XXII

Odette wasn’t bored. She found the practice extremely dull. It was painfully dull. In fact, coming up with ways to describe how boring watching the twins practice was actually somewhat entertaining.

They had moments when they would be very intriguing to watch when they were performing magic or when they would do a trick. Other than that, it was a lot of arguing between them and a lot of very colorful threats. Some of them she caught and some of them were too hushed for her to make out.

Greer, just as Grayson had said, spent most of the time directing what they would do. Most of their lines were already scripted apparently; it was just a matter of rearranging the tricks, so that they would not be always saying the same thing over and over again.

“If you don’t stop it, I might just use your little girlfriend as target practice,” Greer hissed. This was about the fifth time that she had dragged Odette into a threat. It had begun to lose its sting. “Just cooperate!”

“You wouldn’t get within ten feet of her before you would be facedown, out cold,” he responded coolly, twirling one of the knives in between his long fingers.

He must have done something that Odette couldn’t have seen because Greer let out a screech of rage. “You know, all of this crap has been going downhill since Zeke left!”

This really caught Odette’s attention. “Zeke left? When?”

As if the twins suddenly remembered she was there, they both shut up.

“I thought I saw him just the other day. This must have been really recent.” Odette chewed on her lip. He didn’t act unhappy but she didn’t know him very well. It just seemed so sudden.

“It really isn’t any of your business,” Greer sniffed. “But he quit yesterday morning.”

Odette shrank back. She didn’t mean to get in their way. “Sorry.”

“Greer,” Grayson warned. He looked back at Odette, his face softer this time. “Don’t worry about him, okay?”

Greer snorted and then found something else to gripe about.

By the time the afternoon came, the twins retreated into their dressing rooms. Odette went with Grayson—because he was afraid if he left her for a second, she could start seizing—and was again startled by the sheer size of the tent.

The dressing rooms were behind the stage, far back enough that fans couldn’t get in if they tried. Even if it was a tent, it was heavily guarded. And then there was the whole “magic” thing, something that Grayson had neither confirmed nor denied, but Odette was a little more inclined to believe.

“You’re so quiet,” Grayson commented. He was fixing his hair in the mirror, his cape laid over the back of his chair at the ready. “Is there something wrong?”

Odette met his eyes in the mirror and shook her head. “No … I guess I’m just in my own world.”

“I hope I’m in there too,” he said. “You’re always on my mind. Always. I was thinking of you when I was with Greer and I’ll be thinking of you when I’m on stage.”

The girl tilted her head playfully. “What about your screaming fangirls? I’m sure you’ll think of them.”

“You’re the only fangirl I actually care about.” He used his hands to pat down his hair, smoothing it where the comb hadn’t.

Odette snorted, imagining herself in a Grayson Mages T-shirt or waving around an “I <3 Grayson” sign in the front row. She remembered seeing those girls when she came for the first time … with her mom.

Her heart began to thump loudly. Was she a horrible daughter for just assuming they were dead? For just leaving? No, Grayson was right. If they were … alive … they would have found some way to contact her even if they were in the hospital. They would have done something or sent someone. And no one had come. That thought pulled hot bile up and it rested on the back of her tongue. She was an orphan. That shouldn’t be possible. How was it possible?

“Princess?” Grayson was knelt down in front of her. He searched her face but he knew better than to ask her if she was okay. “You know, it’s unfair that you should be so pretty when you cry.”

Odette recoiled from him. It didn’t matter if he was trying to comfort her—that was a weird comment to make. She didn’t like that he thought like that.

“Do you want to talk about it?” his voice was gentle, so gentle that she just wanted to have him hold her until the pain went away, pushing out his previously odd comment.

She sniffled, “Just remembering stuff about my parents.”

They were both silent. The sound of the crowd filling up the tent reached all the way back there. Loud, excited patrons ready for the show.

“It’s never going to go away … the pain of it,” Grayson said slowly. “But it will get easier each day. You’ll find new things to enjoy and, soon, a new family. There’s actually something I want to give you.”

Grayson stood up and walked over to his dressing table. Among the many items that littered the top of it was a black box that he picked up. It was relatively small in size, larger in height than in width and length. He went back to where he was kneeling and handed the little box to her.

Odette furrowed her eyebrows, glancing between him and the box. It was heavy. She had seen similar boxes before. Never in her wildest dreams had she thought he, of all people, would be holding one.

