Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
We stand at the foot of the lake, the water as black as anything. It looks bigger here, feels deeper, seems like it stretches on forever. Mist clings close to the surface, but up above, the sky is clear. I suck in my breath as all the stars come into view, as if the clouds just parted like a curtain.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen the clear sky here,” I say quietly, my neck craned as I stare up and up and up. All the constellations spread out like someone had thrown diamonds in the air and they got stuck there.
“Neither,” he says. His hand brushes against mine as he lets go of my arm, and for a moment, his finger gently wraps around mine, holding it. “I think you brought out the stars,” he murmurs.
Then his fingers start to move up against the back of my hand, touching the edge of my glove. “Can I take this off?” he asks softly.
I gulp. “My glove?”
“I would like to bestow you with what I’ve seen,” he says. “So that you know what we are looking for.”
My pulse hammers in my throat, and I turn my head slightly to look at him. He has a zealous look in his eyes that I know he gets when teaching. “Will you promise to give but never take?”
His face widens in a slow grin, showing off perfect teeth. Still, in this light and with the sharp cut of his features, the effect makes me shiver. “Only this time,” he says smoothly. “I like to give, but I love being selfish too.”
From the husky tone his voice took on, I get the feeling we aren’t talking about the same thing.
“I don’t want you trying to read my—”
“I won’t,” he implores, his fingers curling over the hem of the glove.
Then, with one quick snap, he pulls it off, leaving my skin bare, the cold making goose bumps along my flesh.
He immediately envelops my hand in his, and the energy swarms off him. I feel it, I see it, a white glow that reminds me of lightning as it travels up my arm, disappearing under my coat.
Suddenly, the black of the lake fades, and then I’m in a shadowy dorm room. I’m sitting up, hearing a woman laugh and cry, and she calls out, “Ichabod.” I hear the thump outside the door. I’m grabbing a candlestick. I’m frightened and curious at the same time. Then I’m in a dark hall, the candlelight swaying. There’s a trail of blood. There’s the body. The limp grey feet that drag around the corner. I follow it.
The flashes come on fast and leave fast, and then I’m back where I am, staring at the lake and Crane’s worried face, his arm around my waist as if I was close to fainting again.
“Are you alright?” he asks, his eyes searching mine.
I gasp for air and nod. “I am. I think so.”
He lets go of my waist, and I wish he was still holding me. “What did you see?”
“Everything that you did,” I say, trying to catch my breath. “I saw it through your eyes. Had your memories. The cries in the night, the body, all of it.”
He frowns, a sharpness to his eyes. “And that’s it?”
“That’s it,” I assure him. Though I have to wonder what else he doesn’t want me to see. The more time I spend with him, the more I’m sure he has a lot of skeletons in his closet.
“Good,” he says. Then he steps back, places the lantern on the ground, and holds the tie out in front of him between both hands. “Time for me to blindfold you.”
“What?” I exclaim in horror.
“I will use you as a vessel.”
“A vessel!?” This is getting worse and worse.
“It’s possible you will be possessed, but only for a minute or two, just long enough for me to ask Vivienne Henry questions.” He says this so plainly, as if he told me what the chef is making for dinner.
“You are not blindfolding me, and you are not using me as a vessel, and you are not opening my body up for possession by some crazy schoolteacher.”
He leans in. “But what if she wasn’t crazy?” His eyes are wild, the light dancing in them.
“I think maybe you’re crazy.”
“She’s after me,” he explains. “My energy. My energy is now in you. This is where she died. She will come to you.”
“Why the blindfold?”
“Because you need to be totally cut off to this world.” He pauses. “And I was hoping you could go in the lake.”
“Professor Crane,” I snap at him, putting my hands on my hips. “I am not going in the damn lake in my clothes.”
“Take off your clothes, then,” he says with a lopsided grin, a flare of lust in his eyes that makes me feel hot and dizzy.