Chapter 30
Thirty
The silence was worse than the torment.
I had grown used to the flickering lights, the phantom touches, the whispers curling around my ears at night. I had adjusted to the feeling of unseen eyes watching me from every shadow, the cold breath of something not quite human brushing against my skin. I had expected the taunts, the illusions, the sharp laughter that slithered into my dreams and forced me awake in a cold sweat.
But now? Now there was nothing.
And that terrified me more than anything else.
I sat in my dorm room, every muscle in my body tight, a cold bead of sweat trailing down my spine. The room was still. Too still. No flickering bulbs, no shifting shadows, no icy breath raising goosebumps along my arms.
She wasn’t here.
That should have been a good thing.
It wasn’t.
My fingers curled into my bedsheets. My breathing came too fast, too shallow, like I couldn’t get enough air. Lilith was playing a new game, and I had no idea what the rules were. That was the worst part. The waiting. The not knowing.
My laptop sat open on my desk, pages and pages of searches blinking back at me—how to protect yourself from spirits, how to break a supernatural bond, signs of possession, warding rituals.
Nothing helped.
Nothing told me how to survive this.
My reflection in the dark screen looked gaunt, my skin pale, eyes sunken. How long had it been since I slept? Days? Weeks? The last time I let myself drift off, I had woken up with scratches down my ribs and bruises on my throat. I had no memory of what happened, only the lingering scent of Lilith’s perfume clinging to my sheets.
I swallowed hard, my pulse thudding against my skull. Think. I had to think. I had to find a way out of this. She had targeted all of us, but for some reason, tonight, she was ignoring me. She wasn’t teasing me, wasn’t punishing me, wasn’t making my life a waking nightmare.
She was ignoring me.
That meant something.
I ran a hand through my hair, yanking at the strands as I paced the room. Maybe she had gotten bored of me. Maybe she was focusing on someone else now.
Or maybe she was waiting.
My stomach twisted. What if this was just the calm before the storm? What if this was part of it—letting me stew in my own paranoia until I broke under the pressure? What if she wanted me to destroy myself before she ever had to lift a finger?
I moved to my closet, yanking open the door and pulling out a duffel bag. I shoved clothes inside, my hands shaking. I didn’t have a plan, but I had to get out.
It didn’t matter where. It didn’t matter how. I just had to leave before she decided to turn her attention back on me.
The dorm door creaked open.
I froze.
My blood ran ice cold as I turned slowly, my heart hammering against my ribs.
The door was open, but there was no one there.
No footsteps. No shadows. No whisper of movement.
Just the still, yawning blackness of the empty hallway.
My breath came in shallow gasps. My fingers tightened around the strap of my bag. I took a slow step forward, muscles coiled tight, every nerve in my body screaming at me to run.
I reached out. Grabbed the door. Slammed it shut.
The lock clicked into place. The deadbolt followed.
I braced my hands against the wood, my forehead pressing against the cool surface as I tried to calm my racing pulse.
A sharp knock rattled the door.
I sucked in a breath, stepping back so fast I nearly tripped over my own feet.
The knock came again. Slow. Deliberate. Too light to be human.
My stomach twisted. I clenched my jaw, gripping the duffel bag tighter, my pulse hammering. I wouldn’t open it. No matter what.
The knocking stopped.
A beat of silence.
Then—a voice.
"Aeron."
My breath hitched. My fingers went numb.
It wasn’t Lilith’s voice.
It was Kael’s.
I swallowed hard, my body trembling. No. That wasn’t right. Something was wrong. Kael never came to my dorm. Never.
"Aeron," the voice said again, muffled through the wood. "Let me in. We need to talk."
I took a step back. Then another. My vision tunneled, my breath coming too fast.
Kael had been acting weird lately. Distant. Tense.
And now he was at my door in the middle of the night? When Lilith had gone silent? When everything had suddenly shifted?
No.
My grip tightened around the strap of my bag. I turned on my heel, grabbed my phone off the desk, and started typing.
[Kael is at my door. Something’s wrong.]
My hands shook as I sent the message to Thorne. No response.
"Aeron." A pause. "Come on, man. I just want to talk."
Lie.
My breathing turned ragged. I stepped backward until I hit the far wall, pressing myself against it like I could melt into the plaster.
My gut was screaming. This wasn’t right.
Kael knocked again. Three slow taps.
Then nothing.
I stayed where I was. Frozen.
Seconds crawled by. Then minutes. My phone remained silent in my palm.
When I finally worked up the courage to move, to inch forward and press my eye to the peephole?—
Kael was gone.
Just an empty hallway.
I shuddered, my skin crawling. My fingers were so tight around the strap of my bag that my knuckles had turned white.
I didn’t know if it was really Kael.
But I knew one thing.
I wasn’t safe here.