Page 22 of The Curse of Redwood

“When will you learn?” he asked in exasperation. “I do not want to seeyou. Get that through your thick skull.”

His harsh tone didn’t match the gentleness in his eyes. The way he had reached for me before drawing his hand back contradicted it as well. His words said one thing, yet his actions said another.

“Can I come in?”

Though he had no biological reason to breathe, he released a sigh anyway. I annoyed him that much. “You never give up, do you?”

“Nope. Especially when I have my mind set on something.”

“And what, may I ask,” Z said, stepping even closer to me, “do you have your mind set on?”

“You.” The word came out a lot steadier than I thought it would. Because I was trembling on the inside, worried he was going to force me to leave. “I want to know you.”

His head tilted up a fraction as his jaw tightened. “You can never know me. Not the me I used to be. This is who I am now, a spirit damned to this mansion until the end of days. I barely recall my life from before.”

The pain in his eyes made me think he was lying. Maybe, like Theo, Z’s past was too painful to talk about. It had taken Theo months to open up to Ben about it all.

“Let me get to know theyouright now,” I suggested, not backing down. “I’ll tell you about me too.”

“Oh, I feel I know enough about you. You’re like a small, curious pest that won’t leave no matter how many times I swat at it.”

“Rude,” I muttered, before peeking around him into the manor. “So, are you gonna let me in?”

Another sigh left his lips and he turned away from me, leaving the door open so I could follow behind him. Smiling, I walked into the house and went to shut the door but gasped when my hand went through a cold spot.

“Hello again,” the little ghost boy said, waving up at me. He had materialized in front of the door. “Sorry I made you hurt your head when we played.”

I rubbed at the spot on impulse. A scab was over it now. “Uh, it’s okay.”

He faded from sight, yet I heard his footsteps as he ran from the room and toward the hallway on the left side. Another laugh joined his, this one feminine.

“Still want to wander around in here?” Z asked, smirking. “There are many more who want to meet you.”

“You can’t scare me away that easy. You’re stuck with me.”

“Pity.”

“Okay, what’s your damn problem?” I asked. “You weren’t this big of an asshole when we fucked all over my house.”

Thatgot a reaction out of him. The aloof attitude broke and his blue eyes flickered with shock. “Such a vulgar tongue you have. Men in my day had more class than that. Well, unless you were uncouth and uncivil. Men of any degree of respect would never utter such vulgarities aloud.”

“Men in your day, huh? I thought you didn’t remember your life from before,” I tested him.

His mouth closed. He knew he’d been caught. He spun around and headed for a corridor to his right.

With a grin plastered on my face, I followed him. My eyes had adjusted fairly well to the dark, but I was thankful when Z lit a candlestick and handed it to me. Light flickered on the walls as we moved down the long corridor. We walked straight for a while before veering to the left, then again to the right.

“Do you ever get lost in here?” I asked, already having forgotten the direction we’d come from.

“No.”

“Why is it like a maze?”

Z stopped beside a marble statue and turned to me. “I heard the original owner had the home specifically built to suit his tastes. He became bored much too easy and liked the challenge the winding corridors provided. There are countless hidden passageways in this mansion as well.”

“Dude, that got me excited. I’ve always wanted to find a hidden doorway or passage. Like the ones you can only find by pulling a fake book on a shelf or touching a secret spot on the wall. Then when you go in the room, you find, like, treasure or something else awesome.”

Humor danced in his eyes. “You are easily amused, aren’t you?”