Page 7 of Death and Do-Overs

Just like mine.

The eyes weren’t glass. They were real.

Nie hadn’t sent me a Halloween prop.

My heart shot up into my throat. I stumbled back away from the box.

This really was Nie’s head.

The one that belonged perched between her shoulders.

Reality was far crueler than a questionable Halloween prank. Someone had murdered Nie—me—and delivered my head here to taunt me.

Bile seeped through my guts. I clenched my stomach and leaned back against the cabinets for support.

My legs felt weak. My head pounded. The bile lingering in my stomach crept up my throat.

Don’t lose your head.

The “kernel of truth” written on crumpled parchment and left on the passenger seat of my car came back to haunt me. Ha. Punny, and easy peasy to remain calm with my own murderer tormenting me.

I closed my eyes, took a breath, and swallowed down my panic.

This wasn’t the first time my clone had been murdered.

For my first death, Imogen had killed Nie. It’d been an accident, and in reality that murder had been the fault of the grim reaper who had been parading around as a flying sheep to torment her. Coercing Imogen to kill Nie had been a manipulation tactic to force Imogen to take over the reaper’s position.

Fortunately, that manipulation had failed.

Unfortunately, it was impossible for someone to haveaccidentallychopped off my head, put it in a box, and delivered it to Barnacles’s doorstep. This situation was entirely different than the last time.

Still, my next action should be the same.

I slipped off my gloves and reached my hand slowly into the box, pointer finger at the ready.

When Nie had died that first time, I’d touched her corpse. I’d felt what it was like to die, a sensation I had no desire to live through ever again. Nie had poofed away into oblivion without a trace, as if she had never existed at all.

I’d gained all of her memories as if I’d lived them myself. That meant if I touched Nie’s disembodied nose now, I would know everything Nie had known. With any luck, that knowledge would include who had killed me. Her. Us.

I paused an inch from my face.

What if Niedidn’tknow who killed her? What if her head disappeared, and any physical evidence there was to be gathered disappeared with it?

I’d feel her fear, her pain, relive the worst moment of her life, as if they’d happened to me.

Touching Nie’s head could be a grave mistake.

The pop of the weather seal was the only warning I received before the shelter’s door swung open. The sound of hammering rain filled the room. When it had started, I had no idea, but the weather was the least of my concerns at the moment.

Priority one—hiding Nie.

I launched into action and threw the cardboard flaps up and over the top of the box, then positioned myself protectively, and with any luck, subtly in front of the table.

Was I quick enough? Cold sweat broke out on my forehead.

With a practice flick of his chin, Jayden tossed his mop of sopping wet hair and grinned at me as he stepped inside.

“Hey,” he said.

---