Nash stretched his legs out. “Wanna talk about it?”
No. I wanted to go hide in a hole, or stick my head in a bag, or change my name and move to Peru.
But then suddenly, I did want to talk about it. With Nash’s voice still echoing softly in my head, his words whispering faintly over my skin, I wanted to tell him what had happened. It made no sense. After knowing me for eight years and helping me through at least half a dozen previous panic attacks, Emma still had no idea what caused them. I couldn’t tell her. It would scare her. Or worse, finally convince her I really was crazy.
So why did I want to tell Nash? I had no answer for that, but the urge was undeniable.
“…the strawberry blonde.” There, I’d said it out loud, and committed myself to some sort of explanation.
Nash’s brow furrowed in confusion. “You know her?”
“No.” Fortunately. Merely sharing oxygen with her had nearly driven me out of my mind. “But something’s wrong with her, Nash. She’s…dark.”
Kaylee, shut up! If he wasn’t already convinced I was certifiable, he would be soon… .
“What?” His frown deepened, but rather than bewildered or skeptical, he looked surprised. Then came vague comprehension. Comprehension, and…dread. He might not know exactly what I meant, but he didn’t look completely clueless either. “What do you mean, ‘dark’?”
I closed my eyes, hesitating at the last second. What if I’d misread him? What if he did think I was crazy?
Worse yet, what if he was right?
But in the end, I opened my eyes and met his gaze frankly, because I had to tell him something, and surely I couldn’t damage his opinion of me much more than I already had. Right?
“Okay, this is going to sound weird,” I began, “but something’s wrong with that girl at the bar. When I looked at her, she was…shadowed.” I hesitated, scrounging up the courage to finish what I’d started. “She’s going to die, Nash. That girl is going to die very, very soon.”
ISBN: 9781459233256
Copyright © 2012 by Rachel Vincent
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Before I Wake Page 33