With hesitant hands, she opened the box and her breath stopped. It was a ring. A huge one at that, one far too gaudy and expensive for her. The band was a silver color but the focus was drawn to the oval sapphire in the center, one that looked similar to the amulet he and his sister wore all the time.

“Grayson, I …” I really don’t know what to say. She didn’t want to refuse him and the gift but she couldn’t keep it. Just looking at it made her feel anxious that she would lose it or break it. “It’s beautiful … but why? It’s too expensive.”

Grayson licked his lips. “You’ve just lost your family, Odette …. What if you became mine?”

“It’s—it’s an engagement ring?” Her eyes widened to the size of saucers. “I’m only seventeen! We haven’t even known each other for that long.”

Oh God, she felt like she was going to pass out.

The boy took her hand, grinning. “Yes, but I’m all you have, aren’t I? And I care deeply about you, Odette. I think I love you. Don’t you love me?”

She wanted to shout at him. She wanted to get it through his head that they were not in a fairy tale or a movie. Her mouth had run dry from fright and he was only making this worse. Weren’t they just talking about her dead parents a moment ago?

“Grayson … I … I don’t know. I want to and I think I do. I’ll know some more with more time, but marriage? This is too fast! I can’t even think straight right now; my mind has gone haywire and my parents aren’t even cold in their graves. I’m still a minor!” Odette was having trouble breathing. The room seemed too tight. Was this a panic attack?

“Then don’t think of it as an engagement ring,” Grayson rushed. He took the box from her hands and freed the ring. Still holding her hand—her left one, she realized—he slid the ring on the proper finger. “Think of it as a promise ring. I don’t know what I was thinking, springing that on you.”

The ring weighed heavily on her hand, winking vulgarly in the low light of the naked light bulbs. It took up most of her finger, the coldness causing a trail of goose bumps to rise up her arm.

It fit her perfectly. Did he guess her ring size or did he just know?

“You promising to be with me … now or in the future, whenever you’re ready, it makes me happy.” Grayson wiped her tears with his thumb. He was smiling a genuine smile, not a cold smirk.

Odette hadn’t answered him but she knew that there was only one way to. After all … she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life alone.

“Someday,” she promised.

Grayson embraced her and Odette could see what she looked like in the mirror. She looked scared. She was careful not to wrinkle Grayson’s shirt but her fingers started to dig into his back, burying her face in his neck to avoid seeing her pitiful and pathetic visage any longer.

Odette was half asleep on Grayson’s couch when she realized that she was not alone anymore. In the corner of her eye, she could see something moving in the silver section of the drapes. Her head snapped over in that direction, her heart dropping into her stomach. She clutched Grayson’s jacket over her like a defense, causing her knuckles to turn white from shock.

“Thorn?” she whispered, squinting in the dim light to see him well. “What are you doing here?”

He certainly looked more disheveled than he had any other time that she had seen him. His shirt was wrinkled and only halfway tucked. His brown pants had rips in them and were more worn the further down to the bottom. He looked exhausted.

“Thorn?” Odette asked again, sitting upright.

“You … you had a-asked me t-to come an-and see you in rea-real life,” the man stammered, rubbing the back of his neck.

Odette pursed her lips and tried to recall herself saying something so strange. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember.”

“Pr-probably my f-fault, miss. I wo-wouldn’t want anything to happen … to happen to y-you if you d-did.”

There was a loud roar of applause coming from the stage area that drew both of their attention away.

“Shouldn’t you be with the twins? I mean, you said that you helped with the shows.”

Odette could see Thorn’s lips twitch slightly. “I-I don’t think th-that I’ll be missed.”

“You shouldn’t say things like that,” Odette said. “I’m sure that it’s not true.”

Thorn stared at his feet and shifted from side to side. Odette watched how he wrung his hands, how his fingers seemed to twitch every few seconds, like he might reach for the door handle.

“You said that I told you to come and see me in ‘real life,’ when did I say that?” Odette asked him.

His fingers began to tap against his thigh, flexing and curling uncomfortably while he turned his head to the side. “Um … a-a dream, miss.”

A dream? Odette’s lip curled. The guy had a dream about her? Or was that supposed to be the other way around?

“I … I suppose th-that I can p-prove it …” Thorn murmured. He shuffled closer to the couch and hesitantly sat down on the edge close to her. His whole body seemed to suck the warmth out of the surrounding area, drawing Odette in closer. Thorn pressed the palm of his hand to her forehead and a silvery blue light lit up all the veins in his body. Odette’s muscles seized up and she prepared to push away from him and scramble to safety, but the light had reached her before she could.

