Chapter Fifteen
T hanks to the time difference between wherever the hex Saul’s residence was and Amberwood, it had been evening when I’d re-materialized in the library’s archive room. Honestly, it had been a relief that I’d gotten myself back in one piece since I still didn’t understand how this new continent-jumping ability worked.
The library had been silent other than soft squeaking snores coming from where Wasabi lay curled up on the top shelf. I’d been too angry to do anything except pace—float—the room.
It didn’t matter what my heart or fate wanted. Any man who could act so enamored with me, and then turn around and crack jokes with the man who nearly killed me, couldn’t be trusted. Saul wouldn’t get another minute of my time, and Hades would be in the middle of an ice age before I gave him the chance to touch my body again.
I thought about going to see the collectors, but feared they would start asking questions about my disappearance and why I was so angry. Those were questions I wasn’t ready to talk about.
Shame washed through me and the lightbulb in the lamp closest to me buzzed. How could I have been so stupid? I’d known he was in the tunnels, yet I’d let him spin a tale about perspective. He was hot, and I’d wanted him, so I’d let my bean instead of my brain do the thinking.
I needed to tell the guys, but I wasn’t ready. It was too raw, and knowing that made me even more upset with myself. I was acting like a lovesick fool over a stranger I’d spent one evening with. One unforgettable, enchanted evening.
“ UGHHHH! ” Throwing myself down into an armchair, I stared out at the empty street.
It was Friday night, but since this part of the town lacked any bars or clubs, it was quiet on the weekends. With the library closed, I would have the freedom to stretch out anywhere I wanted and read without any disruptions.
I’d been right. Men brought complicated issues and emotions. It was time to go back to the safety of my book boyfriends. Getting up, I hurried to the shelves to gather an armful of new books and a handful of comfort reads.
Let’s get this party started!
“Not now, Wasabi,” I mumbled fourteen hours later. Ignoring his gentle tug on my sweatpants, I turned another page in my current book.
I’d kept up with every book I’d read since my death, and in the middle of the night, I’d finished reading book number nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine from my Tbr list. It had given me renewed purpose, and I was focused on hitting four figures before the end of the day.
Unfortunately, Wasabi had woken up that morning and chosen violence.
“Ouch!” I growled when he nipped my ankle. Tucking my feet under me, I glared down at the gray rodent. “What’s gotten into you today?”
Wasabi stood up, balancing on his back feet as he glared right back.
Hang on.
He shouldn’t have been able to bite me or pull my sweatpants. Usually, I had to gather my energy and focus to interact with him. Why was it so effortless this time?
There was the occasional brush of whiskers, but I had to focus my energy to touch him. Had I only imagined the bite?
Slouching down into the cushioned seat, I raised an eyebrow in warning before dropping my gaze back to my book.
Two sentences later, Wasabi scurried up my leg. His tiny paws grabbed hold of the book cover, and his glossy black eyes locked on my face.
Squeak. Squeakitty squeak squeakish squeak .
It was the most Wasabi had ever said, and I didn’t have to speak rat to know he’d just told me off. “You better not have said what I think you said!”
Wasabi bobbed his head as though he wanted me to know he’d meant every word.
“I must be losing my grip on sanity, because sometimes—” I leaned toward him and hissed, “Sometimes I think you understand every word I say. Which is impossible.”
Wasabi didn’t bother to respond. With a plop that would have been cute if I wasn’t annoyed at the interruption, he landed on the arm of the chair. I watched him make his way up the fabric arm before he clambered onto the windowsill. Standing up, he pressed his nose and tiny front paws to the glass.
“Wasabi, I don’t have time to people watch today. I’ve turned the security cameras off, so why don’t you go check the breakroom for snacks? Tilly had a plate of cookies there two days ago.” Reaching out, I touched the tip of his pink tail, then turned my attention back to the sexy wolf pack and the girl they’d just kidnapped.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
I ignored the tiny claws clicking against the glass and turned another page.
Tap! Tap! TAP!
Refusing to give in to his tantrum, I reread the last paragraph for the tenth time.
TWACK!
I jumped, snapping my gaze to the windowsill to see what the troublemaker was up to now.
Wasabi’s tail swished back and forth like an angry cat. Using it like a whip, he smacked the window pane a second time.
TWACK!
“Fine.” I closed the book. “Let’s see what has you so worked up!” Letting my curiosity win, I rose on my knees to look out the window.
It was mid-morning and only a few people were out on the quiet street. “I really don’t see why you are so agitated…” My words trailed off as my eyes landed on the source of Wasabi’s bad mood.
Lochlan was eating brunch at the quaint cafe across the street. Sitting across from him was a tall blonde who looked like she’d just walked off a Paris fashion runway.
“She could be his banker, or maybe she’s a realtor,” I offered.
Wasabi growled, and his tail whipped hard against the glass.
“We don’t need to leap to assumptions.” It was best to stay logical in these situations.
I hated the miscommunication trope in books, and there was no way I planned to fall into that trap.
Lochlan laughed and leaned forward to squeeze the woman’s hand.
My stomach twisted in knots, and my mind spun as I tried to come up with any reason that this wasn’t what it looked like—a date.
I watched as the couple continued to laugh and chat, my heart aching more with each excruciating minute that passed. Lochlan grabbed a gift bag from beside his seat and held it out to her.
In response, the woman leaped from her seat and threw her arms around his neck. When his arms tightened around her, I couldn’t watch anymore and dropped down into my seat.
It was a good thing I was a ghost who didn’t eat, because I’d have thrown up all over the library’s polished floor.
