Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
"Let me handle my damn case."
"I can still see her...its...head."
"You're sure you're okay?" he demanded.
I nodded.
"Then close your eyes."
I did as asked.
"Done. You can open your eyes now."
And just like that, the severed head was gone. I supposed I should ask where it went, and I guess I would. Eventually. But right now, I just wanted to forget everything.
When we got to his room, Hadrian didn't say a word as he started undressing me. I didn't mind. Times like this, you just wanted to feel connected and do what made you feel alive, and that didn't change even when you were a ghost.
The first time, we made love slowly. Tenderly. The second time was just as sweet, but a lot faster and harder. Wilder. Noisier. The third time, I couldn't even speak. He had flipped me to my stomach before entering me from behind, and he was moving so, so wonderfully fast that all I could do was try catching my breath.
When it was all over, I felt him kiss my hair before pulling me close, my back against his chest, and our bodies still intimately joined. It was then I knew.
"Hadrian?"
His arms tightened around me.
"I think I'm in love."
Several seconds passed, and then I heard him say gruffly, "It's about time."
My lips curved, and I could feel him smiling against my hair. Thank God I was old enough to know when a man was telling me 'I love you, too' without the words.
I TRIED PLEADING AND wheedling, even tried seducing some words out of him, but Hadrian proved intractable and closemouthed as a clam when I asked him the next day for updates on his case.
"I'm serious, Saoirse," Hadrian said warningly. "I don't want you involved in this case any longer."
"Can't you just give me another weapon to defend myself with?"
"That—-" Hadrian pointed to his front door. "—-is already a weapon." And so it was, with Hadrian having explained to me earlier how the entire place was spell-protected against any entity, living or dead, that intended to do either of us harm.
"I was hoping for something more portable."
"Charon's already hard at work minting a special coin for you, and I've already spoken to Hephaestus about your case."
I nodded resignedly, knowing that he was doing his best.
"But in the meantime..." Hadrian dug something out of his pocket. "Here's something you can use to contact me while you're here."
A smile broke over my lips as he dropped a spanking new iPhone on my hands.
"I've already saved my number." Hadrian brushed his lips over my forehead. "Stay safe."
"You, too." I saw him to the door and couldn't help snickering when I saw Hadrian walk past the elevator in favor of taking the stairs. Naturally.
Back inside the apartment, I kicked off my shoes and threw myself on the couch. I might be under house arrest, but this didn't mean I couldn't do anything to help with his case.
The idea of continuing my sleuthing on the Internet had occurred to me last night, and I had been planning to use Hadrian's laptop in his study for it. But having my own phone was even better, and the first thing I did was go through Edith's memorialized social accounts one more time.
You could tell a lot of things about a person just by looking at the photos they posted and didn't post. You just had to know what to look for, and in Edith's case, one thing that shone through was her love for books. She just had tons of photos of them, and her captions for those photos made it clear that she was eager to share her love for books with other people.
Another facet of her personality that her online presence revealed was her romantic side. She had an Instagram story topic labeled with a heart emoji, and saved under it were dozens of highlighted stories featuring romantic quotes. This girl was definitely a hopeless romantic, the kind who'd do anything for love.
As for Caleb...all of his social media accounts were set to private, and all I had of him were photos other users had tagged him in. Even so, those pictures still said a lot, with Caleb often photographed with a serious look on his face. The comments on those photos were also pretty insightful, with most of his friends joking about Caleb barely saying a word even when he was a drunk.
For Ghost Caleb to have made several attempts to communicate with me, he must've had something extremely important to say about Edith's death and his. But how could I know for sure when I hadn't heard from him again?
Think, Saoirse.
If a ghost wanted to contact you but was unable to...
Then you try contacting him back.
Ten minutes later, and I had an ouija board layout drawn on a blank sheet of A4 paper. Something bigger would've been better obviously, but beggars couldn't be choosers even in the afterlife, and A4s were the only paper size Hadrian had in stock in his study.