Odette’s head flew back from the force of the energy, a collage of memories filling her mind—but they weren’t memories. They were too hazy and too uncertain to be memories; they were snippets of a dream that she had experienced. She recognized them almost instantly, the images giving her the warm feeling of familiarity.

The words that were said, she knew them because she had heard them before. It was like rewatching a movie that she had only seen once before in her childhood.

Finally, Thorn pulled his hand away from her. He stood up from the couch and returned to his spot in the corner of the room. “That was jus-just the dream from l-last night.”

“Yeah,” Odette said, her body still buzzing from the power he used. “Are there others? More that I don’t remember, I mean?”

Thorn pursed his lips. “Y-yes, but I-I will n-not give you an-any more. Wha-what I have given y-you is e-enough.”

She was slightly nauseated from the angel’s power, lightheaded from being forced back into her own mind. Her hands were all sweaty and they shook like she had been sucked of all her energy; her mouth tasted like metal. Odette would trust the angel on with what he said. What he had given her was most definitely enough.

“I-I must le-leave,” he said abruptly.

Her eyes widened. There was still so much she needed to ask him. “Hey, hang on—”

Thorn didn’t wait. He didn’t even stand up from the couch. The angel vanished before her very eyes, like he hadn’t been there at all.

The new information made Odette’s head spiral. Well, Odette thought, it wasn’t technically new but newly remembered. That man who wrote the journal, the one who had been so obsessed with the twins, his theories of their magic being real was … correct. Odette laid her head in her hands, desperately trying to squeeze more information out of her head, remember all that he had written? The journal was all burned up now thanks to Grayson, and her notes of her dreams and her books had all been claimed by the fire. But, the more she thought on it, the more she could come up with snippets of lines and flashes of previous dreams. None of it was good enough. Her memory couldn’t be trusted, not with how strung out it had been the past few days. There was only one thing to do—ask Grayson herself.

She made a plan to do it as soon as he left the stage. Luckily, he was on the last show of the night and Odette knew that he would come back as soon as the curtains dropped.

Odette wasn’t far off. She could hear the crowd from where she sat, accompanied by the twins’ shouts of goodnight. It wasn’t two seconds later when the door to the dressing room swung open. Grayson gave her no warning and swept her off the couch before she could speak. Odette could feel his body shake from adrenaline, muscles trembling from the high of the performance and the magic. His hair had become askew from one of the tricks, his forehead damp with sweat. None of it, however, made him any less attractive.

Grayson kissed her, no words being exchanged as he did so. His amulet burned cold against Odette’s décolletage, cutting into her flesh through the thin lace of the dress. Odette made a noise of surprise, her hands pressed against his chest in an uncomfortable manner. She pried her face away from his, flustered by his sudden action. “Don’t you have a meet-and-greet with your fans right now?” she asked through gasps of air.

“I’m not going to it. I have you to look after,” he reminded her, his finger brushing against her cheekbone. “I think that we should get you home, you’ve been out for too long for today.”

Odette licked her lips and shook her head. “No, I’ll be fine. This is your job. I wouldn’t want you to lose fans because of something like this. Plus, your car’s out front. What will your fangirls think when they see you leaving with someone else?”

“I don’t care,” he snapped.

She jumped. He wasn’t angry, no; she knew what he looked like when he was angry. It was more mildly annoyed. His eyebrows rose, daring her to protest.

“You know what,” Odette said quietly. “I am feeling a little tired. Maybe … maybe the two of us could go ahead and go home?”

His hands that rested on her hips flexed and he smiled kindly. It didn’t match the rest of his face. “Of course, princess.”

Grayson quickly pecked her on the lips, softly and sweetly. His nose nudged against her own coyly and he chuckled to himself, his eyes raking over her face. He kissed her again and, this time, she knew that he wanted it to be more than a simple, childish peck. She feigned a yawn and turned her head just as he was opening his mouth up. His breath fanned over her cheek with a dissatisfied sigh but he made up for it by kissing her temple.

“Come on,” Grayson said finally, helping her stand up on her feet. “It’s late. I’m sure that you’re hungry.”

Grayson pulled into his driveway, Odette had her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes trained on her lap. He had to take the road past her old house and she made the mistake of looking up at the charred remains. Police tape ran the length of the property but, as far as she could see, there were no officers present.

Just seeing it made her feel sick.

