Page 69 of (Mostly) Human Resources

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Get back on your side of the fire.” Nic clucked his tongue at her but he didn’t protest. “And thank you.” The words slipped out before she’d really thought them, but she meant them. She wasn’t just thanking him for the first aid. As much as she had resented his presence in the beginning, Alexys was glad Nic was there in that cave with her, thankful that he’d followed her out there in the first place. That he hadn’t quit on her, despite her ordering him to do so.

“Keane,” Nic started. There was a moment of heavy tension between them, something unspoken. “You can ask me for help anytime. I’ll always give it.” And then, as if that was the most normal thing in the world to say, he leaned back and closed his eyes.

Alexys stared at him for a while, unsure of what to think or say. It felt like such a loaded comment, but there was no way for her to know what he was truly thinking. By the time she mustered up the courage to possibly ask Nic what he had meant by it, too long had passed, and she was afraid he’d already fallen asleep.

“Guess I’m taking the first watch,” she grumbled, wrapping the sleeping bag around her.

She’d kept her eyes focused on the fire, ears perked, but before she could help herself, the soft sound of rain lulled her into sleep.

CHAPTER 36

“Romantic relationships between Entity employees are strongly discouraged. Between senior leadership, however, romantic relationships are prohibited. No exceptions will be made.”

Entity Employee Handbook: HR Edition

It didn’t take long for Alexys to fall asleep. Nic waited until her breaths evened out, and then he sat up and took up watch. Not for monsters, though.

He was watching for her nightmares.

He had no idea how long it would take, but he was content to listen to the rain and watch the orange light flicker across Alexys’s face. She looked peaceful, relaxed, and it suited her. If he had a soft spot for Alexys, he certainly wasn’t ready to admit it, but there was no denying the way each managed to get under the other’s skin. No one ever bothered him as much as Alexys could.

Worse still, he actuallyenjoyedit.

Shifting his weight, Nic forced his thoughts to return to the subject of Alexys’s nightmares. He thought back to the casefile Zach shared, having read it several times during his ride to Opal’s house. Nothing bothered Nic more than a riddle without an answer, butnothing leaped out at him, no clear signs pointing at anything he could immediately identify. The longer it took him to figure out what was causing Alexys’s nightmares, the more fixated he became. He was already convinced that a new type of monster was preying on Alexys’s terror. There wasn’t any solid proof yet, of course, but his hunches were rarely wrong, and the thought of something new was, admittedly, rather tantalizing.

Which was why he hadn’t said anything to Alexys. Telling her he knew about the nightmares would have been the right thing to do, he knew that, but Nic had let every opportunity pass him by. Because the only evidence of the Hollow Walker he could bring back would be eyewitness accounts. But the creature giving Alexys nightmares? That was completely undocumented, completely unknown, and would be worth so much more to his colleagues, and Nic couldn’t ignore it. Even if now, he felt incredibly conflicted. Even if he didn’t want to be dishonest with her.

As if she could feel his restlessness, Alexys stirred.

At first, it was small movements that caught his eye. Shifting the arm her head rested on and burying her cheek further into the fabric of his sweater. A soft sigh and a slow stretch of the leg. Nic considered waking her, sparing her the terror she would no doubt experience, but he didn’t. Most research said it was unhealthy to wake a person mid-nightmare, so letting her sleep through it was really the kinder choice. Besides, it didn’t seem like a full-blown nightmare, at least not yet. The researcher in him watched with fascination, analyzing every movement and reaction in hopes of seeing something,anythingthat might be a clue as to what was causing her nightmares.

Suddenly, Alexys started mumbling and jerking, her breaths shallow. As soon as she began to whimper, Nic decided to wake her.

And then he saw it: a dark spot moving beside her ear.

Quickly moving from his spot on the other side of the fire, he crouched down beside Alexys. She pushed against an unseen terror and rolled onto her back, nearly dislodging the thing crawling onher skin. The shadows of the fire made it nearly impossible to discern, but she rolled to the side once again, and Nic was able to see what appeared to be a spider, crawling behind her ear.

It was the deepest shade of black and roughly the size of a dime. Its long legs carried it soundlessly across her skin, a silken thread trailing behind it. The thread caught and stretched, a translucent web forming behind the shell of Alexys’s right ear and up into her hair. The bigger the web grew, the more frightened she became.

There was no mistaking it: the spider was somehowweavingthe nightmare.

It was fascinating, and horrifying, and unlike anything Nic had ever seen before. The web glowed silver in the firelight. It was delicate and yet managed to hold firm throughout the jerking and frantic shaking of her head as she pleaded with someone—or something—to leave her alone.

Nic had never felt so torn. There were so many unknowns to what she was experiencing that he was almost afraid to interrupt. Could it harm her to disturb the web, or would it free her from the nightmare? Could he squash the spider like any average household arachnid, or would that have dire consequences (given its clearly supernatural nature)? Did he need to have Entity’s approval before killing it? And if he did, would they even give it?

He was frozen, hunched over Alexys, debating the morality of academic observation and the matter of his heavy conscience when the spider finished its web. Alexys stilled, quietly whimpering but no longer thrashing. She had given in to whatever was haunting her.

The cold fingers of guilt wrapped themselves around Nic’s lungs until he thought he might choke.

She was crying. Glistening tears tracked across the bridge of her nose and down the side of her face. Nic immediately reached his hand forward—to soothe her or remove the spider, he wasn’t sure which.

The arachnid scurried off the web and vanished into her hair.

His hand fell to her shoulder. The touch sent a tremor through her, and he couldn’t tell if it was comforting or making things worse.

The web behind her ear lost its sturdy build and wilted, falling limply against her skin, before vanishing. Dissolved or absorbed, Nic couldn’t tell. The translucent, silver threads simply disappeared as if they, and the spider, had never been there at all. Alexys let out a long breath, and her body unfurled, fully relaxed. The nightmare had passed.

A nightmare he could have spared her from, the cynical part of him pointed out. A nightmare that he willingly let her suffer through for the sake of research and protocol and …fear? The guilt was suffocating.