Monster Mine Read Free

through
me, overcoming me, and taking me down. I pictured dying in the
snow, shriveled up in a fire, my body’s husk softly
smoking.
    “ Ollie?” I whispered into
the water, drops streaming into my mouth. “Are you
there?”
    I felt only the very real ache in my
chest. Nothing else. Would I know if she was gone? Like Luke, did I
have that power?
    “ I miss you.”
    Nothing.
    “ You should come
back.”
    Still nothing.
    Hatter knocked on the bathroom door.
“Sunny?” he called.
    I didn’t answer.
    “ We have to go. There’s
been a ’swang sighting.”

 
     
     
    T W O
    Ollie
     
    D eath did not come after I’d spent so long wishing it would.
I’d begged and prayed, and yet here I was. The ghost of those weeks
with Max hummed in the back of my mind. My chest blazed with
low-burning heat where he’d tried to cut out my heart. The skin
pulled tight, but the pain had receded into a black smudge in my
mind.
    I wanted to sleep and forget, but
instead, I kept thinking of my mother. Just when I thought I was
getting close to knowing the woman she was, she’d slip away. Her
life had fundamentally changed after falling for Hex, my
father.
    I opened my eyes, and there he was,
standing above me with his black hair pulled into a bun at the back
of his head, as though the thought had conjured the man himself. In
the dim lighting, his paleness stood out like a specter hovering at
my bedside. He sat down on the edge of the bed where I lay, his
body moving with chilling ease. His dark eyes wanted to reassure
me, but when he smiled, his teeth were much too sharp.
    “ Hex,” I said, breathing
the word out in a rough rasp. I coughed.
    “ Olesya.” His voice was
low and deep, more a rumble than actual words. He sounded like the
night felt.
    Faintly, so very faintly,
I heard it: Tick tock .
    A shudder tumbled down my
spine.
    He reached out and touched my cheek.
It was tender and full of wonder, as though he couldn’t believe I
was actually there. I pretended to fall back to sleep. I couldn’t
bear his touch, and I wanted to slink away from him, but I
couldn’t. I was frozen.
    He leaned in close and said, “I’m so
happy you’re home.”
     
    * * *
     
    “ Ollie. Wake up. You can’t
sleep forever.”
    The girl’s voice sounded familiar in
its cold, sharp beat. Her name floated up through my mind: Lauren.
Lauren from the car ride away from Max, when I’d only wanted to
die. I kept my eyes closed and my breathing even. I wanted to fall
away again, back into the numbness.
    “ Wake up, you stupid
bitch.”
    Not even that got to me.
    “ I knew you were
worthless,” she said, poking me in the chest, which felt irregular
in its warmth and tightness. “We should have left you there with
him. With Max .”
    My eyelid twitched at his
name.
    “ Max,” she cooed, but I
schooled myself, keeping still. I started to sink away again. She
didn’t bother me. Nothing could at this point. “Max. Max.
Max.”
    Nothing.
    “ Ollie Volkova breaks for
no one.” She snorted. “But you look pretty broken to
me.”
    A weight around my ankles eased me
down through the thick waters of exhaustion. I just wanted to
sleep, fade away, and not care about anything. Not care about being
a halfling. Not care about what had happened to my mother. Not care
about Max.
    Lauren’s frustrated sigh smelled like
tomato soup and stale crackers. Her unhappiness was a balm. I liked
it.
    The chair beside my bed squeaked. I
fought the urge to roll over as she leaned in close, her breath
inches from my face. “I have a secret, you know. Do you want to
hear it?”
    My chest tightened against some
prickling hold as I held my breath.
    “ I’ll tell you anyway.”
She leaned in closer, her lips almost brushing against my ear. “Do
you know why it took so long to find you? To rescue
you?”
    I went hot. Then cold. Then hot again.
Memories threatened from the bad places. Words she and Thad had
spoken during the drive away from Max. Something I hadn’t wanted