It also reminded her of her question but, with the way he was acting, she wasn’t sure if she was willing to go down that path.

“Princess?”

Odette knew that everything that she was feeling was due to her high strung emotions at the moment. It had to have been. There was no way that she was actually afraid of her own boyfriend. He had only surprised her earlier with that ring and then his overprotectiveness. Her anxiety was just making her feel things tenfold, nothing more.

Odette got out of the car on her own, practically forcing herself to go and lean into Grayson’s touch. She felt like she might be getting sick again.

“Hey, what do you say about watching a movie when we get inside?” he suggested, helping her up the front steps.

Odette eyed her sandals, “Yeah sure.”

The summer breeze rustled the trees and brought with it a horrible rotting smell. Odette gagged, cupping her hand over her nose and her mouth, but it wormed its way through and got into her eyes.

“Ugh, do you smell that?” Odette asked, now holding her stomach as well. It was so thick that it was choking her, mingling with the humidity.

Grayson’s face twisted up in disgust, which mirrored her own. “What is that? Maybe there’s a dead animal nearby?” he suggested, stepping into the mansion.

Odette glanced behind her, squinting into the darkness. If anyone did the poor animal in, Odette didn’t doubt that it would be Squiggles. Or Squiggles’ mistress.

She was about to join Grayson inside of his frigid home when she caught sight of something just underneath of her shoe. It was a splotch of rusty brown, which marred the rest of the chalky white steps.

Odette was quick to jump back from the spot. She felt like it had attacked her, or that she had attacked it for stepping on it. It frightened her that there was something that looked like blood on their front steps but she couldn’t think like that. She had to think positively or else … or else she didn’t know what she might do. But the more her eyes stayed focused on that spot, the more she could pick up the tinier spatters that led off to her left. There was another medium sized splotch of the rusted brown something just before the steps dropped off into nothing, leading into the bushes.

“Odette?” Grayson asked quietly.

The girl wasn’t moving on her own accord, it was like her body was on autopilot. She was in the grass before she even realized it; the putrid smell finding its way through her hand and even in through her mouth.

Grayson leaned out of the door, frowning at her dreamlike movements. “Odette, what are you doing?”

She glanced back at him, silently begging him to come to her side and join her. He didn’t. He stayed put, his eyebrows furrowed and his lips parted in confusion. Odette turned back around, walking the length of the house slowly. She was nearing the garden and she expected to see whatever it was laying there. She didn’t know how bad it would be, the severity of the injury of whatever poor creature it was. She didn’t really want to know either but she could feel her curiosity getting the better of her.

Even in the hot summer night, she felt a shiver go down her spine. Her first thought was, naturally, Greer. Somehow, the girl had beaten them home and done something horrible beyond imagination. Or, she let her pet do it while she watched from afar.

Odette rounded the corner and … nothing. No poor dead animal or—God forbid—a person. The rusted splotch trail ran cold as well. It was just the garden. Her shoulders slumped down with relief; she didn’t even realize how tense she was until then.

“Are you feeling okay?” asked Grayson who was unexpectedly close.

She jumped.

“You’re looking pale.”

Odette clutched her chest, feeling her heart beating erratically. He had really scared her. “I don’t think I’m getting enough sleep,” she said to herself, pressing the heel of her hands to her eyes.

Her paranoia was going to be the death of her. Nothing scary was going to just jump out at her. She didn’t know what she was even doing.

Grayson moved out of her way and led her back along the path to the front door. “That is a horrible smell.”

It only got worse the closer they walked to the house. The wind blew again and, even though it blew the stench away from them, the smell wouldn’t leave them.

That was when Odette saw it.

At first, she couldn’t believe exactly what she saw; it was only a glimpse in the bushes, foliage parted by the wind. A horrifying glimpse that made her jump backwards yet again.

She turned to Grayson with wide eyes. “Did you see that?”

“See what?” he asked.

Odette slipped away from him, her arms shaking by her side the closer she got to the hedges. The twigs and rough leaves scraped at her palms and she didn’t even have to push them back all the way to see it again. She wanted to let out a scream. Quickly, she turned around to get Grayson’s attention with a small cry leaving her mouth, but she fell to the ground and blacked out.

Odette woke up screaming, tearing at her high-collared dress. She felt like she couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t see anything around her; all she could think about was the fact that she had found Zeke’s body lying in the bushes. In her mind, she was still in the yard, or—even worse—right next to it.

