and she’s staring at me as if I’m a stranger.

She stops stroking Gomez and brings her fingers to her forehead, running them along the wrinkles caused by her frown. “You were right.”

I blink twice. “Either I’m really hungover and not hearing right, or you’re drunk.”

She doesn’t laugh. Her lips don’t even curve a little. “There is a big-ass mirror in your office, and I saw the note on it.” She gulps, and Gomez snuggles into the pillow. I can sense his worry from here, but he quickly distracts himself with a half-eaten fruit breakfast bar in Rosa’s purse on the nightstand.

“I dreamed of him,” I say, my mouth drier than a desert. I grab a water bottle with a dribble left in it from the dresser, catching my reflection in the mirror. A sweat patch covers the front of my pajama top, and my brown strands are flicking off in all directions. I quickly avoid eye contact with the mirror, my heart racing as I turn my back toward it. “He’s a demon, and for whatever reason, he’s stalking me.”

I swallow thickly. He might be watching right now.

Her brows draw together. “Wait, what?”

“The demon stalking me. He’s been watching me, and last night in my dream, I was behind… the mirror.”

Rosa raises her gaze to the mirror, bites her lip, and looks back at me. “This isn’t good, Evie. We need to figure out what’s going on.”

A shiver tingles down my spine, and I clamp my eyes shut. “Let’s not talk here.” I glare at the dresser. The fucker stalking me is either hunting me with the Order, or he set them on my trail. It was unlikely the Order filled with top church members would ever listen to a demon, so that left option two.

He’s responsible for this.

“We’ll talk where we’re alone,” I state. “Really alone.” I glance at the mirror. “Let’s head to the park before I go to Darkwood Asylum later.”

She shoots me an incredulous stare and sits up. “Fine, let’s go.”

ELEVEN

Evie

I pull my knees together on the bench, and Rosa leans back, gazing up at the bare branches of the tree hanging over my head. I press my foot to the side, crunching a leaf under the heel of my boot. Rosa took everything pretty well, considering. I didn’t tell her about the killings, but she knows all about the demon, the Order, and my magic, although she doesn’t know exactly how dangerous it is. I can’t bear for her to hate me, which she will once she learns I’m a murderer.

“So how do you get rid of a demon?” she asks, twiddling her thumbs.

I tilt my head. “You’re remarkably calm after hearing all of this.”

She shrugs. “I have to have an open mind, Evie. I’m a therapist. Besides, I believe in ghosts, you know… So I guess demons can be real too.” She lets out a long shaky exhale, then tenses her shoulders. “Should we get, like, salt?”

“There are a few ways,” I explain. “But I want to find out his motivations first. Demons can’t hurt us, unless we form an attachment with them.” My thighs clench when the memory of being close to him swallows me hole. I wish I could get the thought of his long, hard dick from my mind. I shake my head quickly. What the fuck am I thinking? “I need to know if he’s behind Aiden being here.”

She tsk-tsks. “That asshole.”

I bite my lip. “Yeah.”

“He still hasn’t tried to kiss me. I guess I know why now.”

The sound of her nails drumming against the wood of the bench relaxes me. I lean closer, feeling her magic locked deep inside, unpracticed. It’s warm and comforting, like a blanket. But I’m glad she doesn’t know about it. I can’t have her hunted too. “I know he’s in the Order. But, he hasn’t come after me. None of them have. Surely, if they know I’m here and who I am, they would have tried to kill me by now.”

Her eyes gloss over. “You should leave.”

I sigh. “They’ll only follow me. No one has tried to attack me yet. Besides, it makes no sense they’d work with a demon. They hate them more than witches,” I whisper as a gust of cold air circles around us, lifting the leaves from the ground. “I’m going to try to find out more about the demon. I can’t keep running for the rest of my life,” I say, although the itch to escape again builds anyway. “I have you and my job. Gomez too.”

“Jay,” Rosa says, and I force a smile.

“Right.” I whistle out a breath. “Jay. Yeah. Thanks for coming over and taking time off work.”

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