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“How do I know which part to eat?”
“Tell me what you’ve noticed when you’ve been around humans. Anything unusual?”
Gwen bit her lip, brow furrowed in deep thought.
“Yeah … I noticed when I was around people, I feel sick. My coworker—she touched me, and I felt like I was going to throw up. I could smell wine coolers. And if I’m not feeling sick, I’ve been feeling …weird?Like my neighbor—I caught him stealing earlier this week, and he glared at me. I’ve caught him stealing before without him noticing. I honestly didn’t care before, but I remember feeling so annoyed.”
“Your appetite may lie in the unseen,” Ambrosius concluded.
“Unseen?”
“Things that humans have that aren’t the physical,” he explained. “My palette isn’t just blood and tears. Most demons are partial to the human spirit. But we won’t know for certain until we get you alone with a human. Or until you finish the doll, whichever you prefer.”
Gwen’s eyes widened, and he noted the way her gaze darted toward the spider colony. Ambrosius could sense her soul waver—stress. She was afraid of something, but—
Naughty one.
His clawed hand swept past her cheek and tangled in her hair. He cradled the back of her head and pulled the pale pink strands. Not viciously, but enough that Gwen had no choice but to tilt her head back.
“Gwen,” Ambrosius purred as he caught her avoidant eye. “What did you do with the doll?”
“I gave it away,” she mumbled.
Ambrosius blinked.
20
Serene
Gwen
“Excuse me?”
Gwen pressed her tongue into her canine to keep herself from spilling her guts out to him. She already felt embarrassed for crying in front of him. The last thing Gwen wanted to do was give him more ways to mess with her. And her head was already a mess from earlier that day—made more complicated by his sudden appearance.Gwen was an emotional wreck, and she didn’t want Ambrosius to press salt and lemon juice into the wound.
“Gwen…”
“I gave it away!” she exclaimed.
Fuck, she hated feeling like she couldn’t lie to him. Almost as much as she hated the strange emotions she had felt when he got the jump on her. That small glimpse of what he really was, now cradling the back of her head, sent an involuntary shiver through her. Gwen didn’tunderstand this—whateverthiswas, or maybe she just refused to accept it as she watched Ambrosius’ eyes narrow. The corner of his mouth lifted.
“Why on earth would you do that?” he asked.
“Because I didn’t want it!” Gwen barked. “I didn’t want any of this! So, I got rid of the doll.”
Whether he was pleased with the answer, Gwen couldn’t say for certain. While they hadn’t known each other for very long, Gwen suspected his poker face was a lot better than hers. Though, she had managed to see through some of his facade. When he was hidden behind her shower curtain, Gwen thought that might have been the truth. But she had been caught off guard when he had swept her into his arms, babbling excitedly in her ear about what she was eating.
She couldn’t say which one had been the real Ambrosius.
He shut his eyes, frustrated. “Why didn’t you just throw it in the river like a normal human?”
“I was waiting for it to come back first!” Gwen snapped.
Truthfully, she hadn’t known it was an option just yet. Gwen didn’t like the idea of traveling with the doll. She imagined it was like traveling with a stick of dynamite, and the last thing Gwen wanted to do was explain to the woman across the aisle why her doll was moving.
Ambrosius pulled away, shaking his hand. At first, Gwen thought he wasoffendedto have touched her, but the idea disappeared quickly. Gwen watched as his hand became distorted, almost as if she was looking at a heat wave. A moment later, his hand was entirely human once again.
“It only comes back if you abandon it,” Ambrosius flicked his hand and suddenly his cane appeared beneath it. “If you gift a haunted object to someone—well, that’s entirely different.”