She could practically still see him in her mind’s eye. Zeke’s poor lifeless body. It was all too much for her. The room was too cold and too hot at the same time. She wanted to throw up but she had nothing in her stomach. All she knew was that she had to get the dress off of her or else she would die from contamination.

“Odette! Hey! Snap out of it!” Grayson demanded, his hands clutching both of her hands and forcing them away from her body.

“NO!” Odette cried, struggling against him. “I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe! Just let me go!”

For a brief second, Grayson was not his beautiful, youthful self. Instead, he was death himself. He was Zeke.

A garbled, horrid choke left her lips. The scent alone made her hair stand on end.

Odette shrieked again and thrashed against the dead weight. “NO! GET OFF!”

“You need to listen to me!” Zeke insisted. “If you don’t calm down, you could trigger something and make yourself worse!”

She was hyperventilating; her heart pounding much too fast. There was a dead body on top of her, just like that time before, and it was talking. Her head swam with vicious dizziness and she felt like her limbs were being sucked into many different directions at once with the bed swirling as though it was on water.

Can’t breathe!

Grayson forced his lips on hers but it wasn’t a kiss. He was forcing air into her mouth. Odette jerked her head away, coughing and sputtering from the extra oxygen. She began to gasp and paw at the air, tears fell down her face. Her mind was still too hazy to be thinking rationally.

It took several minutes for her to truly calm down. The pressing weight on top of her was not a corpse but Grayson. She was in his room and it was probably the middle of the night seeing as it was still very dark outside even though his room was lit up by various candles all over and a lamp.

The flesh on her throat stung as her tears dribbled down onto it. She must have cut herself with her fingernails in the midst of her panic. Strangely, though, she didn’t mind the pain. It was a welcome change as it reminded her that she was still somewhat alive … if this was what was called living.

“You saw him too, right?” Odette whimpered, her hands curling into fists. “Oh God, Grayson, what happened?!”

Even though he was right next to her, he seemed so far away. He pursed his lips. “I don’t know. I was more concerned about you.”

Anger and terror mingled inside of her, bubbling up into one uncontrollable mix. “There is a dead body in your front yard! I do not take first priority!” she shouted, shoving against Grayson and successfully pushing him off on top of her.

“When the police will be focused on taking you away from me, you are!” The boy snatched her left hand and forced it into Odette’s face. “You promised to be mine and if you are shipped off to the other side of the country, then we have no chance!”

She groaned, “Grayson! Nothing is going to take me away from you, and even if I had to go away it would only be for less than six months! They release you from foster care when you turn eighteen—”

“Do you know what could happen to you in that time?” his voice had turned deeper, anger and sadness in his eyes. “Do you know what goes on in the foster care system? Huh, Odette? You couldn’t handle it. It doesn’t matter if they would try anyway, you’re not leaving me.” His words were final and left no room to be questioned.

She shook beneath him, her emotions getting the better of her. Everything that had happened in the past few days, all of the horror and the tension inside of her, strangling out the last bit of sanity she possessed. At first, Grayson only frowned at the trembling movements. It soon turned into full on jerking limbs and Odette’s eyes rolled back into her head, her eyelids fluttering shut. That was when he began to panic.

Someone pounded on his bedroom door but he really didn’t care. “LEAVE!” he roared, focusing his energy on keeping Odette’s head propped up on his pillows. Small whimpers and grunts left her throat, followed by half choked sounds and twitching eyelids. Her leg would jerk and shake, and her back would arch up and off the bed; her arm twisting painfully beneath her.

Suddenly, Grayson became aware of the fact that he was not the only one in his bedroom anymore. His sister was kneeling down beside the bed, moving Odette onto her side while Odette seized. Greer didn’t seem like she was there to cause harm but Grayson knew better than to trust a snake like her.

“Get out,” he hissed, wrapping a protective arm around Odette. Her violent shakes were beginning to calm down slightly but he held her with the same bruising strength.

Greer pouted. “I was only helping, brother. This might have saved you another screaming match with your little toy.”

He glared at his twin, fighting himself on what he should do.

“Here’s something that you should keep in mind,” Greer said, standing up from the floor. “Stress can cause seizures.”

She looked at her brother knowingly while Odette began to wake up. She looked like she was in a great amount of pain from the dimness in her eyes and the way she was squinting.

“Greer?” Odette whispered, drawing herself closer to Grayson for protection. Her limbs felt like they weighed a ton but she knew that the smart thing would be to stay in his arms.

