Whispered Darkness by Jessica Sorensen Page 0,33

then there has to be a reason as to why I dreamt about it.” Of course, if I’m playing by those rules, then that means there’s a reason behind me dreaming about the lake last night before I woke up there. Then again, that might’ve been Beth’s way of getting me to Kingsley. That would mean she somehow got into my mind—

The alarm goes off on my phone, announcing it’s time for me to get ready so I’ll have enough time to track down Star before I meet up with Death.

“Crap, I need to get ready,” I mutter, sitting up and raking my fingers through my hair.

He sits up with me, his gaze traveling toward the window where, just outside, we can see spots of sunlight clipping through the lingering darkness, a sign that morning will be here soon.

“Yeah, I should take off before your parents and the rest of the neighborhood wakes up,” he mumbles, ruffling his hair into place. “The last thing I want is for one of them to see me climbing out your window.”

I nod, agreeing with him. Not that I’m ashamed of it. I just know how people get around here, and I don’t want him to have to deal with the ridicule.

We both get out of bed, and then I walk him over to the window, wrapping my arms around myself as he pulls open the blinds. Then he opens the window and lowers his head to get out, but he pauses before he does.

“What time do you want me to pick you up?” he asks, sitting down on the windowsill.

“Well, I need to shower first, and then I’m going to tell my mom about you being the one who saved me.” When wariness flashes across his features, I hurriedly add, “I’ll swear her to secrecy first, and I won’t tell her anything else. Just that you saved me.” Rubbing my lips together, I lean forward then kiss him. “Give me about an hour, and then come back and knock on my front door.”

His eyelids flutter open as I slant back.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” he asks.

I nod. “I promise I wouldn’t do anything that would bring harm to you.”

He swallows hard, but ultimately nods. “Okay, then. I’ll pick you up at your front door in an hour.”

Relief washes over me that he’s trusting me. I just need to make sure that I do everything in my power to keep that trust.

8

Kingsley

I feel bad for what I’m about to do, but that isn’t going to stop me. I’ll handle the guilt if it means protecting Harlynn.

That’s what I repeatedly tell myself as I park the car in the lot of the town park to meet up with Death.

After she fell asleep last night, I couldn’t stop thinking about her meeting with them. As I watched her sleep, breathing softly, worry kept rising inside me. What if this person—if they’re even that—really wants to meet up with her to hurt her? What if she goes there, and I can’t protect her? What if something awful happens to her?

It wasn’t even that. I kept seeing bad things happen to her, fragments of images of her lying in the dirt in the middle of the forest, surrounded by blood. They felt so real, to the point that I became convinced it would happen. So I did something that I may later regret. I opened her phone to access her email and sent Death a message, moving the time to earlier. They reluctantly agreed, and now here I am, about to meet them.

I’m nervous, that much I’ll admit. And I’m worried about what happens after I leave here and have to tell Harlynn what I did. She has been so insistent about making her own choices, and I just took that away from her.

I hesitate, almost talking myself out of doing this, but then the wind picks up, blowing dust in the air and swirling around a shadowy figure looming near the covered picnic areas. I can’t see their face, but something about their presence calls out to me and I find myself reaching for the door handle and opening the door.

The wind picks up even harder as I start across the parking lot toward the shadowy figure. I’d think it was one of those death stealers, but I’m not getting an ominous vibe from it. No, I almost feel connected to them as I walk across the grass toward them, inch by inch, getting