Page 21 of Possession
“If you swear to keep Ada safe. Deal.”
His head inclined sharply in acknowledgement; however, the odd angle made the movement creepy and nuanced. An eerie impression suddenly swept through my body, as if sealing over the spoken promise.
“How do I know you’re true to your word?”
“I have information you have been seeking…Will this provide reassurance?”
“Yes.”
“Very well. When Ada left the Carmichael Estate, it was of her own volition. And she chose to attend Everlake Girls’ University.”
Ada left me.SHE LEFT ME!
I’d been going out of my mind, not knowing where she was or how terrified she must have been. Yet, that whole time, she hadchosento leave me of her own free will. It had me reevaluating everything.
“You will be reunited, young one…when the sinister season is upon us.”
Before he could leave, I had to ask. “Why her? Why do you haunt her?”
His white orbs probed into mine, both knowing and aware.
“You should know more than anyone, since we are one and the same, Greyson Carmichael…She isoursin every lifetime.”
Present Day
Chapter 13
ADA
Twenty-three years old…
I raced through the woodland to stumble upon the tall iron gates of Bartholomew Cemetery, welcomed inside as the old hinges screamed from misuse.
An ominous fog swallowed me whole as I skirted between marble towers and ornate monuments. The Halloweencelebrations had overflowed into the graveyard, partiers twisting into distorted figures as if calling forth the dead.
It had been three years since I had last seen Greyson, but being in his presence again tipped me off my axis. I wasn’t prepared, and so I was thrust back to that night—the night he broke me.
Since then, my haunting ghost with the missing face had become emboldened. He was set on protecting me and guarding against evil, not realising that he was the very definition of the same. What he gained in power, he claimed in possession of me, my consciousness, my life. And I had no one else to blame but the real boy who abandoned me.
I was already distracted and confused with the warped environment when a tremendous roar sounded through the forest, the prolonged howl as potent as the crack of thunder.
With the added stimulus, I became further disoriented and collided with a hooded figure. I crashed to the ground, my hands outstretched to catch my fall.
A shrill, distorted hiss came from the pale fucker, their silver eyes swirling before they moved on…without offering a hand, I might add. The stuck-up asshole.
I swept off my grazed palms, then kept going deeper into the burial grounds to escape the encroaching monster. My skin prickled from the crisp air, the light breeze feeling like a caress against the back of my neck—he called out.
Two words that had me undone.
“Little rabbit?”
Close.Way too close.
Greyson thought we were playing a game. I wanted no part in it. Yet, there I was, baiting the apex predator like I wasn’t giddy at the thought of him catching me.
“You know what it does to me when you run, Ada,” he said, his voice full of dangerous lust and longing. “You should know by now. You can’t outrun the devil.”
He finished with a maniacal laugh that pissed me off.