Greer seemed mildly annoyed. “Your screaming brought me here.”

“Well, you can leave now,” Grayson replied. “We wouldn’t want you to miss out on any beauty sleep.”

Even though her thoughts were muddy and her body exhausted from whatever had just happened, Odette knew better than to dismiss the female twin. She just had to gather herself before she spoke again.

Odette squeezed her eyes shut. “No. Greer, don’t go. Something bad has happened,” she rasped. “Maybe you can convince him to call the police.”

The girl quirked an eyebrow. “It must be bad if you’re asking for me to stay. What happened?”

“Zeke—Zeke’s body,” Odette shuddered in revulsion. “He’s dead, Greer.”

Greer’s reaction was reserved compared to what Odette had expected. She didn’t scream or cry. Her eyes only widened a fraction and her lips parted. “Grays, is this true?”

His jaw clenched. “I saw him too.”

“So, what now? Grandfather won’t like this,” the female twin muttered, her shoulders shaking lightly.

Grayson rolled his eyes. “Naturally, Greer.”

“Are you kidding me?” Odette couldn’t believe the both of them. “Call the police! Let them investigate this because I’m pretty sure that he didn’t just lose his limbs on a whim!”

Greer tugged on the ends of her hair. “She’s right. They need to be notified of this or else, when they do eventually discover it, they’ll think we had something to do with it … Odette, you’re bleeding.”

Odette didn’t know where because she couldn’t see but she figured that it must have been on her neck. The dress was sticking to her uncomfortably anyway, and the fabric of the collar was becoming unbearable.

“I’ll help her,” Grayson sneered. “Go ahead and call those pathetic policemen. Odette, you aren’t allowed to be downstairs when they arrive. Don’t even look out the window.”

There was no use in arguing with him on the subject. His resolve was clear and Odette had no energy to fight him on it. She allowed him to help her up and onto her feet and tilt her head upwards to examine the damage that she had done to herself.

“What an obedient pet you are,” Greer commented. Why she had not moved from her spot yet, Odette didn’t know unless it was to torment her some more.

“Leave before I throw you out, Greer,” Grayson ordered once again, his electric blue eyes glaring at her.

The girl held her hands up in defense, a sly smile on her face. “I know when I’m not wanted.”

“Obviously not.” Grayson lightly touched one of Odette’s wounds, a small smudge of her blood staining his finger. He frowned lightly before he licked it off. “Come, we’ll have to clean that. I’ll give you some new clothes too. And you better be downstairs by the time I have helped her,” he shot a pointed look to his twin who still loitered by his door.

Grayson released her chin finally, taking her by the hand and leading her out of his room to the bathroom. The darkened hallway reminded her of some kind of dream that she had had before but she couldn’t recall the details.

The wind outside howled, shaking the windows. At the end of the hall, lightning flashes caught Odette’s attention. It was yet another storm but she couldn’t bring herself to enjoy it. Every flash of light was sending her reeling back into her memories—memories of the deaths that she has had to deal with in her time in Sunwick Grove. She could see the young man dangling at the end of the hall—in her mind—and, while time had blurred some of his features, she could recall his bulging and bruised face vividly.

With another flash of lightning, that body was gone but replaced by that of the kindly Zeke. He lay in a heap in front of the window in a pool of his own rusted blood, his eyes open and begging for help. Odette couldn’t help but recoil, wrapping her arms around Grayson’s strong one.

“Are you frightened of the storm?” He stopped walking to look down at her. “Don’t be, it can’t hurt you.”

Odette shook her head, burying her face in his shoulder. “It’s not the storm. I’m scared of them.”

“‘Them’?”

“The dead bodies.”

Grayson inhaled and pulled her into his chest. He pet the back of her hair gently, his fingers massaging her scalp lovingly. “Don’t be scared of them. They can’t hurt you anymore either.”

Once in the bathroom, Grayson had Odette sit on the sink while he tended to the cuts she had made to herself. His face was neutral but focused as he cleaned her skin with soap and water. “Don’t do this again,” he whispered but it was loud enough for her to hear.

Odette winced in pain. The washcloth felt rough against her wounds. “It’s not like I meant to.”

“Doesn’t matter. You don’t do this again; I don’t like seeing you in pain.” He pulled out a bandage and wrapped it around her neck slowly and carefully, brushing her hair back out of his way.

