popping up between Adrien and Cadence. He jumps; she yelps.
Doors creak in the hallway. “We need to contain this.” Adrien spins around, his fancy boots squealing, and trots out of the room. “We have a rabies-carrying bat on the loose! Please stay in your rooms!” His take charge mode usually annoys the shit out of me, but for once, I’m glad for it.
Emilie fades, then reappears on Cadence’s other side. Cadence starts to reach out but snatches her hand back, her complexion so green I’m afraid she might puke.
The girl disappears like a puff of smoke, and then her high-pitched, shaky voice rises from the stairway, “Help!”
Shit. I’m striding toward the door when Cadence’s knees buckle. I just manage to catch her, hooking an arm around her waist. I walk her to the bed and sit her down gently. And then I crouch in front of her and gather her fisted hands in mine.
“Hey, look at me. I know it’s weird. Freaky, even. But we’ve seen weirder. Stay with me, princess.”
Her blue eyes finally lock on mine.
“It’s gonna be okay. Slow, steady breaths. In . . . out . . . in . . . out.”
Yeah. She’s not following my rhythm at all. She’s never panicked this hard before. Is it because we’re dealing with a child?
“Monsieur?” the little girl wails.
Bastian startles as though from a deep slumber and lunges toward the landing.
“Keep an eye on her but don’t touch her,” I order him.
Flashing me a look that says, I may be playing along now, but I expect a detailed explanation later, he files out of the room just as the professor steps back in.
I friction Cadence’s hands, which feel like hardpacked snowballs. “Come on, Cadence. Deep breaths.”
“Slate . . . the girl . . .” she whimpers. “The piece . . .”
Of course, Prickhead has to get in on the action. He sits on the bed beside her and rubs the spot between her shoulder blades. I didn’t think I was the possessive type, but I want to rip his hand off.
“I don’t think the little girl’s your piece or mine, Cadence. I—”
“N-no! That’s not . . .” She can barely talk between hiccupping breaths.
I pry her fists open, then spear my fingers through hers, pressing our palms together.
“N-not her . . . M-Matthias.”
Adrien frowns. “I don’t understand.”
“A-at Gaëlle’s . . . sh-shop.”
Dread slicks down my spine.
Adrien’s hand stills on her back. “What happened at Gaëlle’s shop?”
She trembles harder than Emilie, and for half a second, I’m worried she might fizz and vanish too.
“Cadence, what happened?” he repeats, louder this time, as though she’s fucking hard of hearing.
“Don’t yell at her! You’re stressing her out,” I growl, before refocusing on her. “Shh. Just breathe. You can tell us in a minute.”
Behind us, little Emilie is teleporting inside and outside my bedroom like a human pinball, Bastian pounding after her. Cadence stares unblinkingly at the ghostly girl, her breaths wheezing in and out. “At Gaëlle’s shop . . . a little girl walked through Matthias. That little girl.”
My stomach flips like the floor just dropped out, and Adrien goes whiter than the rumpled duvet underneath his ass. Oh, fuck. Little Emilie is cursed.
I glance down at the ring on my finger.
If I hadn’t been such a selfish, entitled prick . . .
If I hadn’t broken into the De Morel crypt . . .
I swallow back bile, and it burns. And here I thought Cadence’s father had been exaggerating the consequences. This shit is real, and this little girl is doomed because of what I started.
“Emilie!” I stand and shout. I don’t know how to help her, but I do know how to give her a bit of respite. If holding her hand keeps her in place, I’ll fucking hold her hand until she’s an adult. “Emilie!”
She zaps to the right of me. I let go of Cadence and lunge toward the child, managing to latch on to her wrist just as she flickers. She stays solid and wraps her skinny arms around my waist, bawling into my stomach, soaking the cotton of my shirt.
“Shut the door, Bastian,” I tell him.
As the latch clicks, Adrien runs a hand through his hair but then zeroes in on the glowing ring. “The Bloodstone. It keeps her in place.”
Bra-fucking-vo, Prof.
A vein throbs at his temple. “But you can’t hang on to her forever.”
“I’ll hang on as long as I have to,” I growl.
“We need to get her out of Brume,” Cadence says suddenly. “Distance—”
“Except