Where the Devil Says Goodnight (Folk Lore #1) - K.A. Merikan Page 0,98
some notes too,” Adam said, and when his hand shook, he made a point of putting the figurine on the table and stepping back. A couple seconds later, he walked up to the sink and washed his hands, as if he were afraid the thing carried a disease.
Emil groaned. Yes. Notes. His grandmother’s notes on the best ways for attracting Chort, which ranged from placing bowls of food in four corners of the house to human sacrifice, but the latter was such a freaky thing to be written down by his lovely grandma that he chose not to mention it to anyone ever. He could only hope Adam hadn’t read any of it yet.
“I didn’t want you to be scared. It must have been my grandma’s.” Emil took the little sculpture into his hand and stared into the red smudges it had for eyes.
Adam exhaled and placed his hands on the table top, for a moment so still it seemed like he wasn’t all there. “I just… it’s such a weird thing to have in the house. And that hair— It’s like yours,” he added in a lower voice.
Emil pulled on one of his waves and compared it to the lock attached to the figurine. “Maybe. But my grandma’s hair was like this too. She’d worn it long all her life, and it never turned gray.”
Adam took a deep breath. “You can tell me if it is yours.”
“What? Why would it be mine?” Emil stared back at him, strangely cold in the cozy space heated by the big tiled stove.
“I don’t know… tradition? Like those offerings?” Adam asked but was already grabbing Emil’s hand.
“I’m telling you it’s not mine. But I think it’s used to attract Chort.”
Adam’s eyes went wide. “And you keep it in the house?!”
“It’s just a trinket.”
He knew he’d made a mistake by saying that when Adam went ghastly pale within seconds. “A trinket? It’s been here this whole time. What if this… this thing was what caused my possession?” Adam asked in a voice that rose in pitch with each syllable. He stepped toward the door, as if the figurine were a bomb on the verge of exploding.
Emil rubbed his face. “I only found it when we decided to move, because I needed to choose which of my grandpa’s things I wanted to keep. I was looking through a lot of stuff and forgot about it.”
Adam pressed his lips together, still tense. “Can you get rid of it?”
“Hm. What if it’s important? Maybe someone knows what it is?”
“Are you saying you’re unwilling to get rid of it?”
Emil got up and raised his hands. “No! No, okay, I can see you’re freaking out.”
Adam cupped his own face, then nervously wiped his palms on his pants. “Because this creature might be feeding on me even when I don’t see it. And… I don’t know, you technically could have gotten it because you noticed my interest in you.”
The cogs in Emil’s head moved, jamming over the concept Adam was trying to communicate. “Are you suggesting I’m a devil worshiper? That I bewitched you so I could fuck you? Seriously?”
Adam looked away. “How do I know what’s possible and what’s not anymore? I was literally locked inside my own body and walked all the way here. To you. Can you really blame me for asking questions?”
Emil clenched his teeth, walked up to the stove, opened the metal door, and threw the figurine into the fire. The hair sizzled first, but the wood quickly took to the flames as well. Emil stared back at Adam, still shocked by this lack of trust.
“Happy now?”
Adam covered his face and nodded, his movements stiff as if he was still worried, but he said, “I think so.”
Emil’s anger evaporated once he saw the hunched shoulders. He shouldn’t have taken this so personally. Adam was still suffering from what happened to him that night, and what he needed was understanding, not harsh words. He folded Adam into a hug and kissed the side of his head. “Are you still worried it might happen again?”
Adam leaned into the embrace, as if he’d never really believed his own accusations, and put his arms around Emil too, hugging him almost too tightly. “Yes. You don’t? I had a painful secret that no one could know, and he just used it against me.”
Emil stroked Adam’s back, enjoying the closeness to the person who’d become his whole world. “Would it be so bad to have sex with me?”