Page 102 of Death and Do-Overs

“You were my lead.”

It took me a moment to process. “You saw me in Nevermore, where your friend Otis disappeared, and then you saw me in Piccadilly when you followed the fox. Of course you’d find me suspicious,” I said. “And now?”

“I trust you completely.”

“Even though we’ve only known each other a few days?”

“As soon as I laid eyes on you, I knew. Even when I tried to convince myself otherwise.”

The air caught in my chest at his admission. When we first met…he knewwhatexactly?

“I don’t own a house. I don’t consider anywhere my home, because I live my life traveling. It’s how I like it,” he said. “But if I had to choose a place, I’d choose Latebras, Ohio.”

“I’ve never heard of it.”

“No one who doesn’t live there has. It’s not on any map.”

“How is that possible?”

“It belongs in the family of secrets I’m still not allowed to tell you even though I desperately want to.”

“You mean your supernatural nature,” I said.

He nodded.

It was his family’s secret, or maybe his community even larger than that. By the imploring expression on his face, he wanted me to understand how deeply he wished to share everything with me, how much it hurt that he couldn’t give me this one final thing.

It was okay. I didn’t mind.

“Mushrooms,” I said.

“Pardon?”

“Mushrooms are my favorite vegetable.”

“You know mushrooms are fungi, right?”

“There you go with that science brain again,” I said.

“Is that a problem for you, Marshmallow?”

“I didn’t say that.” I considered my words. He’d laid everything he could out for me, shared more than I’d expected. The least I could do was offer honesty in return. “I like your beautiful nerd brain.”

I liked everything about him, but that felt too big and too scary to admit out loud.

It felt big to admit it to myself.

I was falling hard for Levi Rivers.

I moved away from him, because if I didn’t, the need to touch him would overwhelm me. I moved away because all of this emotional unburdening left me feeling vulnerable, like he’d knocked down my final defenses.

I moved to the next table with another corkboard filled with more faces I didn’t recognize.

Levi gasped.

He ripped one of the images off the board. “It’s Otis.”

He showed me the photo of a man with his same golden hair, a man who could be his brother.

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