Page 4 of Shadows of Nightshade
What was this foreboding? It felt as though the nature of my friendship with Finn would soon be forever changed.
I almost dropped my phone when it vibrated in my hand. He normally never replied this quickly. I’d been expecting him to wait until morning, at the very earliest.
Maybe I’d hurt his feelings. Maybe he didn’t want to talk to me anymore, and this message was meant to tell me so.
My hands shook as I pulled open the text, too curious to procrastinate with my fear.
But it seemed as though my fears had been for naught. At least about Finn.
Finn
Are you feeling better now? I was worried.
Did this mean he wasn’t angry? It was almost too much to consider. Then again, Finn handed feelings the same way. That was one thing we did have in common.
How should I respond? I wanted to be honest, but I simply couldn’t be. There was no way I could say that the ghost had now moved to a seat across from me and was currently touching my foot over the top of the covers. It would only start another argument.
I couldn’t even ask him to visit and keep me company because I was scared. Considering our earlier conversation, it would look suspicious.
No, I couldn’t bring this up with him ever again. There was too much baggage.
Me
Everything is perfect. I’ll see you tomorrow.
The next morning—whichhappened to be a bright and clear Saturday—I found myself standing inside the liberal arts building and outside of Dr. Gregory Stephens’s office. It was by luck, at least according to the secretary, that any professors were here at all, as it only happened that they were having an emergency staff meeting.
And if my luck continued to hold, Damen might be hanging around too.
Now I needed to muster up enough courage to enact the next stage of my plan.
I hadn’t woken up with the intent to stalk Damen Abernathy’s mentor. But when I went into the kitchen and discovered that some unknown being had stacked all the dishes neatly in little piles during the night, I had no choice but to take matters into my own hands.
Ifthatwasn’t a sign of a haunting, I didn’t know what was.
Still, this wasn’t my most brilliant plan. I’d never met Damen before. Finn only ever complained about his estranged brother. But I did consider Finn’s perspective to be a bit biased. I only knew three things about Damen Abernathy for certain: he was into paranormal stuff, he and Finn had the same middle name, and he was old enough to be my teacher.
And that was only if you considered a graduate teaching assistant to be a real professor.
Which Finn, assuredly, did not.
I braced myself. Even if this was something Damen was interested in, it didn’t mean he’d believe me.
It was risky. I could be opening myself up to a whole new level of ridicule.
And all the talking this would involve…
This would be difficult. I had no idea how to interact normally. I hated strangers. I hated talking.
But I needed to get over it. Damen was practicallyfamily—or he would be, once Finn and I became official and got married.
Of course, though, if Finn found out that I’d gone behind his back…
Well, he would be livid. But that was onlyifhe found out. Damen and Finn didn’t interact, so our meeting might never come up in conversation. I could also ask Damen never to tell his brother that we met.
So I would take my chances.
But first, I needed to work up the courage to knock.
