We landed hard on the floor. I cried out in pain, but no sound came out of my mouth. I realized then there had been no sound from our landing, either. The air seemed suddenly dense, suppressing all other sounds.

I knew that this must be Luc's doing, but I didn't understand why.

He was laying heavy on top of me. He rose up then, pinning me into the hardwood floor as he peered down at me. His green eyes shone, literally glowed in the dim curtained light. The neon light shining off his irises cast strange shadows on his face, making him look like some kind of demon.

Chills ran through me. For the first time, Luc scared me.

I realized then why Luc might want to suppress all sound. Ethan had said he and Polly would come running if I called for them—only now I couldn't. There was no way for them to hear me.

I screamed as loud as I could... but nothing came out.

No one could help me now.

Luc stared at me, his glowing eyes wandering across my face. It was like he was reading something that had been tattooed on my forehead.

My heart felt like it had climbed into my throat. Panic surged along my veins, prickling and stinging like electricity. My racing thoughts ran circles in my head.

What was he going to do to me?

Was he going to do the exorcism? Or had that been a lie?

Was this even really Luc?

Luc continued to stare, his gaze unwavering. He didn't even blink.

I squeezed my eyes shut. I was waiting for the pain. I knew it would be coming sooner rather than later, in one form or another.

"Rachel..."

His voice broke through the suffocating silence. If this wasn't Luc, whoever they were had nailed the sound of his voice.

"Rachel..."

I didn't want to look, but my eyes were forced open. Luc was closer now, his face an inch from mine. I could feel his hot breath cascade over my cheeks, my mouth.

What was he going to do to me?

The spirit twisted up inside me. It seemed to pulse forwards and back... like it wanted to get closer to him before reconsidering and retreating deeper inside.

Luc leaned closer, his glowing eyes trapping my gaze. His mouth hovered over mine, almost touching. The heat from his breath seemed to be spreading over me, chasing back the chills of fear. I could feel sweat forming on my skin.

He began mumbling, his voice so soft and low that I couldn't make out the words. His lips brushed against mine as they moved. His low voice continued chanting, the rhythmic tone heavy and... intoxicating. Again, heated tingles ran over my skin, climbing up my neck, buzzing at the back of my skull. My eyelids began to feel heavy, threatening to close. He was lulling me into a kind of trance.

"Who are you?" he whispered. "Why are you here?"

Huh? My eyes snapped open for a second, but the hypnotic glow of his gaze quickly reclaimed me.

Luc turned his head and began to move down to my ear, his lips skimming against my skin the entire way. A pleasant shudder moved through me.

The spirit responded, too. It writhed in a way that undercut the calm that was overtaking me. Like it was... enjoying this. And maybe a little too much.

I... I couldn't say I blamed it.

Luc chuckled, his breath hot against the nape of my neck. "You want me, don't you?"

The tingling that buzzed along my spine began to spread through my whole body. Every nerve ending in my body was alive even though my mind was sinking deeper and deeper into some dark, comforting abyss.

"Come to me," he whispered, hovering over me again. "Come to me..."

Involuntarily my body bucked upwards, pressing against him. Luc responded in kind, grinding me down into the floor, making me gasp. My eyes fluttered closed. The daze that clotted my thoughts made it hard to remember anything but Luc and how close he was...

No... Something's not right. No... Fight it... Fight...

I struggled to surface, to open my eyes, but every time I did Luc pressed into my and any train of thought was suddenly derailed.

Luc's stare seemed to be even brighter now, too intense for me to even hold it. But my gaze kept drawing back to his, unable to stay away for too long.

"Come to me," he whispered again, his lips caressing each word.

Some bright flame lit deep inside me. Unable to restrain myself, I lunged forward and pressed my lips to his.

His mouth was hot and soft and familiar. I immediately wanted more.

I missed him.

I missed him so much.

Luc parted my lips with a gentle push of his tongue, deepening the kiss as he pushed me into the floor. I wanted to reach out, run my hands over his chest, his back, his—

Only I couldn't because my hands were being held.

I pulled away from the kiss, some distant thought reaching for me through the fog. Luc had his hands over my wrists, holding me back. He was... restraining me? Why? The answer seemed important, but...

But I want more...

The flame lit again, drawing me to him. The tingle had spread all over my body, from every toe to the tips of my fingers, even in my usually numb right arm... I reached for his mouth. I was on fire and he was the only thing that could quench the flames.

