Page 48 of Wraith

"Aeron," the voice said again, muffled through the wood. "Let me in. We need to talk."

I took a step back. Then another. My vision tunneled, my breath coming too fast.

Kael had been acting weird lately. Distant. Tense.

And now he was at my door in the middle of the night? When Lilith had gone silent? When everything had suddenly shifted?

No.

My grip tightened around the strap of my bag. I turned on my heel, grabbed my phone off the desk, and started typing.

[Kael is at my door. Something’s wrong.]

My hands shook as I sent the message to Thorne. No response.

"Aeron." A pause. "Come on, man. I just want to talk."

Lie.

My breathing turned ragged. I stepped backward until I hit the far wall, pressing myself against it like I could melt into the plaster.

My gut was screaming. This wasn’t right.

Kael knocked again. Three slow taps.

Then nothing.

I stayed where I was. Frozen.

Seconds crawled by. Then minutes. My phone remained silent in my palm.

When I finally worked up the courage to move, to inch forward and press my eye to the peephole?—

Kael was gone.

Just an empty hallway.

I shuddered, my skin crawling. My fingers were so tight around the strap of my bag that my knuckles had turned white.

I didn’t know if it was really Kael.

But I knew one thing.

I wasn’t safe here.

Thirty-One

Death hadn’t freed us.It had only bound us tighter.

Ciaran and I stood in the remains of what used to be Ciaran's dorm. Or maybe it wasn’t. Everything felt off—too sharp in places, too blurred in others. Like the edges of reality had warped, twisting into something unrecognizable.

And then there was her.

Lilith.

She stood across from us, still in the same short black dress she had died in, like time hadn’t touched her at all. Unlike us.

Ciaran was still in his pajama pants, like death had frozen him exactly as he was in his final moment. And me? I had nothing. Naked. Forever. Lilith’s gaze flickered over me, lingering just long enough to make my skin crawl—not fromshame, but from the sick realization that she enjoyed it. That I would never get to hide from her.

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