Page 61 of The Final Deal

He helps me up from the floor and firmly pushes me toward his hallway. I stumble until I fall into bed; I curl up with the blanket, and more tears soak my cheeks and the pillow.

It feels like hours have passed when Adrian returns and shuts the door behind him. His breathing is hard and heavy, like he ran around the house multiple times. “I can’t find him.”

Chapter 23

In My Skin

–Thornhill

Adrian embracesme so hard through the night that my arm goes numb. His steely grip contained the tremors, though, and eased the live-wire nerves that lashed out after finding a human-sized owl in Zak’s room.

“We’ll wait it out till morning and we’ll see,” he assured. “Maybe that owl got inside and he got the fuck outta there.”

“And left us without warning?”

His silence said it all: Zak wouldn’t leave us in the house alone with a man-sized owl—he’d come get us, too.

Bright sunlight seeps through the curtains. I lift my head and my cheek peels from Adrian’s chest; sweat and tears encrust my skin from lying and crying in the same spot all night.

My head spins when I shake Dree awake. He scratches his chest where I slept all night and groans softly. He slowly blinks, but then his eyes shatter wide open.

The blanket flies off both of us, and he takes my hand before opening his bedroom door.

Cautiously, he leads us down the hall, his arm stretched out toward me—like he may need to shove me away and take the brunt of an attack.

As we peek around the corner into the kitchen, no one is there. A little further ahead in the great room, though, sits Zak: normal, human Zak, perched on the couch with his elbows on his knees, head hanging and his dark locks dangling between his legs.

“Oh, my God,” I exhale all at once, pushing Adrian aside to rush toward his brother.

He yanks me back and cages his arms around me. His tone is laden with contempt as he questions, “There a gigantic fucking owl in your room this morning?”

Zak slowly shakes his head.

“When thefuckwere you gonna tell us?”

He presses the heels of his palms into his eye sockets and rubs.

I can’t hold it in any longer.

“I’m so sorry,” I cry. “Please… I didn’t mean… I never… I’m so fucking sorry.”

His brows knit together. “Why are you apologizing?”

“I didn't mean to, but I should know better from Shannon, right? He didn’t know, so I should’ve known better. But… but I did it, anyway. We made swears and promises to each other,vows, and now you’re a lechuzo because of me,” I wail, the admission devolving into a flurry of tears and uncontrollable sobbing.

Zak and Adrian both don’t say a word; the silence suffocates until my cries cease.

“Babe… what’d you do?” he whispers in horror. I stare at him, weeping, until he demands again, “What did you do?”

“Ty got pissed that I chose you,” I concede in a shaking voice thick with tears, “so he dragged me to the bridge on ourproperty, and… and I was forced to give up my soul so I could live. I-I-I couldn’t get out of it this time. It wasn’t like Shannon at all. He…” I trail off into a whisper. “He was going to kill me.”

Adrian’s arms fall from around me. Zak’s expression shatters into heartbreak and disbelief. Adrian murmurs, “You didn’t…”

I sniffle. “I’m not ready to die yet. I did what I had to to stay alive.”

Zak sighs heavily and rubs his hands over his face. His lips purse, but his eyes remain gentle. “I’m not el lechuzo because we exchanged vows. I think I became one after making my deal with the devil, when fang baby attacked me. I’ve been blacking out since then, and I can’t remember what happens. Same as what Kris said she went through when she started changing.”

I gape at Zak in disbelief.

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