Page 58 of A Heart So Haunted
“Ah, the sister. Yes, I heard you. Are you jealous? Would you rather me hide in yours?” For the first time, he grinned, and it was almost … playful.
“I would rather you go back to yourcloset.” I motioned down the hall again. “I don’t have time to worry about you floating around like a wraith. It’s late, and if I’m being honest, I have other things to worry about”—like how I was going to pull everything out of the library to start renovating this week since the kitchen was nearly finished—“while I think about this little issue I have on my hands now.”
“I am a small issue to you.” A dark, delicate chuckle.
He leaned in. So close that I caught a whiff of ash and a hint of earth. A flash of hot summer days and sweat-slicked skin and tunic fabric stuck to a chest came to mind.
My breath shuddered.
“Do Ilookto be a small issue to you?”
“I’m tired, and if Emma sees you—if anyone sees you—I swear on my life—” I stopped myself before I said something irrational. Threatening him would only go so far and make me sound immature.
I cupped my face in my hands and took a deep breath. “So, please. Go back to your closet.”
A rumble came from his chest. “You cannot make me go back there, dearest. You have two options. You turn a blind eye to me wandering my own home, or this little agreement—which you already said yes to—is over. Unless your word is nothing to stand by? You promised to help me. Otherwise …” He flicked his wrist, gesturing to the hall behind me. “What’s yours is mine, yes?”
I rolled my lips together. “A promise is a promise. On both ends,” I emphasized.
I wasn’t going to win this fight. Still, the thought of him around the house made my skin prickle. What would he see or hear or do? Would the activity in the house get worse?
Or, would it be like having a cat? I would only see him when he needed something? What would he do now that he had freedom to roam? Did that mean now that he was out here, Haddy would follow? Would his memories trail after him, or would whatever was inside that room trickle in, too, like a disease?
I pushed the thoughts away. I couldn’t stuff him back inside if I tried. But that slipping control, thatneedfor a plan, made my hands clench.
Finally, I managed, “Just make sure you stay out of the way when Sayer and Emma are here. If they can even see you.” Emma would probably break out an EMF reader and a Ouija board if she spotted him. She’d already tried to persuade me into letting her use the board when the book nook turned on and off by itself. If she saw so much as a curtain move the wrong way, there would be no stopping her.
He snorted. “I do not think that will be an issue. I already have difficulty keeping my human face during the day. I doubt you’ll see much of me until the night.”
My head fell against Emma’s doorjamb. I let my eyes close. Shoved the ball building in my throat farther and farther down. “What am I even looking for? To break this—what did you call it? A seal?”
I opened my eyes when he didn’t answer. He slouched a bit, close to the darkest corner of the room—his torso curved as if in protection of his open chest. “You know as much as I.”
I balked. “You don’t know? You said—”
“I neversaidI knew.” A smug head tilt. “You assumed. So, if you want to move things along, I suggest you start digging.”
This made me stiffen. “Are you threatening me?” Because it sounded like he wanted to make Harthwaitunwelcoming.
“Not a threat. A polite nudge.”
A thought, barely a seed, sprouted into a seedling. I wanted to reach out and strangle him, demand he spill every ounce of detail he knew, every single seemingly unimportant fact about himself—where he was born, where he came from, when he lived, when he died, what he’d done—but I stopped myself. There were other ways of gathering information. Other places I hadn’t even dared sort through yet.
If Aunt Cadence had gone to such lengths to keep me away from the house, she must have known. I thought of the attic: Her boxes upon boxes of collectibles and antiques would be a good place to start. But what would I be looking for?
I couldn’t imagine her leaving me the house knowing there was a creature like him within it. But then, a slight, razor-sharp shred of doubt crept in. What if she hadn’t known? Or what if she had, and she had only been trying to cover something up before anyone found out?
I didn’t realize I had been staring at him, silently brewing, until he stood just inside the doorway. He leaned forward, as if to tell me a secret. “So, now do I have a deal?”
“Will you tell me what you know?”
This close, flecks of ambered gold broke up the sharp yellow of his irises. His pupils, though slim, were of the darkest skies. My reflection, warped and short, looked pale in comparison to the color. The light of the hallway cut edges over my cheekbones, my neck, my shoulders. Is that what he saw when he looked at me? An easy deal? An opportunity? A frail, badgered young woman with no other option?
Or worse: a doormat.
His cheek twitched. Barely. “Perhaps.” A non-answer.
“Okay,” I said. Because what choice did I have?
