Page 27 of Shadows of Nightshade
“I might be pushing the boundaries of our budding friendship by asking, but why aren’t you afraid of me?” His tone was flirty, but his gray eyes had turned serious.
“Um…” Again, his bluntness left me stumped. Ihadbeen afraid of him—at least through the whole vengeful, potentially-being-murdered ordeal. But I also hadn’t been.
Not really.
Should I be? “Why?”
Was I going to die? It didn’t feel like it. And I’d faced enough near-death experiences to know when someone was a threat.
Damen Abernathy really wasn’t. Besides, we’d shook on our friendship. Kind of.
“Because I’m Damen.” And when I didn’t answer, he scowled. “Damen Abernathy.”
“Yeah.” The Abernathy family wasn’t that special. That’s what Finn told me, at least. “What about it?”
We were going to have to work on his ego. It could be my contribution to our friendship.
“You…” His lips turned down in a pout. “You really have no idea, do you?”
“What are you talking about?” I tilted my head, the early stirrings of betrayal turning in my stomach. Was he super important? “Are you going to tell me?”
“Soon,” he glared at his knees. “Your problems takeprecedence. Has anything new happened with the haunting since we last spoke? What do you feel?”
“Feel…” I bit my bottom lip. I hadn’t said anything about my abilities.
He shrugged. “When there’s a spirit nearby—what information are you feeling from them?”
How did he know?
“Youdofeel ghosts, right?” Damen looked like a man clinging to forced patience. What had disturbed him so?
“Y-yes,” I answered instinctively and nodded. I was both overwhelmed and relieved. He didn’t even find this to be even remotely weird, but rather, something expected. I could talk to him. “I saw a girl in the bedroom mirror last night. She told me to run.”
“She told you to run?” Damen glanced back at me. “Why?”
“I-I don’t know,” I admitted. A thought pulled at my consciousness. “But I think there’s more than that spirit now. It’s confusing, and there’s a lot of conflicting information. It’s hard to organize everything.”
Damen was writing on his clipboard. It was easier to think when his attention wasn’t solely focused on me. “We’ll figure it out,” he said. “Were you at the library to research the house?”
“Yes,” I admitted. “I wanted to try, but I wasn’t sure how—”
My statement was cut off as the double doors slammed open.
“Damen!” Miles stormed into the room. He was completely disheveled as he began to pace in front of the fireplace. He didn’t even glance in our direction as he tugged at his burnt-orange scarf. “I’ve been looking everywhere, but I haven’t been able to find—”
His worried rant ended when he spotted me, and I hid my lower face inside my turtleneck sweater.
Why was he looking at me like that?
“You’re here!” he said. And before I could blink, he was already sitting beside me on the couch. “Did you get my note? Did you like the flowers?”
My face heated, and my stomach fluttered.
“Thank you,” I answered shyly. “I loved the flowers.”
“Good.” His face brightened in a cheerful grin. “Hyacinths mean ‘I’m sorry’ in the language of flowers.”
Somehow my skin grew hotter. However, my anxiousness melted as, after a moment, I was lost in Miles’s wholesome chocolate-brown eyes.
