“But you can?” Myles asks. While there’s a bit of skepticism in his voice, I also sense he’s more open-minded.
I blow out a gust of air because this is so very hard. “I used to think they were hallucinations. A product of something wrong with my brain. It’s what I’d always been told by the doctors. But I found out through Carrick,” and here I pause to pointedly look at the man, “that what I was seeing was very real.”
Rainey and Myles glance at Carrick. Rainey appears utterly confused, and she doesn’t seem to grasp what I’m saying.
Myles definitely heard me and wants to believe, but I can see there’s a trust issue. Not with me, but with Carrick. His eyes narrow on the man beside me, and he asks, “You believe the things Finley sees are real?”
“I don’t believe it. I know it because I can see them, too. There are creatures with magical glamours to hide their real nature, and Finley has special abilities that allow her to see past this.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Myles snarls as he bolts up off his stool. His gaze moves to me. “You’ve gotten yourself caught up in some sick cult, Finley. He’s made you believe these things. He’s taking advantage of your fragile mental health. He’s taking advantage of you.”
“He’s not,” I reassure him softly. “My mental health is just fine.”
“But,” Rainey says, still sitting on her stool. “I thought you took medicine to stop seeing the hallucinations, and it was working.”
I grimace, giving her a sheepish glance. “I stopped my medication years ago as it never stopped what I was seeing. I just learned to control what I allowed myself to see.”
“I’m sorry,” Myles says, his arm going to Rainey’s elbow. “But this is too much. We’re leaving.”
“I can prove it,” I blurt out. As hoped, his body goes still, and he warily gives me his regard.
“How?” he asks.
I dig down into the front pocket of my jeans, then pull out the tiny vial of pink liquid. “A drop in each eye will allow you to see it too.”
“See what?” Myles demands.
“See me,” Zaid replies, having been silently standing behind Carrick and me after he got the coffee going.
Myles leans to the side, glaring at Zaid. “You’re some type of monster under your face or something.”
“Or something,” he says sinisterly, and I want to smack him because that’s not helping.
“I’m not putting that shit in my eyes,” Myles declares. “It could have drugs in it to make us see crazy things. We could go blind. It could—”
“I would never hurt you, Myles,” I say softly, my eyes pleading with him for some level of trust. “I love you, and I would never in a million years do anything to cause you a single bit of harm.”
“Here,” Titus says, stepping around the counter to my side. “I trust you. I’ll take it.”
It’s a kind offer because at this point, Rainey and Myles know absolutely nothing about Titus. For all they know, this could be news to him, and he wants to see for himself.
But I can’t let him. It has to be done of their own desire to believe in my truth. If they won’t do it, it means our friendship is probably over.
“I’ll do it,” Rainey says crisply, pushing off the stool without an ounce of hesitation before rounding the island to me. “I know Finley won’t hurt us.”
I expect Myles to restrain her physically. Instead, he only watches with a worried expression. I take it as a good sign that he doesn’t try to stop her, maybe not fully trusting me, but trusting in Rainey’s trust of me.
Rainey studies the vial before unscrewing the eyedropper top. She sucks in a bit of the pink liquid, her gaze coming to me in a silent moment of camaraderie.
She then tilts her head back, opens her left eye with the thumb and forefinger of the same hand, and squeezes one perfect drop into it at the inside corner. She repeats the same on the other side.
Rainey straightens, blinks her eyes a few times, and then brings her gaze right to Zaid.
There’s a tiny gasp, and her expression turns to one of surprise and fascination. “Oh my God,” she whispers as she walks past Carrick toward Zaid.
Rainey moves up to him slowly, but without fear. It’s almost as if she’s drawn to him, and I know she sees Zaid’s true face. His prominent brow, sunken cheeks, and the gray mist of an aura surrounding him.
She comes toe to toe with him. Reaching a hand out, she tentatively touches his cheek, despite his surly expression. I half expect Zaid to bat it away, but he holds perfectly still as she presses a palm to his cheekbone. I have to give her props because I would have never had the guts to do that myself.