Page 121 of She Haunts Me Still

It’s just enough time to register Victor’s blood-soakedbody amid the circle of stones. As though he was another offering, knife wounds across his chest, eyes wide and staring. The way she’ll look eventually, too.

She has to get out of here. Now.

She sprints for the elevator, but Ezra is right at her heels.

“Jules, wait!”

“Stay away from me,” she warns, frantically wrenching open the gate.

“You can’t go,” he pleads, fisting the back of her coat. “It’s not safe up there.”

“It’s not safe downhere! I’m not safe with you.”

“No, no—that’s not true. Listen,listen.” Ezra spins her to face him, his hands in her hair, on her cheeks. Panicked urgency rushes through his palms. “It’s okay if you don’t want to get pregnant yet—we’ll delay as long as we can. The fevers you’re having—I’ll feed you. I’ll give youmyblood; you can have as much as you want. I’ll take such good care of you, Jules. You’ll see, you’ll trust me again, you’ll—”

Nausea floods her at the suggestion. “This is the mostdisgustingthing I’ve ever h—”

“I have money for anything you’d need,” Ezra barrels on. “I can get you a passport if you don’t have one—we can go to London! I already have my acceptance from the Caligo Group, we can live in a—”

“The Caligo Group doesn’t exist!”

Ezra blinks at her. His hands fall to his sides. “What?”

“Oh my god,stop!” A laugh of despair cracks out. “Just stop, Ezra. I mentioned it to Professor Golden, and she’d never heard of it. It’s not real. Another lie. You made it up, it’s…”

She trails off at the genuine confusion in his expression.

“You didn’t know either, did you?”

“I have a letter on my desk,” Ezra says. “I had a phone interview, I…” His gaze falls on his father’s lifeless body. His realization unfolds in front of her. “It washim. This whole time. This whole fucking—” He huffs a dark, untamed laugh. A hand drags down his face in defeat. “He was never going to let me leave.”

For a moment, she can almost see a glimmer of the boy Ezra used to be. The angles of his face, softer. Eyes brighter with an innocence that hadn’t been scraped away. She follows his stare to Victor’s corpse and wonders what else he must have done to turn Ezra into a man who kills and calls it protection.

But it doesn’t matter anymore.

“Ezra,” she says. “I’m not going anywhere with you. I won’t leave Shore. And I won’t leave Saskia.” She sucks in a shaky breath, sampling the words that have been circling silently in her heart. “I’m in love with her.”

Up until this moment, she wasn’t sure if Ezra already knew. But the pain and devastation swirling behind his eyes removes any last doubt.

He had no idea.

They’re almost even now; Ezra broke her heart, and here she is, breaking his.

But then his expression goes blank, the sadness evaporating. Cold, the basement is suddenly so cold. As if they’re outside in a blizzard. She’s momentarily disoriented by how large his hands seem, practically enveloping her entire waistline, fingers elongated and curled.

“Saskia is going to die,” he whispers.

“I’m leaving.” Mallory twists out of his grasp. “Don’t touch me again.”

Fully panicking now, she flies into the elevator, forcing the gate shut. She snatches the rusted lever and tugs as hard as she can, pulse humming and humming.

“Come on,comeon.” But it’s pointless because he’s seconds behind her, shoving his way into the chamber, hands closing on hers just as she snaps the lever into place.

“You’re making a mistake,” he warns, voice approaching that ominous rattle.

The elevator lurches. “Letgo—”

But Ezra only tightens his grip. She counters by digging her nails into his wrists. He heaves a breath and tugs harder. She pushes. He pulls. And moments before the elevator creaks into place at the main level, the handle snaps off in Ezra’s hands.