Page 39 of Ghosted

“What? How?” Lucien asks as he stares down at his very solid, and very real body.

“I was going to ask you,” I reply before I black out.

Lucien

“What’s wrong, Raven?” Jayce’s voice is frantic as he runs through the apartment and bursts into the room. I managed to catch Raven as she fell, and she is still nestled in my arms as he stares around with wild eyes. “Holy shit. Eli!”

Ignoring him for a moment, I place her on the spare bed before the second man skids to a stop in the doorway.

“Holy shit! Wolf?”

You can’t ignore them, Lucien.

“She always made me feel stronger,” I admit. “More real.”

“Did something change this time?” Jayce asks pointedly. “What put it over the edge?”

How the hell do I tell them that she kissed me? That I put myself between their relationship? Would I ruin this before it even started? But lying isn’t something I do lightly.

“Raven and I have always been complicated,” I start, fighting to find the right words. Both men are focused on me now that they’ve ensured Raven is alright.

“I kissed him,” she says, getting all of our attention.

“Raven,” Jayce breathes out her name like a prayer. “You’re okay.”

“I am,” she says before tears start falling.

Eli drops down on her opposite side from Jayce, flanking her. It’s easy to see how they’re meant to be together.I’m just going to get in the way.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Eli soothes her. “What’s this about?” He swipes the tears from her face and from the panic on his own, he hasn’t seen her like this before.

“There’s a strange connection between us that I can’t explain,” she starts, staring down at her lap, twisting her fingers in the hem of her shirt. “I’ve been meaning to say something but what would have been the point? He was a ghost and I’m alive. Nothing could have happened. But when he’s close, there’s this pull to him that is hard to ignore.”

“Of course, there is,” Jayce says so casually we all freeze. He holds up his hands like he knows we’re all questioning his sanity. “Listen. There’s no such thing as a coincidence. Raven looking just like Iris? I’m not one to believe in legends, but soulmates are something notated all throughout mythology. There were whole goddesses dedicated to it. I’ve seen enough in the last few weeks to know damn well that things aren’t as simple as I always thought.”

“But I kissed him,” she argues. My heart aches for her. I know this is on me, that I leaned in for her when I should have left. But it was like I was under a spell, unable to resist.

“And you brought a ghost back to life,” Jayce says, pointing to me. “Look. He’s sweating, panicked, those are emotions of the living.”

“So, you think this was meant to be all along? A second chance?” Eli asks, giving the words swirling around in my head a voice.

“Of course, it was,” Jayce said, pointing at Raven. “You are telling me that she is an exact replica of Iris for no reason? That you haven’t considered how strange this is, how of all the hauntings in this town, we ended up onWolf’sdoorstep?”

“I have,” Eli admits.

“I’m sorry,” Raven says quietly. “I would never try to hurt you guys like this.”

“Raven, I know,” Jayce tells her softly. “We get it. And I don’t think you can ignore this connection with him any more than we could ignore the connection we have with you. You have a way of drawing people in and no matter how I turn this over in my own head…it feels right. I can’t tell you how I’m accepting this so easily, other than it makes sense.”

“I wasn’t even that shocked to see the man alive,” Eli agrees with a humorless laugh. “Our life is fucked up.”

“Lucien?” Raven’s voice cuts through the state of shock I’m in and I blink a few times to put myself back in the present. It’s hard to process. I went from floating around with no mass to feeling the heart beating in my chest. My mind can’t make sense of the fact I have a skeleton rotting in a grave yet I can walk over to the woman calling out to me. “Are you okay?”

“Hey, man, you look like you’re going to get sick,” Jayce adds, grabbing a waste basket and pushing it into my hands. Soon, all three of them are around me, offering me a bottle of water as I dry heave.

“This is a panic attack,” Eli says. “I’ve dealt with them. Lucien, listen to me, focus on the room around you. Name five things you see. Ground yourself. And take steady breaths.”

It sounds strange but I do as he asks, forcing my lungs to comply as I scan the room. Everything is so much more vibrant on this side of the veil. Smells, sounds, colors, it’s all so intense.

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