Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 119694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 598(@200wpm)___ 479(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 598(@200wpm)___ 479(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
“So these are just…gang names?” Naomi asks cautiously. “Like branding?”
“No,” I say, firmer now. “They are legitimately paranormal creatures. Not metaphors. Not cosplay. Real.”
“You mean…” Mari’s voice drops, eyes shining. “Like the kind we read about in our books?”
“Exactly,” Hanna says. “And I know it sounds insane, but I saw it. I was there. I was touched by it.” She shivers.
“We both were,” I add. My stomach twists, remembering the Bone Gates and the cold, skeletal finger reaching for Hanna’s forehead.
“Well,” Naomi exhales slowly, “this just sounds completely crazy.”
“But we know you wouldn’t make something like this up,” Tasha says immediately. She looks from me to Hanna, her expression softening. “Either of you.”
“We were so worried about the two of you,” Yelena says. She pushes a hand through her long, silver hair, her usual polish slipping just a little. “I opened missing persons cases on both of you. I had timelines. Contacts. I was about to escalate.”
My throat tightens.
“I guess you’ll have to cancel those.”
“I will,” she says briskly. Then softer, “But don’t ever do that to us again.”
“Believe me,” I say, “Leaving the Human world and being sucked into the Shadow Realm was not the plan for either of us.”
“I mean,” Lucia says slowly, “You’re telling us you were abducted because of your…blood?”
“Because I’m curvy,” I say. “Lucian—he said he saw me in this magical mirror thing. The Crimson Eye. And he knew my blood would be…valuable to him.”
“Wow,” Sophia whispers. “That’s crazy.”
“Yeah—that’s the other thing,” Hanna adds. “They love curvy women over there. Worship them, really. Which is why—” She swallows. “Which is why I nearly got my soul siphoned away.”
That opens the floodgates.
Questions fly. Overlapping voices. Shock, disbelief, fear.
“What do you mean, siphoned?”
“Like—permanently?”
“Are you okay now?”
“Did they hurt you?”
We’re at Tasha’s house for almost three hours, talking, explaining, backtracking, and explaining again. A few of the more practical members—Naomi, and Yelena—ask hard questions. They need timelines…proof…logic.
So we show them.
Hanna brings out the clothes Lucian sent her home in—fabric far too luxurious to be anything she bought herself. I lay out the token Whistler accidentally left behind, watching it glint strangely under the light.
“This thing opened a hallway where my bedroom door used to be,” I say quietly. “I walked through it and left this world behind.”
The room goes silent.
“So…” Naomi says at last, rubbing her arms. “Are you ever going back?”
I hesitate.
“I mean,” she continues gently, “it sounds like you got pretty close to your vampire guy.”
“To Lucian,” I correct again, automatically. My cheeks get hot with a blush. “And no. I’m not going back.”
Lucia frowns.
“That sounds final.”
“He didn’t try to stop me leaving,” I say, forcing the words out evenly. “In fact, it was his idea that I come back with Hanna. He said I’d wanted to leave from the beginning.”
“And did you?” Tasha asks.
I don’t answer right away.
“I did to start with,” I say at last. “But, well…he grew on me. The whole place grew on me.”
“Well,” Hanna says, shivering, “I know I never want to go back. I can still see that skull mask when I close my eyes.”
“You were literally being stalked by Death,” Mari murmurs, looking horrified.
“Exactly,” Hanna says. “Which is why I’m done. No more Shadow Realm for me—ever.”
We talk a bit longer, until yawns start spreading and people start glancing at their phones, muttering about early mornings.
I don’t mention that I don’t have a job waiting for me. I don’t want pity—not tonight. I’ll worry about everything tomorrow—today is almost over and I’m so, so tired.
On the drive back home, I try to push everything out of my mind…especially the way my heart still aches when I think of Lucian.
69
Jules
When I get home, I decide to check my bank account and see how long I can live without a job. I know all the good advice out there, saying you need to have at least enough savings to get you through three months of unemployment, but I don’t know hardly anyone who can afford that.
So I’m expecting to have less than a hundred dollars when I open my account…imagine my confusion when I see I now have half a million dollars!
“There must be some mistake,” I mutter to myself. I get in and out of my bank account online several times, sure that I’m seeing things wrong. But no—a large deposit was made this morning, just before I came back from the Shadow Lands. And it came from an account simply labeled “The Crimson Syndicate.”
There’s only one explanation I can think of—Lucian is somehow still taking care of me. He did tell Whistler to tell me that he wishes me to have a happy and content life, even if it isn’t with him, didn’t he? I don’t know how he managed to reach from the Shadow Realm into the Human world to deposit money in my account, but somehow he did it.