Total pages in book: 181
Estimated words: 181613 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 908(@200wpm)___ 726(@250wpm)___ 605(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 181613 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 908(@200wpm)___ 726(@250wpm)___ 605(@300wpm)
And as my hands slowly coil around his face, I press a kiss onto his lips so gentle it makes my eyes tear up.
After tonight, it’ll all be over.
Just this one kiss.
The last on his list.
My lips on his, his hands on my waist, sliding farther and farther across my body, as I slowly begin to lose myself in the moment while his calloused lips kiss mine back for just a second.
Just one second.
And I nearly forget the world even exists.
His lips part against mine mid-kiss. “You flutter around a fire so happily, forgetting it can destroy you in an instant … Firefly.”
Firefly?
My eyes widen.
No.
This is a trick. It has to be.
Suddenly, he pulls out a knife.
Is he going to kill me now?
Whoosh!
He chucks the knife at a nearby tree, and I pull away from him, my lips still tingling from our kiss. Behind the tree, another set of red eyes appears, and my entire body freezes.
“What the fuck?” my kisser murmurs under his breath.
Another masked figure in a hoodie and with red eyes emerges from the graves beyond, zigzagging his way to us. “Seems I’m not the only one who was invited.”
“You …” My eyes narrow as I try to place the awfully familiar voice.
But who is the stalker now? Him or the other guy?
A crackling of a twig makes my head turn the other way as another masked man appears from the beaten path, red eyes and all. One by one, they pull out their knives and point them at each other.
Just as I expected.
One or all of them.
Someone’s a stalker.
Someone’s a killer.
Someone’s a liar.
And this will end tonight.
CHAPTER 48
Ghost
Who the fuck are they, and how did they find us?
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
She was supposed to be here alone for me to devour just one last time.
Why are they even here?
She snorts, shaking her head. “I didn’t think this would work.”
She arranged this.
She tricked me into thinking it would just be me and her.
She brought us all together … to destroy me.
“No!” I chuck a knife at one of them.
He sidesteps to avoid and pulls a knife out too. “You think you’re the only one who can play that game?”
Wait a minute… I recognize that voice.
He throws the knife.
THWACK!
I lean, and it hooks in the tree behind me.
“Now this? This is a game worth playing,” the other one says.
I turn my head to look at him. They’re both dressed exactly like me in masks, hoodies, balaclavas, red eyes and all.
“No more hiding. No more lies,” Aspen rasps. “I can’t take it anymore. This ends tonight.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!
Grinding my teeth, I charge at one of them and tackle him to the ground.
“You motherfucker!” I yell, punching his face.
“You think that’ll help?” He dodges them all and snorts. “We’re just as violent as you, remember?”
“You say one fucking word, and I’ll kill you!” I roar, refusing to give up.
“What? Afraid I’ll reveal your dirty little secret?” He grabs my fist. “Too late. She played you.”
“Aspen,” the other one says. “You have to listen to me.”
He’s too close. Too close for comfort, and I won’t let anyone pretend to be me.
Not today. Not ever.
I am the one and only one for her.
I am the original.
I am her ghost, and she was my everything.
Until they stole her away from me, right underneath my nose.
Aspen
He called me by my name.
I know that voice.
One of the two guys who are fighting pulls a new knife from his pocket and aims it right at his face.
The mask is knocked off, a trickle of blood running down his cheek.
I gasp, planting my hands in front of my face. “Grey?”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry for what I did, but I need you to listen to me,” he says, wiping away the droplets of blood from his face. “I came here because you messaged me, but I need you to know I’m not evil. I care more about you than anything else, so much that it hurt you. I wanted you to be safe.”
When he reaches for my hand, I lean away. “Was it you?”
The two other stalkers still fight on the pebbled path, throwing fists left and right. One of them pulls out another knife and tries to jab the other, but he rolls out from underneath him and gets off the ground away from him.
“Please, listen to me,” Grey says.
Wait, why won’t he answer me?
The one with the knife points it at both of them. “Shut up. Shut up!”
My ghost has never yelled. He’s only ever whispered to me. I can’t tell who’s who anymore, who’s the real one and who the fakers are.
THWACK!
Grey catches the knife thrown at him midair. “I’ve fucking had it with you,” he growls.
The shift in his eyes has me flinching. He’s never looked this unhinged. This terrifying.
How the fuck did he do that?