Page 75 of Ghoul Me, Maybe
“We make a life,” she cuts in. “Quiet. Careful.Ours.If we’re smart, if we don’t light up like a beacon every time you breathe... they won’t find us.”
I stare at her.
This woman who fought death, magic, fate—and won.
“New life, huh?”
She grins. “I’m great at pretending to be normal.”
I raise a brow. “You have three knives in your boot right now.”
She winks. “Exactly.”
And just like that—beneath fluorescent lights and water-stained ceilings—I start to believe her.
CHAPTER 26
SIENNA
The thing they don’t tell you about surviving a supernatural storm and bringing a dead man back to life?
You still have to buy groceries.
And the moment you step into the town market, clutching your canvas bag and pretending your boyfriendwasn’trecently a myth,everyoneremembers they forgot how to blink.
Mrs. Trencher, who once gave me a lecture on using sea salt instead of iodized, stares like I walked in wearing a live octopus. Darren, the guy who restocks produce, drops a cantaloupe and lets it roll between our feet. The air feels vacuum-packed with suspicion, salt, and small-town judgment.
I force a smile. “Hey, y’all.”
No one answers.
Just the sound of the automatic doors hissing shut behind me like a final warning.
Back at the cabin—ourcabin now—Elias is lounging like a cat with too many knives. Shirtless, sun-kissed, still marveling at the concept of “coffee with cream” like it’s sorcery.
“They think you raised me from the dead,” he says, sipping smugly.
I slam the groceries down. “Did you tell them that?”
He shrugs. “I might’ve implied it.”
“Elias!”
“What? Youdid.Don’t undersell your brand.”
I throw a banana at his head.
He catches it without blinking. “See? Reflexes. I’m very corporeal.”
I glare. “You are one black trench coat away from being their worst nightmare.”
“You’re not wrong.”
It’s not just the market.
The gossip’s goneviral.
Lyle texts me a blurry photo of the wreck with the caption: “any chance this counts as a national landmark now?”
