To save her ghost-hunting career, psychic Kayde Foster must confront an evil and darkly attractive entity that has taken up residence in her uncle's business.
***
Kayde prides herself on being fearless. Ghosts? Crumbling buildings? Scary legends? No...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Through the surrounding turmoil, three thoughts remained prevalent in my mind: find Darby. Get to safety. Sob into a bowl of ice cream when I got back to my hotel room.
If I made it out of here.
I didn't realize how dangerous things had become. How chaotic and twisted this place was. And the Shadow? He was the mastermind behind the chaos, the puppeteer of madness, who, somehow, had the decency to let me leave, even though I friggin' slapped him.
And you threw holy water in his face. Don't forget about that.
Couldn't forget about that!
What had caused me to douse him in holy water in the first place? Holy water that clearly didn't work, because if anything, he wasn't screaming or hissing from burns as I ran away. He was... laughing. Maniacally.
My cheeks were blisteringly hot from the unsettling amount of tension just minutes ago. That, paired with my sprinting, made me feel like I was about to burst into flames under my too-big T-shirt. Nervous sweat snaked down the sides of my neck, my curls sticking to my temples.
"Fly, little hummingbird, fly...."
His voice came from everywhere—each glittering corridor, each shadowed hallway that was filled wall to wall with cackling spirits. They laughed at me. Smirked at me. Pointed and sneered. So many hazy faces, so many souls entertained by my terror. Some of them must have been demonic, because the scent of sulfur burned my nostrils and stung my eyes.
This place was a cesspit, regardless of the beauty inside and out. Why didn't my uncle just burn it to the ground? To hell with it all!
I slipped on a red and gold damask rug, catching myself on a table, knocking over a lamp. Porcelain cracked. A lightbulb popped. I regained my composure, focusing on moving my legs as fast as I could, because I had to get out, I had to find—
"Kayde!"
A body slammed into mine with enough force to send me teetering on my feet. When I saw who I ran into, the relief was so strong, so potent, that I could have sank to my knees right then and sobbed.
I righted myself. "Darby!"
Thank heavens, she's okay!
Her big brown eyes were frantic as she regained her balance. "Are you alright? I called and called for you, and I didn't know where you were, and—holy crap, Kayde! Don't you ever do anything like this again! Do you have any idea how worried I was?"
She put her arm around my shoulder and towed me to the entryway. It was then that I realized I was shaking. Badly. Darby continued to lecture me as her voice faded somewhere into the background. I replayed the events with the Shadow in my mind....
...and concluded there must be something seriously wrong with me.
Because I didn't look back at our interaction with disgust like I probably should have. With rage. With disdain, because he obviously was an unhinged monster who liked to eat people.
