Page 63 of She Haunts Me Still

“This is important,” she says, swallowing the thought. “Neither of us can stay here anymore.”

Another grin tugs at his mouth, like he’s not sure if she’s joking. “And why is that?”

Mallory snatches the blueprints from his nightstand. “Thorne Hall used to be theactualsanitarium. Where they quarantined people who had tuberculosis during the eighteen hundreds. Look.”

He glances at the papers. Then back at her. “Okay?”

Mallory holds his gaze. “Ezra. Your room—the room we’re in right now? It was themorgue.”

Water pelts the windows as he stares back. “I’m not following you. Why would I need to leave?”

“Are you serious?” Delirious laughter bubbles from her mouth, and she gestures with the blueprints. “Ezra, Lily’s body was keptright here. You said it yourself—she wants revenge. We’re sitting ducks if we stay!”

Ezra reaches for her, disentangling the papers to place them on his desk. “Don’t you remember what we talked about? Places aren’t haunted. People are.” He brushes a strand of hair out of her face. “There’s nothing wrong with this room.”

The unspoken part lands between them.Just with me,she thinks bitterly, and she turns so he can’t see her hurt expression.

“If there’s nothing wrong with your room,” Mallory says, “then why does it get so cold in here? It smells like rotting meat sometimes. There are scratches on your walls! The nightmare I had last night—it wasn’t like the ones in my dorm. Something knocked above the bed, woke me up—”

“Jules, baby, stop—”

“And your clock!” She whirls, pointing. “It’s read 3:33 fordays! Maybe I haven’t watched a million horror movies like you, but evenIknow what that means. It’s the hour of evil, right? It’s—”

The words evaporate on her lips.

Because the ruby-red numbers read 1:42 in the afternoon. She was sure they said 3:33 a moment ago, she wascertainof it, she—

“Jules.” Ezra folds her into his arms. “Take a deep breath for me.”

Embarrassment pools inside her and she slips away to perch on the bed.

“Ezra,” she says, “can you tell me something real?”

For a moment, the steady rain is the only response. But then he kneels in front of her, palms resting on the outsides of her thighs.

“Something real,” he echoes, fingers grazing the bare skin above her socks. “Alright. My favorite season is winter, but I never say that because no one is supposed to like winter. I had a black Lab named Orbit when I was a kid, and I used to take him for hour-long walks just to get out of my house. It helped a little. But then I always had to go back.”

She draws her lip between her teeth, pinned beneath his stare.

“I don’t like to drink, which made it hard to be in a fraternity, and I think about my friend Bryce all the time. Sometimes I go to his hospital room and just watch through the window and hope he knows how sorry I am for what happened.”

Her eyes widen.

“There’s a girl I call Jules who told me it’s bad to be a Scorpio, and now I read my horoscope every day.” He sits onthe bed, tipping his knees into hers. “She has no idea how hard I’ve fallen for her. She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Ezra,” Mallory whispers.

“You want something real?” He grabs her hands and squeezes them, twice, in quick succession. Their code. “How’s this—the way I feel about you? It’s the realest fucking thing I’ve ever felt in my life.”

A cacophony of emotions explodes inside her, fierce and swift. Heartbeat buzzing like a rabbit’s, she presses her mouth to Ezra’s and hopes he can tell how real it is for her, too.

He must, because he kisses her back with the possessiveness of someone who never wants to let go. Like he could stay here with her forever, hiding from the world and all its ugly parts.

It would feel good, Mallory thinks, to disappear with him.

But as their kiss goes on, she has no choice but to notice this isn’t the delirious, untethered passion from last night. It’s not the sizzling start of something rare and wild, coming to life beneath a scarlet glow.

Today, Ezra’s kiss tastes like an ending.