He didn't object. He took my mouth with his and as his lips met mine the tingle sharpened. It was flaring, building, the fire suddenly out of control. It scorched through my right arm, lighting up the lines of scar like they were made of gunpowder. Pain seared through me—

No! The spirit suddenly shrank back, burrowing deep inside me, snapping like an elastic. With it, I was suddenly snapped out of Luc's trance.

The dense silencing magic was gone from the air. I realized I was panting. My body was sticky with sweat, the air damp and heavy. Luc was still pressing me into the floor, but the glow in his eyes was fading with every passing second. He no longer looked like a demon, but the familiar man that had broken my heart.

His brow had settled into a knot. He was inspecting me... And didn't look like he was too eager to continue any sort of makeout session.

Our makeout session... A different kind of heat flooded into my cheeks as I realized what we had just been doing... and how much I liked it. What the hell had come over me? Then I remembered what he had said just moments earlier.

"I don't use force like Matilda. Though I imagine it will be unpleasant for you in a different way."

It all started to make sense. The trance, the heat, the kiss...

I shrank back from him. Luc released me and pushed away, getting to his feet.

"L-Luc..." I said, curling into a ball on the floor. I suddenly felt very hollow. "What the fuck was that?"

"I'm sorry," he said, giving me only the quickest of glances. "I didn't want to catch you off guard but... Surprise can be an essential tool for this kind of work."

He had just confirmed my suspicions. "That was the exorcism, wasn't it?"

I stared at him, but Luc wouldn't turn to look at me properly. "Yes."

"And... And you were using yourself as bait, weren't you?" I said, pulling myself up until I was sitting.

He sighed. "Yes. It's kind of like luring a tapeworm out with a bit of meat..."

My stomach dropped. He had actually tried to lure—basically seduce—the spirit out of me? Was that actually a thing?

Finally, he met my gaze and held it for longer than a second. Though he was not a mind reader, I'm sure what I was thinking was plain of my face. "It's an uncommon method, I know. But I've found it to be very successful."

I blinked at him, stunned. "You've done this before?" I asked.

His gaze slid away again and he wandered over to the wall, as if to inspect his handiwork. The golden writing was still glinting, even in the dim light. "Many times. It's actually... a specialty of mine."

My breathing came in gasps, gulping in air, even though it felt like I was running out. I knew more than well enough that Luc had been with other people—after all, one of his exes had tried to murder me—but picturing him doing that with other people, other...

Clients?

It felt like someone had landed a solid punch, right my gut. His clients. I knew that Luc used his powers for his business, but I had never imagined it would've been something like this... Was that what he had been always running off to do?

"Did you... When we...?"

Luc turned back to me. "Don't worry, I didn't perform any of these exorcisms while we were together."

The tension in my shoulders eased somewhat. A small comfort...

"It has actually been a while since I've done one," Luc continued. "But I've done it enough times that it's... easy to pick up."

A hysterical laugh escaped my lips. "Like riding a bike, huh?"

"Something like that."

I stared at the man I thought I knew. This was an aspect of himself that he had never mentioned. Where had he learned to do such a thing? And why?

Inside, the spirit seemed to pulsate. It was still there, despite his best efforts. But I had to admit... it had almost worked. If not for the shooting pain in my arm that broke the trance, he may have succeeded.

A cold realization took hold. "We're going to have to do this again, aren't we?" I said.

Luc nodded. "Unfortunately. A few times, perhaps. Until we get that thing out..."

The spirit flinched.

I was caught between my conflicting feelings. On one hand, I really wanted the ghost gone. On the other hand, the idea of being tangled up again with Luc like that—knowing we were over—was painful, like pretending at something I knew could never be. It was a different kind of pain than the exorcism Matilda had performed, but it still struck me to my core.

The spirit moved inside me. I could feel it pressing at the back of my eyes, like it was staring through them, out at Luc. For the first time, I felt emotion radiating from it. The sensations came as brief flashes, some familiar—like fear—some foreign and indescribable. But one rose over the rest, colouring all others.

Sadness.

"It's a curious presence." Luc said, narrowing his eyes. Though his eyes met mine, he wasn't looking at me—he was staring through my eyes at the being that lingered behind them. "It really doesn't want to leave. Matilda was right about that—it is stubborn."

"I'm right about a lot of things," came a raspy voice from the shadows.

We both span to look at where the voice had emerged from.

In the corner of the dark room, a black pool of shadow had formed. In the dim light, we hadn't noticed it.

From the shadow emerged the top of a head, like someone emerging from the water, followed by the appearance of two pearl-white eyes. As soon as they appeared, I could feel the familiar weight of their gaze.

Matilda was here.

🔮

What did you think Luc was doing at first?
What do you think of this kind of exorcism?