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“Did you sleep at all?”

He laid his head on his pillow, staring at me from the side. That’s when I looked closer and saw the exhaustion more plainly. The bags under his eyes had their own bags. “I don’t like sleeping.”

My heart sank.

“I don’t like what I see when I do. I don’t know if they’re nightmares, but the things that go through my head…” He trailed off.

Fingers touched me from the other side.

I looked. Cassian had shifted at some point. His head was still half buried into his own elbow, but he opened one eye, his fingers exploring a bit more. “Happy Halloween.”

I choked out a laugh.

Cassian was smiling widely now and lifted his head up to look at Lee across from me. “Happy You Day? Isn’t today like your day or something?”

Lee snorted. “If I was a necromancer that wanted my powers, then yes. Maybe? I don’t know.”

“Wait.” Cassian scooted around until his chin was propped on my stomach. His hand was still there. His fingers were tracing back and forth over my hipbone. “I need to use the bathroom and then we should have this confusing conversation.” He launched himself backward, flipping over so his feet landed on the side of the bed. He didn’t pause, hurrying around the bed and disappearing into the bathroom. Me, I was still drooling from that display of pure athleticism.

Lee was grinning, noticing my reaction. He touched the side of his mouth with his finger. “Right there. There’s a little something.”

I smacked his hand away as he began laughing. “Shut up.” But since Cassian was up, I got up too. “I’m going to use the bathroom in the hallway.”

Cassian yelled from inside, “Do you want this bathroom? I can use the hallway one.”

I yelled through the door, already leaving, “No. I don’t even want to know what you’re doing in there.”

“Just getting myself pretty for you,” he shouted back. “Always getting myself pretty for you, Cole.”

Lee came out after me when I was in the hallway.

I tried not to gawk, but he looked good in his sweatpants and another Ravens Hockey hoodie. His hand grazed my hip as he went by me. “I’m going to get coffee for everyone. Be right back.”

I slipped into the bathroom, washing up, and brushing my teeth.

When I was done, I stared at myself in the mirror.

An adult.

I was eighteen.

I was on my own, officially and legally.

My mom was out of my life, probably for good. My grandparents were happy that they weren’t on the hook for me any longer. It was me and all my ghosts. My top lip twitched, then flattened as I got serious again.

Lee was a necromancer.

Holy shit. Like, holy shit. I couldn’t believe that.

I didn’t know anything about necromancers, but he had powers over the undead. That was obvious, but more importantly, he could see and talk to ghosts too. He could probably see more than ghosts, which he said himself, but my head was swimming enough.

I wasn’t alone. There was someone else who could also see who I saw, talk to them too. I wasn’t crazy.

Emotion swelled up in my throat.

I wasn’t the only one.

The relief of that was palpable, actually hitting me for the first time since everything happened yesterday. Jesus. I’d been attacked too. And then attacked a second time. Sabine tricked me, locked me out of my own body.