Veronica reached over with her chopsticks and nabbed a shrimp from Mackenzie’s box. “Imamura told us he accepted the burden of obligation.” She ate the filched shrimp.
“I hope death ends all obligations.” Mackenzie used her fork to fend off another incursion by Veronica’s chopsticks. “I hate to think I’d have to come back and haunt somewhere because I forgot to pay the electric bill before I kicked the bucket.”
“Mac, I don’t…” Veronica’s shoulders slumped. She looked tired and maybe a little fearful. Of what, Mackenzie didn’t know. “I don’t have the answers.”
Mackenzie felt bad enough to offer the last shrimp. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to be sorry.” Veronica took the shrimp anyway, though she handed over a dumpling in return. She chewed in silence and finally spoke. “Look, I told you, there’s no logic in wait-abouts—why they come back from the Other Side, why they stay connected to places, why some have power and some don’t—”
Mackenzie choked when a mouthful of dumpling went down the wrong way. She spent almost a full two minutes in coughing, eye-watering spasms while her memory dredged up the claustrophobic experience of possession by Jun’s spirit…if that’s what actually happened. She wasn’t sure, but having spent what felt like hours with her consciousness buried in a grave, she wasn’t ready to seek an explanation. Nor would she tell Veronica the truth. A confession would lead to nothing good. What if Veronica’s patience wore out and she decided she’d rather have a relationship with a less supernaturally prone, less freakish, less ghost-and-creepy-stuff magnet, more normal girlfriend? The risk was too great.
Veronica whacked her helpfully between the shoulder blades. “Do I need to do the Heimlich?” she asked with a worried frown.
“I’m fine,” Mackenzie croaked, but she wasn’t, not really.
She put down the takeaway box on the coffee table and threw her arms around Veronica, hoping to drown her fears in the person dearest to her heart.
Let the fire burn to embers, and the embers to ashes, and the ashes return to the earth. May the dead rest in peace and leave me the hell alone.
World without end, amen.
Bella Books, Inc.
Women. Books. Even Better Together.
P.O. Box 10543
Tallahassee, FL 32302
Phone: 800-729-4992
www.bellabooks.com
Cover
Synopsis
Title Page
Copyright Page
Other Books by Nene Adams
Epigraph
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Bella Books