13. Chapter 13
I went into the Dark Entry Forest with my backpack full of supplies. As soon as I stepped inside, I could feel him breathing on my neck.
“You can’t get rid of me. Coming here won’t help you.”
I hmphed at his audacity. “The world doesn’t revolve around you. Who says you have anything to do with it?”
Besides, where there was a will, there was a way.
My shadow’s head tilted with curiosity. The whispers sounded up ahead, but grew silent when we were close. I walked briskly, refusing to get caught in here at night again.
Fuck that.
I went straight to the cemetery and cleared away a flat area of weeds and grass. In the process, I found a witch’s knot. Why was this here?
My eyes went to the tombstone I’d partially cleared the last time before all the lights were gone. He hovered over me, too close for comfort, watching me with an intensity that said to not to dare fuck up.
As I pulled weeds, I found countless witch’s ladders. The stone itself was blank, but it was right beside Abiel’s.
Like they usually did for spouses.
A few of them were draped over it, but the rest were flung about. Those kids. They disturbed his wife’s grave. That would explain the level of violence.
Why wasn’t her name carved into the slab?
Another unwanted pang of jealousy went through me. What if I’d had what she had when she was alive? Was he like this when he was alive?
I went over to one of the elder trees to gather sticks and branches that had fallen. I fashioned together a large stand.
“What are you doing, Dandelion?” he asked in my ear. I counted my lucky stars that he sounded curious and not like he might rip my trachea out the hard way.
I placed the stand over the stone and knotted a ladder onto one of the bars going over the stone. “Be at peace.”
He let out a shaking breath, and the air grew thinner. I hadn’t even realized how suffocating it was until he relaxed. One by one, I strung the ladders over the bars.
He didn’t touch or speak as I did. Like he knew if he distracted me, it would taint the ritual. I put every ladder I could find up. I even took the one from around my throat. “One more, just in case your heart hurts, too.”
Once my hand left the stand, arms wrapped around my center, pulling me into his chest. His head rested on my shoulder. Appreciation flooded over me like a wave.
It made my heart warm.
The intimacy was almost pure. A soft kiss to my cheek made me gasp in surprise.
That wasn’t how he normally touched me, and my face grew warm with embarrassment.
I finally went over to the original task I started, but he stayed glued, not letting me go, following me step for step.
I gathered big flat slabs of stone to set up an altar as his hand tried to soothe the wild curls I could never get to behave. It was affectionate in a way I hadn’t felt in a long time, and I had to resist the urge to melt into it.
Once everything was set up, I lit a lavender smudge stick I pulled from my tool bag, and the air grew thin as I did.
Souls surrounded me in seconds. I drew a symbol I’d done a thousand times before in the air with the smudge stick. “Rest.”
A soft hum of surprised understanding vibrated against my back. The sound edged toward approval, and I found my face getting hot from the flutters that it sent through my stomach.
You don’t give a fuck about what a monster thinks of you.
I wasn’t surprised when he wasn’t impacted by the lavender. It wasn’t for him, anyway. But I felt the air lighten, letting me know at least a few souls settled.
Walking around the entire settlement, I repeated the motion. “You can rest now.”
I could swear fluttering kisses were peppered on my neck. My heart raced as I tried to keep my mind focused on the ritual.
I used to beg for my husband to show even a hint of affection. Here this shadow was giving it away freely.
Daydreaming of being a monster’s precious treasure would get me killed. I wasn’t even a precious treasure kind of woman.
I should have taken more time off. I was compromised. My head wasn’t in the game.
Too late to think about that, though. Something told me going home wasn’t an option right now.
By the time I finished, the whispers were much quieter. I put the smudge stick down in the bowl on the altar, so the remaining ghosts could decide whether they wanted to stay or go.
Growls rumbled behind me, making me halt in my steps. I turned on my flashlight to see past the cemetery.
Nothing but trees.
Dread still creeped down my spine. I straightened up. The growls grew louder as I slowly reached into my pocket, pulling out a silver pocketknife. I hadn’t gotten a chance to replace the iron one, but it was my second best blade.
Barks of warning echoed as it snicked open.
Screams from the remaining souls broke the silence, and they ran in the opposite direction of the snarls and growls. The overgrown grass collapsed in the distance, growing closer as they stepped forward.
How big were they? How many were there? I couldn’t tell.
Sweat dripped down my chest and I swallowed loudly. My fingers grasped the blade handle too tightly, trying to keep my hand steady, and I took one deep breath to ground myself.
Were these the harbingers that Myrtle warned about?
Howls echoed off the trees.
“Let’s do this then.” I ground my teeth, bracing for the fuckery that was coming.
Each of their footsteps thudded against the ground and threatened to throw me off balance.
Don’t run. A reminder my legs needed.
I held up the blade, and the grass crunched in front of me as they halted inches away from me. Three sets of paw prints were a lot bigger than even my worst assumption.
My knife was nothing more than a toothpick.
Aunt Jackie didn’t raise no bitch.
“Back up,” I yelled with as much dominance as I could, turning the blade, so I was ready to stab them at a moment's notice.
I couldn’t even see them to guess what they were.
They growled loud enough to make my ears pop and my bangs to flap against my forehead. Spittle splattered across my face, but I didn’t dare change my stance to wipe it away.
I’d never been so happy to have an empty bladder.
Would anything I did even help? It hadn’t worked against the shadow. Eyes on the prize, Sasha.
“She’s mine.” The shadow spoke close enough to my ear that his cool breath tickled me.
His words confirmed the suspicions I’d had for a while. He’d claimed me as his mate.
I’d been denying it, because the truth was uncomfortable. I wasn’t anyone’s mate, and it was better that way. I’d rather he ripped my heart out of my chest and put it on his wife’s grave.
This didn’t mean anything good for me.
Still, a tiny piece of me squealed with joy that would ruin me.
His fingers that had been on my stomach moved lower to the edge of my jeans, dipping teasingly beneath the hem.
My body clenched, and I suddenly felt unbearably empty.
The gasp that tore from me would only encourage his attention further.
But his hum of approval told me it was too late to pretend my body wasn’t singing with excitement that needed to skedaddle. Before I did something stupid.
One paw lifted off the grass as if to take another step forward, and I launched myself forward with more confidence than I felt. The adrenaline racing through my veins helped.
You’ve made it out of worse than this.
Before I could get one step closer, the strong hold on my stomach pulled me back against his chest. I felt like a dog who’s had its chain yanked.
My shadow on the ground morphed and bled into the darkness the forest was smothered in. His body finally left mine, and the stupid part of me missed him.
Unease twisted my stomach into knots as I waited on bated breath for something to happen.
Anything.
The growls turned to desperate whimpers that reminded me of a puppy that’s been corrected by a mama dog, and the grass crunched, outlining bodies on the ground. Like they lay down in submission. The size of the three outlines made my eyes go uncomfortably wide.
These things were bigger than anything I’d ever faced before.
I would have been dead with a snap of their jaws.
The shadow returned, plastering himself to me again. “You’re safe. No one can hurt you with me here.”
“Don’t ever stop me from doing my job again,” I snapped to hide the involuntary shiver running through me.
He chuckled with amusement. “Or what?”
My words were bluster and he knew it. My mind wasn’t on how easily he manhandled me or how he would be the death of me.
What was he?
What kind of entity could control those things?