Page 55 of A Game Cursed and Deadly

“More than anything.”

“You’ve waited so many years to be with Gwen again… and now you can. Isn’t that worth taking a risk?”

He huffs out a breath, and his eyes get lost in the distance. I try to follow his line of sight, but I don’t find anything there.

Finally, after what feels like an eternity of silence, he says, “you’re right. Gwen is worth anything.”

With new resolve, he stalks toward the spot he’d been looking at before. I don’t see the door he walks through. I only see his ghost beginning to disappear. Kicking sand behind me, I run to him.

He gives me one last nod over his shoulder, his neck twisted freakishly, and disappears in a puff of dust. Watching him cross over lulls some deeply rooted need inside me. I feel… accomplished.

At peace.

Nothing has ever felt more right than this. Nothing has ever given me such purpose.

Warm, fat teardrops escape my eyes, and I lower my head to gather them with the back of my hands. That’s when I see a black object glistening in the sand, in the spot where Bernie disappeared.

It looks like a… marble? It’s glossy, but fully opaque. When I hold it agains the sun rays peeking through the clouds, it shines in a kaleidoscope of color. I press it to my chest, a feeling of wholeness filling the space in my soul that’s been hollowed out for so long.

Like lighting on a clear day, some of Bernie’s words come back to me. Massive horns and wings. I knew about the monsters’ claws, and the glowing eyes, but the horns are new information. Then why am I not at all surprised about their existence? Why do I feel like I’ve seen them before?

The dots connect, and I burst out laughing. Because I have seen them. Just not on Tei.

Throwing the marble in my tote, I take off running toward Tei’s house.

chapter 27

horns and heated touches

esmeralda

When I get to the house, it’s not Tei that opens the door, but Mei, a toothy grin on her lips that looks half murderous, though I’m sure her intentions are innocuous. Though I’m getting better at reading it, I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to the way ghosts display emotions as a horrid caricature of what humans look like.

“See what I did there?” she asks.

I scratch the back of my neck. “Opened the door?”

“With telekinesis! I’d not managed to move an object quite this heavy yet.”

To be completely fair, the door is old and wooden and the latch barely hangs on — a gust of strong wind could manage to pry it open. But I don’t dare burst her bubble, so I simply give her a thumbs up with a smile. “I accomplished something of my own today. Is Tei home?”

“Taking a shower.”

My cheeks flame at the thought. Admittedly, I’d never stopped to ponder whether monsters needed hygiene or not, but imagining Tei naked under the shower, large droplets beading the hard planes of his chest…

Mei clears her throat, and I forcefully shove the image away.

“So what was your accomplishment today?”

Oh, right. Fishing through my bag, I find the marble hiding at the very bottom and hold it with two fingers in front of Mei’s face. Her eyes widen so far, I’m half fearful her eyeballs will fall out of her sockets.

“Where did you get that?” she asks with the feeblest of voices.

“I had a very unexpected encounter today.” I proceed to recount my meeting with Bernie, from when I noticed him in the distance to when he finally passed on, leaving the marble behind.

Through my story, Mei’s expression twists deeper and deeper into a frown. “Tell me what it was like when he passed.”

The grin spreading on my lips is impossible to stop. “I don’t think anything has ever felt more… right. It’s like a piece of me fell into place, and I was exactly where I needed to be, for once. I felt like Bernie was free and it freed me in return.”