KASMINE.
The night had turned against me.
The moment my eyes met Kester’s through that window, everything inside me turned to ice.
His dead, hollow eyes bore into me, stripping me bare. His expression had been deathly still, like a ghost. Like a nightmare made real.
Then, in the next breath, he was gone.
I had stopped immediately, my heart slamming against my ribs, my body cold despite the heat of Jake’s hands tangling in my hair, guiding me forward, completely unaware of what I had just seen.
And the fact that I didn’t even know if it was just my imagination or if it was even real added to my panic.
I didn’t give Jake the expected release he might have looked forward to. I had taken him high up to the sky and let him fall to the ground just like that. But, typical Jake… He was not even offended. Not even a flicker of frustration crossed his face when I pulled away, when I all but collapsed back onto the bed, shaking when I gave him something I’d consider half a release. Instead, he was grateful I even offered to help him.
I dreaded returning home.
If that was Kester I had seen there, then it was better I killed myself than let him kill me himself because he’d surely kill me. I made Jake lock all the doors in his house and made him promise me he wouldn’t answer the door if anyone came knocking.
I hadn’t gone out with any of the cars at home. I went in a taxi. The same way I returned. I made the taxi drop me off a few blocks away while I walked down to the house. I didn’t want to attract attention from Kester if he wasn’t the one at Jake’s place after all.
The closer I got to the house, the more the dread curled around my ribs, squeezing. My palms were slick, my throat dry.
I knocked gently on the gate, and the guard opened it without asking questions.
The atmosphere inside the house was too still.
I closed the front door behind me as quietly as I could, barely daring to breathe. My heart hammered so violently that I swore it would give me away.
Please, let him be asleep.
The whole place was dark, save for the dimly lit sleeping lights that were on. I slowly stepped toward the stairs, resisting the urge to bolt up them two at a time. My legs felt weak-like they might give out at any moment-but I forced myself forward.
By the time I reached the top, my chest was so tight I could barely pull in the air.
Kester’s door stood just a few feet away.
I hesitated.
My fingers curled into fists at my sides as I leaned in, pressing my ear against the wood.
Nothing.
No sound. No movement.
The silence should have comforted me, but instead, it sent a fresh wave of unease through me.
‘He’s asleep,’ I told myself. Or maybe… maybe he wasn’t even at Jake’s place to begin with. Perhaps I really did imagine it.
I straightened, swallowing against the tightness in my throat. ‘Just get to your room. Lock the door. Don’t think. Just sleep.’ I kept chanting to myself.
The hallway was empty, but it felt as if eyes were crawling over me.
I walked on numb legs to my bedroom door, my fingers shaking as I turned the knob and slipped inside.
The darkness swallowed me.
I exhaled quietly, pressing my back against the door for just a second before turning to lock it. My skin prickled, my instincts screaming at me that something was off, but I ignored it.
I needed to breathe. I needed to calm down.
But the moment I turned around-
The lights flickered on.
And I almost died.
A sharp, startled gasp ripped from my throat as I stumbled back against the door, my entire body locking up in pure, paralyzing terror.
Because there, sitting in the chair by my window, was the one person I had prayed not to see tonight.
Kester.
My stomach plummeted.
He sat with one leg crossed over the other, his hands folded neatly in his lap.
He didn’t move. He didn’t blink. His intense eyes were fixed on me, unreadable, gleaming under the glow of the bedside light he just switched on.
My breath came in quick, shallow bursts. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even think.
I wanted to run, but my body wouldn’t obey.
“Kes…” I whispered with trembling lips.
He smirked, sending a deathly chill down my spine.
He tilted his head slightly, studying me like I was something fragile. Like something he was deciding what to do with before he finally spoke. “Welcome home, Kasmine.”