Page 53 of Bones

And I thought itfeltawful…

No wonder he moved away so fast. It looks like I have the world’s most infectious case of pink eye.

Or maybe a zombie plague that starts in the eyes.

There was more red than white in each eye. Even without the lenses in, every blink scratched against the rawness until I honestly worried blood would drip down my cheeks.

It would really complete the horror movie vibe.

Earlier in the week, I’d written a message to Deke that I needed to run into the store alone forpersonalitems. It wasn’t a lie, but while I was in there, I’d also grabbed contact solution and eye drops. They’d both helped, but the lenses themselves were made for single-day use—not an entire week.

I can’t put these back in.

My eyes had always been a source of embarrassment for me. After my accident, the nurses at the hospital had whispered about how unnerving they were. Pastor Gideon had told me they were the mark of a sinner and that I should be grateful he’d taken me in. Claire had often and earnestly called me a freakazoid. Ryan had initially acted like they were something special but had quickly changed his tune.

To them—and to me—they were a physical manifestation of my curse. Something to be ashamed of. To hide away.

Just like me.

Or at least that was the way I’d felt before Deke.

For the millionth time, I thought about his reaction to the man calling me stupid at Black Horse. Not just the way he’d fired the guy with zero hesitation—even though it’d clearly meant more work for him—but what he’d said.

‘Because she doesn’t owe you jack-shit, asshole.’

He hadn’t offered excuses for me. He hadn’t tried to explain away my muteness. He hadn’t yelled at me for causing a mess he had to clean up. He’d never even pressured me into telling himwhyI didn’t talk.

I simply didn’t, and that was a good enough reason for him.

The night he’d found me in the woods, I’d told myself that I should take a little time to make sure I could actually trust that he wouldn’t immediately turn on me when I tried to explain that the voice in my head led me to him. Those few days had stretched into a few more because I was selfish. I didn’t want to talk and ruin things. I didn’t want to make what we had explode in a hellfire blaze of fear. I didn’t want to change the way he looked at me…

Like I was a normal woman and not someone to fear, pity, or be saddled with.

I didn’t want to lose that or him.

I had no clue what I was even supposed to say to him. Did I start slowly, easing into it? Did I blurt out that a vision had shown me I should be there with him? I’d lived with my curse for nearly seven years—ever since waking up in those woods in Arkansas—and even I knew how insane that sounded.

But I had to do something. I’d stalled long enough. That feeling that something massive was coming had only grown stronger, and I couldn’t keep pushing it to the back of my aching head. I needed to trust that Deke would keep accepting me exactly as I was. I needed to tell him the truth.

And that started withshowinghim the truth.

Tossing the colored contacts into the trash, I raised my chin.

I can do this.

I trust Deke.

As I moved through the bedroom on my way to go outside, something forced my head to the side to look out the window.

Or maybe not…

Deke stood at the far edge of the garden, surrounded by stunning greenery and logs.

And he wasn’t alone.

Still holding his axe, he spoke to a woman.

I scrambled to grab one of the sets of binoculars he’d put near the bedroom and kitchen windows so I could watch the wildlife in the morning. I held them to my eyes and looked again, hoping I was wrong. Hoping that the damage from my contacts had ruined my vision, and it was actually a new scarecrow out in the field.

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