Page 28 of Bleed the Shadows
Debbie’s Donuts was a Blackwell Falls institution.
He scowled. “Overpriced and mediocre.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “I won’t fight you on mediocre, but aren’t all donuts kind of mediocre? Except the homemade kind, I mean.”
He clutched at his chest like I’d wounded him. “Are you trying to tell me you’ve never been to Marv’s?”
“Um… I’ve never been to Marv’s?”
The light changed and we crossed the street.
“Then I’m about to change your life.”
He took my hand like it was the most natural thing in the world, and in that moment, it felt like it was.
Shit.
“How have things been for you?” he asked. “While you’ve been gone, I mean.”
“Okay,” I said. “I was just working and…”
He looked down at me and my heart stuttered a little in my chest. “And…?”
“And preparing for the Hunt.”
His dark blue eyes sparkled. “Yeah? What did you do to prepare?”
I hesitated, not wanting to give away all my secrets, then decided it didn’t really matter. I seemed destined to be found by the Butchers. I was beginning to wonder if it had been written in the stars.
“I studied old plans for the town for one,” I said.
He nodded. “Smart. Did it help?”
“A little. I didn’t feel quite as disoriented as I had the first time.”
“What else?” he asked as we crossed one of the side streets on the west side of town.
“I brought the granola bars. And electrolyte powder.”
He chuckled. “Titus told us. You were prepared.”
“I’d hoped to last longer than I did.” I sounded miserable, even to myself.
“I didn’t smell you this time,” Poe said.
I nodded. “I didn’t use my usual body wash.”
“Strawberries,” he said, with a hint of longing.
“Yeah.”
“Good for you.”
“For all the good it did me.”
He slowed as we reached a plain shop with a glass front and a sign that simply readMarv’s.
“This is the place.”
