Return to the Darkness - Ripley Proserpina Page 0,48

enough going on, and he’d taken care of me for years. He was like the opposite of this town and all of the adults who had lived here. He actually cared what happened to me.

I didn’t want him to have a heart attack worrying. Was he eating properly?

“Lacey?” Oliver leaned over to speak low to me. His father was up front.

I turned toward him. “You okay?”

“I am. Can you tell me more about what was wrong with me? The other me?”

I supposed at some point we’d get to a place where this story wouldn’t hurt so much and it would be simple to talk about that other world. We weren’t anywhere near there yet.

“You killed my cousin because of what happened with me. Because I was dead. You went to jail for a while. Came out an addict. You were pretty lost. The most overtly lost.”

He nodded. “I could see myself killing him. That isn’t such a weird concept to me.”

I took his hands in mine, linking our fingers together. “Don’t do that. Don’t ever do anything to screw up your life for me.”

Oliver cleared his throat. “Just know that I would.”

That was sweet, but I hated it. “Why?” What would he get out of it?

He stared at me. “After having you, Lacey, the idea of you not being around is so wrong. The world would be wrong without you. The hours you were gone were the worst of my life. I didn’t know if you were alive or dead because I couldn’t feel you. At least when you left the first time, I knew you continued to exist.”

It hit me again how wrong and selfish it had been of me to leave the way I did. I’d promised once I’d never leave again without saying goodbye, and wasn’t that what I had done? I’d broken my promise to them.

“I’m sorry.” It would take some time for me to prove that my word was any good, but I’d try. I squeezed his hand, and he squeezed mine back.

“I know.” He leaned over and kissed me gently before facing forward. I leaned my head on his shoulder and waited for the drive to be over.

Ray slowed, but I didn’t recognize this part of the town. When we’d come to look for the stones, we hadn’t driven this way. It was really built up, but not like the center of town. It had apartment buildings and parks along with ranch style single-family homes. We even passed a school. “Where are we?” I asked.

“Not far from your old neighborhood. This is the place I found Erdirg’s resting place.”

“Shut the fuck up.” I leaned over Oliver to study our surroundings. It looked nothing like I remembered. It was… nice. The sort of place I’d live if I had to live in the desert—which I wouldn’t—but still. “How?”

“I think once Erdirg was gone and his evil was asleep, it released whatever cloud was over this place. It’s just a place, Lacey. Not good or bad.”

There Ray went again, with his “not good or bad” talk. When it came to Erdirg, things were much more black and white.

“Erdirg is bad.”

“Yeah.” Shocked, I stared at the back of the man’s head. “He’s the exception to the rule. There’s always one.”

Fair enough. We rolled to a stop. “I think it was about here.”

He’d stopped in front of a playground. Oh, yuck. “This is it? The grave is under the playground?”

“Is that swing moving on its own?” At Colton’s words, I whipped my head toward the window. Sure enough, the swings were gently swaying.

Aaron rolled down the window and then reached back to slap Colton. “Asshole. It’s the wind.”

Thorn snorted while Colton tried to smother his grin. Little boys. I smiled too, though, because that shit was funny.

But then I saw them. The air seemed to waver in the way that it did before ghosts showed up. All five of the men I was with shut up their laughter. Yep, these were the right people to be around when ghosts showed up. They could actually see them, and they didn’t have to be made to believe. The swings had children on them.

Dead, ghost children.

I shivered and rubbed my arms.

“Yep.” Thorn put his arm around me. “This is bad. I mean, like haunt your dreams after this, and you’ve been with a sleep hag. Those are ghosts of children.”

Ray stopped the car.

“Really?” I asked. “Here?” This was the stuff of nightmares.

But here was as good as anywhere I supposed. The