“I didn’t love him at all.”
“I almost forgot about the things he made me do.”
“I can’t remember my last night in the Kingdom of Carnal.”
“Melissa who?”
My eyes fly open and ignore the tone that rings out in all of those statements. He reads me better than I read myself, it seems.
“I just couldn’t sleep,” I add to the lie, and his rumbling laughter eases the line creasing my brows.
“I know,” he says.
My arms fold lightly across my stomach, and it’s nice to have him just beneath me, both of us talking like eight long years never happened at all.
It’s like I’m a girl again, and he’s the only person I can trust in the entire world.
“How do you—” I pause to try to describe it just right, “How do you enter beneath my bed anyway? Is it a summons? I guess it can’t be because you’ve surprised me more than once.”
His hum of thought is all that parts the darkness.
“I have to be allowed. I can’t just crawl around under anyone’s dusty bed cubby.”
A smirk quirks my lips.
“So they have to want you there?”
“In a way. I have to be invited. Thought of.”
“You think I thought of you?”
“I know you did, Pretty Monster,” he says so confidently, I have to bite my lip to stop the smile from growing.
Maybe I should take a second dose of Reality Rippers because I am definitely crazy to be flirting with my best friend.
“I have something for you,” he adds when I don’t immediately reply.
“A gift?” I ask, my brows lifting high at the idea of a present from a monstrous man like Ruiner.
It could be anything: A shiny charm bracelet with finger bones dangling and clanking beautifully. Maybe a heart-shaped box of chocolates with eyeballs neatly placed in each divider. Perhaps a piece of his own silent soul...
A hand nudges my arm, and my mouth falls open when the scar burning along his forearm catches my sight. In the glowing black-and-red light of his fire, a little square of something brown sits delicately in the palm of his enormous hand.
He remains hidden beneath the disheveled blanket of my bed. Only his arm protrudes, and...
“What is that?” I ask, not taking the gift at all but staring in confusion at something so normal looking. Definitely not eyeballs.
“It’s galaxy cake. It’s like a brownie. It’ll help you relax and sleep. I eat some every day to keep the darkness from turning me into a psychopath.”
I don’t mention that I’ve gotten my own fix for the dark magic of this world, and I also don’t mention that I wouldn’t mind seeing Ruin in all his full psychopathic glory.
The galaxy cake sounds amazing. I wonder if it’s better than the pills. If this snack could replace the Reality Rippers, I’d happily choose cake every day of the week. I wonder where he got it? He was always so sweet with the seer at the edge of town. She’d give him her remedies for his wounds. Why didn’t she help him with his scar?
I take the fluffy brown square from his palm as I think about the woman and how kind she was to him. My teeth sink in, and somehow, it’s still warm. It practically melts in my mouth with rich flavors of chocolate and just a slight strange spice of something I can’t quite place.
“It’s good,” I murmur around another big bite.
“Mmm,” he hums, and it’s then that I realize he’s chewing too.