While You Were Creeping - Poppy Rhys Page 0,41

sooner.

Couldn’t blame her for wanting to know, even if dredging up the past vanquished my appetite. I set the popcorn on the coffee table and shook my head, unsure of where to start.

“Did you murder someone?” Holly blurted, like she couldn’t hold it back any longer. She even tensed up.

“It’s not that simple.”

Her brows knit and she sat up, turning toward me. “Isn’t it? A person either commits murder or they don’t. It’s a yes or no answer.”

Was it?

I’d taken a life, in a way, once upon a time. The guilt I’d learned to live with quietly simmered in the background but at times like these, when I had to bring it to the surface, it burned anew.

“It’s been...” I exhaled, trying to think but there was no definitive number, “a hundred and something years, maybe two, but it doesn’t feel that way.”

My time worked differently than Holly’s. In fact, I was fairly certain everyone I used to know was long dead by now. Stung to think about.

A hundred plus years, yet it was only a decade or so if I added up all the months I’d been awake.

“I was young. Still young physically, I suppose, but I feel ancient.” I huffed at the realization. “Anyway, I met this woman. Neoma. Her name was Neoma.”

Gods, I hadn’t said her name in... I couldn’t remember how long. It brought a grimace to my face, saying it aloud.

“Who was she to you?” Holly softly asked, pulling her knees up and wrapping her arms around her legs.

“A friend. Maybe one day she would’ve been more. I don’t know.”

“Is she the reason you’re imprisoned?”

“Mm, I never blamed her.”

“Tell me what happened?” Holly’s voice was soft, urging me, yet holding back as if she were hesitant to hear any kind of explanation.

I got it. Had the tables been reversed, I suppose I’d be afraid of anything that might change my opinion of Holly after I’d come to enjoy her company.

“My brothers and I used to let loose during the winter solstice you could say.” Hadn’t thought about my two siblings in a long while either. They’d been my best friends back then. “My family celebrated big for Yule. The food was bountiful, the music was loud, and the spirits were bottomless. Cheerful time. And I did love the spirits. Too much.”

“Is that why you don’t drink alcohol?”

My gaze slid to her and I rubbed the back of my neck. “Noticed that, eh?”

“Hard not to when my whole family imbibes.” She half-grinned. “Myself included, but you knew that.”

Yes, the memory of the night she was tipsy and what transpired was seared into my brain.

A chuckle rumbled in my chest. “Aye, I do know. And yes, it’s why I don’t drink.”

I sighed, moving on with it. “I’d been drinking the night the fire happened. My people have this celebratory leaf we would smoke during Yule. Nothing special about it other than it tastes minty and it’s supposed to ward off evil spirits.”

I shook my head since it certainly hadn’t worked that night. “Tradition, I guess. But I’d drunk a bit too much and must’ve fallen asleep with the roll burning. Next time I woke, the whole place was lit up and hot enough to scorch my fur.”

Even today, my lungs felt heavy thinking about the thick smoke I’d inhaled before passing out again.

“Next time I was conscious, I was in the crystal.”

“That’s it? Why?”

“No, far from it. I was pulled into a room full of Neoma’s upset relatives. You see, Neoma was a berchta. She’d used her abilities to pull me from the fire that night.”

“So? That’s a good thing, right? I mean, otherwise you’d probably be dead.”

I tilted my head, about to hit the caveat. “Berchtas run the risk of injuring themselves if they use their abilities before they’re mature. It’s a sacred law among them that no witch may practice before their twenty-fifth year.”

The mental image of Neoma after the incident resurfaced and I wanted to scrub it from my mind for good. I’d tried, but it never left. She’d always lingered there, a ghost of her previous self.

“Neoma was only twenty-three. The amount of power she used that night permanently damaged her brain. She was catatonic and never recovered.”

“Oh my god...” Holly breathed. “That’s terrible!”

“Her mother was beside herself with rage. My people and hers never got along before the fire, but after what happened to Neoma... Anyway, she demanded justice. The crystal was my punishment. And for three long generations, my prison has