“How can you be so calm?” Odette wondered out loud. “You’ve seen what I’ve seen and you act like it doesn’t affect you? You act like you aren’t going to be scarred for the rest of your life. How?”

His hands faltered but he continued a second later. “I’ve seen some pretty horrific things, princess. I’ve become … numb, I guess. That would be the best way to describe it.”

She frowned, letting go of the high neckline and fixing it back into its proper place. “You can’t possibly be numb to death.”

“You can be when you watched your parents die,” he said casually. “I had a front-row seat to their gory end … and Greer. It was the worst day of my life and it made me what I am today.” He didn’t even sound bitter about it, just numb, like he said. “Love and life are fleeting. You have to hold on to what you care for and fight for it tooth and nail, otherwise, there’s no point in keeping it.”

Odette knew that it was better to shut up. Grayson was getting into one of his moods. She swallowed hard, the bandages feeling more like hands constricting her airway.

So, she did the best thing that she could. She cupped his jaw and pushed his messy hair out of his face. The result was almost instant—Grayson’s emotionless facade melting away and his face regaining color. Odette pecked his lips slowly, the thunder from the outside shaking the mansion at the same moment.

Odette pulled back while Grayson chased her lips but she didn’t kiss him again. “Thank you for helping me.”

When the police did arrive, it was nearing three forty-five in the morning. Odette had been moved to the guest bedroom once again—although she somewhat thought of it as her own—and she was given strict instructions to keep the lights off and make no noise. Under no circumstance was she to leave the room unless Grayson—and only Grayson—came to get her.

She had shed the white dress, which had lost its comfort long ago, and wore an old nightgown that looked like something a woman in Victorian London would have worn.

“Where on earth did you get this?” she asked Grayson.

He shrugged his shoulders. “It was one of Grandfather’s strange buys. He either claimed that it belonged to a queen or that it was cursed.”

Odette blanched.

“It’s fine. Do you really think I would give you something dangerous?” Grayson chuckled, shaking his head. “We mainly used it as a prop for the shows around Halloween.”

She remained skeptical about the garment but she didn’t outwardly tell him. He left her not long after and she changed into it, marveling at how the lace wasn’t irritating against her skin. Odette curled up on the bed and tried to close her eyes but she couldn’t. Her body wouldn’t let her. If it wasn’t for the fear of what she might see in her dreams, it was the horrendous storm raging on out her window.

She huffed, kicking the sheets off of her legs and letting them pool at the bottom of the bed. She threw her arms up over her head to stretch out when the lightning caught the reflective glare of her ring. Odette had completely forgotten about that being on.

It had only belonged to her for a short number of hours but she found herself overly comfortable with the weight it held on her ring finger. In the dark, it looked black rather than blue and it didn’t glitter at every single moment like Grayson’s or Greer’s. She began to twist it but found out that she couldn’t turn it all the way around her finger—only half—because of how large the stone was. The ring simply refused to move.

Marriage, Odette thought with a grimace. He wants to marry me. How strange. And something that she most definitely wouldn’t do … not for several years at least. Our emotions have been everywhere, she reasoned with herself. It isn’t like he actually meant it. It was a spur of the moment kind of thing. He thought he was helping.

The sound of her bedroom door opening made Odette sit upright. The lights came on and she saw … Jethro.

“Oh hello,” she greeted, her voice sounding scratchy from lack of sleep. And the screaming. “Have you … do you know?”

Jethro furrowed his eyebrows, his face drawn. He looked ages older than he had when she first met him. “Yeah, I know, sweetheart. It’s hard not to with the police swarming my front yard. How are you holding up?”

She figured he didn’t just mean tonight. “I don’t know …. One minute I’m screaming and trying to rip my throat to ribbons and the next I just feel nothing. Is this normal?”

He rubbed his face, a sad laugh filling the room. “I don’t know, kid. With all you’ve been through, well, you’re doing a lot better than I would be.”

“I don’t think so.” Even in the bright white room, she felt nothing but darkness around her. “I think that it’s driving me insane. I can’t even do anything to make these … these hallucinations stop. And the strange thing is, is that I have been miserable since … I moved. I’m scared every time I go to sleep and I’ve never had a legitimate reason to be but I always am.

“Grayson … Grayson’s helping me. He can make them go away, I think. He’s like a shield or something. Nothing bad ever happens when he’s around and he’s always there to help me pick up the pieces. He only wants what’s best for me.”

Odette hugged her knees, her eyes not focused on anything particular in the room.