How could Lochlan have done the things he’d done to my body, and claim he was mine, and then go on a date not even two days later? He didn’t even try to be sneaky about it, and had picked a cafe across from where I lived. It was unnecessarily cruel.
Had Rhodes and Evander lied as well? Were all four men just telling me what I wanted to hear?
Maybe romance was just as dead as me.
Viciously wiping at the wet streaks running down my face, I stood. It seemed like the best thing I could do was to figure out what was going on with the ghosts. The sooner that whole business was finished, the collectors would leave and hopefully the reapers would go back to their regularly scheduled programs as well.
No more men. No more heartache. No more distractions.
Soft fur brushed my ankle, and I glanced down to find Wasabi looking up at me as though waiting for orders.
I knew exactly what I needed to do first. “Wasabi, I’m going back to the scene of the crime. Zacharias was willing to kill because we got too close to whatever he was working on. Are you coming along?”
With a squeak, he took off toward the storeroom, his chubby backside jiggling with each step. At least there was one being I could count on to always have my back.
To my dismay, the tunnels were just as creepy the second time around.
“If I never have to come down here again, it will be too soon,” I whispered to my pint-sized companion.
It was weird, but I felt safer having him at my side, even though he was no match for anything that might be lurking in the shadows. Except for maybe the spiders. A shiver trailed down my spine.
It didn’t matter that I was a ghost, I was also a scaredy-cat. Nowhere in the rules did it say I had to be one or the other.
The trip to the chamber where we’d been attacked seemed to take twice as long as it had the first time.
“Maybe because you were more focused on the guys being in danger?” I mumbled, eyeing a particularly menacing-looking shadow.
By the time I pushed open the door to the room, I was floating two feet off the ground, and jumping at every misshapen stone and gust of wind. There seemed to be an almost cruel irony to the fact that the girl who’d been terrified of scary movies had been cursed to live forever as one of the very things that went bump in the night.
In my humble opinion, Fate was a douche who enjoyed screwing with other people’s lives. If I ever had the chance to meet him, I was going to tell him exactly what I thought, and then I would tell him to stick his meddling dick where the sun didn’t shine.
“ Ahhhhh! ” I screamed as the door closed behind me with a loud creak.
Wasabi tilted his head, eyeing me as though making sure I hadn’t completely lost it.
“I’m fine,” I mumbled. “Help me look for clues.”
The room wasn’t large, probably less than twenty feet long and ten feet wide. Other than a decrepit-looking desk that sat against the far wall, the chamber was empty.
If this was some kind of secret villain’s lair, it sucked hellhound balls. I’d expected something more grand. So why would Zacharias defend it with such violence?
Moving to the nearest wall, I ran my fingers along it as I walked. Inch-by-inch, I looked for a loose stone or hidden lever, but the walls were as boring as the room.
“What am I missing?” I asked the chubby rodent that followed my every step.
Moving to the desk, I bent and studied the worn wooden desktop. A thick layer of dust covered the wood, except for two perfect rectangles. I’d recognize the sexy shape of a book anywhere.
Well, now I knew he’d had books in here, but not what those books were about, which would have been far more helpful in my covert mission. I slid open the top drawer of the desk, unsurprised to find it empty. The second and third drawers were harder to open, but were equally barren.
Floating to my feet, I sighed and looked around for my tiny sidekick. “I think this was a bust, Wasabi. Let’s head back.”
He gave a muffled squeak in response. Spinning toward the noise, I watched as Wasabi slowly backed out of the tiny crack behind the desk.
“What are you doing back there?” I dropped to the floor beside him just as he tugged a single sheet of paper out from where it must have fallen. “Wasabi! You’re the best!”
He released the paper and accepted a quick chin scratch as a reward.
The paper looked like regular printer paper, but most of what was written on it appeared ancient, like the stuff you would find carved on Viking artifacts. There were a few scribbled lines in English, but they only added to my confusion.
Pepperoni, mushrooms, anchovies, onions, hold the cheese.
“If this is his pizza order, he is a monster. Who orders pizza without cheese?” I shivered in disgust and giggled when Wasabi covered his face with his paws and mimicked my shiver.
Forget diamonds or dogs. Rats were a ghoul’s best friend.
Turning the page in my hands, I squinted at the sloppy scribble on the side of the page.
Tiny Tank. Low inventory. Expensive. Best distiller in the UG.
“Okay, so he wants something to drink with his nasty pizza. That doesn’t really help us,” I grumbled, growing frustrated at not being able to decipher anything more from the paper.
Flipping it over, I practically shouted in relief when I discovered more English scribbles on the back.
Philetus’ Scythe: unknown.
Epolir: located.
“Well, that’s about as useful as a grave robber in a crematorium,” I complained. “Who is Philetus? Do you think reapers lose their scythes often?”
Wasabi’s only response was a huff that stirred the dust from the floor into the air and caused him to sneeze. Scooping him up in my hand, I deposited the gray ball of fur on my shoulder. Usually, I would have needed to concentrate to perform a physical task, but it seemed being hyped up on reaper juice had its perks.
Scanning the page, I finally found what I was looking for. Someone had written the initials UG, along with tomorrow’s date and a time.
“It looks like I have a date tomorrow, Wasabi! I just need to figure out where UG is.”
As I raced through the darkness toward the library, I tried to puzzle out what it could stand for, but I kept coming up blank.
Like it or not, I was going to have to visit the guys. Hopefully, I could avoid Lochlan long enough to get the information I needed from Rhodes or Evander.