Page 106 of She Haunts Me Still

She removes the backing, finding a slip of paper inside. Scratchy handwriting covers the page, yellowed from the sun.

Ezra, I have always been proudest of you. You hold the world in your hands. Don’t ever underestimate what you’re capable of.

—Grandpa Jacob

Mallory reads it several times before the words sink in.

“Jacob,” she says. “The man who cut out Lily’s heart, the man who bound her to a demon. He’s Ezra’sgrandfather. The one that lived past a hundred. It all makes sense, it—”

“Oh my god,” Saskia breathes.

Mallory glances again at the symbols on the walls, regarding them with new understanding.

They’re the same symbols, Mallory finally realizes, as Ezra’s rings.

The rings his grandfather gave him as a present.

A fresh wave of terror washes over her at theJULES JULES JULESon the wall. A tiny word that once put wild butterflies in her stomach, but now only feels like a threat.

“That’s why Ezra’s father is so interested in the curse,” Mallory says. “His historical preservation club isn’t a club at all. It’s acult.” She slams a gaze to Saskia. “Whatever this demon is, they must serve it, be connected to it, and Ezra—he’s not just next in line to take over his father’s real estate business.”

“He’s next in line,” Saskia whispers, “to be the cult’s leader.”

Mallory flings the closet doors shut. “We have to get out of here.Now—”

Her words are swallowed by a thunderous banging against the interior door.

“Ezra!” yells a deep voice. Another flurry of knocks. “Ezra, open the door this second.”

Another thinner voice adds—

“Sir,sir,this is a dorm! You can’t barge in here!”

“Do you have any idea who I am?” the man roars back. “Ibuiltthis school.”

And Mallory goes perfectly, entirely still. The sweat on her neck turns ice-cold, the puncture wounds suddenly stinging.

Saskia grabs her hands. “Is that…?”

Mallory nods, frozen. The room seems to darken to a tenebrous, wintery black.

“Ezra’s father.”

Victor pounds the door again. “Ezra! You can’t hide from me forever. You can’t—”

“Sir!Please!I’m going to call campus security!”

Saskia snatches Mallory’s arm and tugs her toward the back door. “Take this,” she says, pressing the knife into Mallory’s palm. “I’ll go around the front in case Victor sees us. He wants you, not me. Go through the gardens, take the shortcut. Meet at my dorm.”

Mallory shakes her head. “Sas, we shouldn’t split up.”

Saskia shoves them into the night air before dragging her close, their foreheads touching. “Whatever is going on inthat fucked-up Pierce family, you are at the center of it. That manwillkill you.” Saskia’s eyes search hers. “I won’t lose you. Sofucking run.”

Surrendering, Mallory rises on her tiptoes and presses her lips to Saskia’s. She does it hard and fast, in case.

In case.

But then she nods, slipping the knife into her coat pocket. Saskia becomes a snowy blur as she darts around the side of the building.