“I’m sorry. About your parents, I mean.” Jethro stepped further into the room and leaned against the dresser. “The police are investigating it right now but it was supposedly set by gas stove. A freak accident but it does happen. But the real messed up bit is that they’re looking for you … not only as a missing person but a person of interest.”

Odette gasped. “You mean … they think that I might have set it? But that’s impossible!”

The older man hung his head tiredly. “I know. Grayson’s convinced us all to keep our mouths shut about you, though; that we ‘don’t know where you are.’ But, you have to admit, it does look sketchy that you just vanished after they died. I know that, if you go to the cops, they’ll take you away but, sweetheart, don’t you think that it would do you better to be away from here and all this death? At least they’ll know you’re innocent.”

She flinched, gripping the bed sheets so hard her knuckles turned white. “I want to but I can’t leave. I have no one. Grayson is the closest thing that I have to any family now and I’m scared what will happen to me if he’s gone too.”

“He doesn’t take abandonment well,” the man agreed with a sigh. “But, kid, you need to think about it. If he really cares about you then he’ll have to understand. We’ll help you as much as we can but, even with the powers we possess, they may not tell us enough concerning you.”

Odette didn’t want to do what he was telling her to do. Even if it did make sense, even if it was the responsible thing to do, being all alone was something she couldn’t handle. What would happen to her if she went away? What would happen to Grayson?

She was beginning to feel very lightheaded just imagining the possibilities. All worst-case scenarios filled her mind along with the bone-crushing weakness that she had come to know. The room around her felt all too small and her breathing was shallower.

“I can’t,” she muttered, her shaking hands coming up to thread through her hair. “I can’t be alone.”

Her limbs tingled with numbness and dread pooled in her stomach. Odette was aware that Jethro was moving around in her peripheral vision. A large hand clamped down on her bicep and she could feel another on her knees.

Odette squirmed away but Jethro was much stronger than her. Her head was forced between her now propped-up knees and she grunted from discomfort.

“Just breathe,” the man ordered.

He rubbed small circles into her back, repeating those words over and over again. Odette wanted to yell at him to shut up and let her panic, but found that the sick feeling started to recede after a few minutes like that. The metallic taste on her tongue started to vanish and she took several shuddery inhales before she moved again.

“How did you know what to do?” she asked him quietly, moving several strands of hair that had entered her mouth away. She could feel a few tears fall from her eyes but she wasn’t sad. She didn’t think she was anyway.

Jethro pursed his lips. “You aren’t the first kid I’ve known to have panic attacks.” He rubbed his hands on his pants almost awkwardly. “I didn’t mean to trigger one for you but you need to think about it, Odette.”

She opened her mouth to respond when an imposing shadow fell across the bedroom floor. Grayson stood in the doorway, his eyes fixated on his grandfather.

“Why are you in here? What have you done to her?” He yanked Odette off of the bed and put her behind him protectively.

Jethro scoffed quietly. “No need to get defensive, Grayson. I figured I would check up on her to make sure that she was fine. But now that you’re here, I think that I’ll go back down to those officers and help however I can.”

He smiled politely at Odette and left the room just as mysteriously as when he had come.

Grayson angrily closed the door, checking both ways to ensure none of the cops had come upstairs. “Why was he in here, Odette? That man only causes trouble wherever he goes. He knew better than to come in here, especially when they are just outside.”

The light switch was flipped and they were in total darkness once more. It reminded Odette of the nights when he would sneak in through her window to come and see her, only with more anger and tears.

“Come on, Odette, tell me,” Grayson demanded. “Or do I have to force it out of you?” He wasn’t threatening her, rather, he sounded bored, like he was talking about school.

She bit her lip. “H-he wanted me to go to the police. He wanted me to go, so that I could prove that I wasn’t involved in the fire and … so that I could get away from here.”

Odette could see the silhouette of Grayson, how his shoulders were tensed and the way his fists were clenched. Outside, the storm was receding but a flash of lightning illuminated his features. She didn’t know what she expected. Anger? Sadness? No. He was blank and still as a statue. He wasn’t looking at her but rather through her.

Odette reached out to him, “Grayson?”

As soon as her hand made contact with him, it was like he woke back up. “Princess, I love you. You should go to sleep.”

What?

“I—” Odette was cut off by Grayson tugging her into him. He hugged her tightly, his fingers lacing into hers. “I … care for you too.”

Grayson kissed her forehead, long and sweet, and the next thing she knew she was asleep in his arms.