“Yes and no. I see things. Glimpses of the lives of the people I killed. Or at least the lives they would’ve led if I hadn’t killed them.”

“People you killed? Sam, you didn’t kill anyone.”

“Yes, I did. It wasn’t just that guy. Herman. Do you remember Gloria telling us about him?”

“The guy who crashed into the telephone pole?”

“Yes. That’s not really how he died. I killed him. I was having an attack, and I needed to get away from you before I hurt you. I took your car, and I almost crashed into Herman. He got out to yell at me, and I killed him. I drove his car to the top of that hill and staged the accident.”

“Okay, that’s enough.” He got up and crossed his arms. “Either you are really messing with me because you don’t want to sleep with me again, or we need to take you to the hospital to get checked out.”

I stared at him in disbelief. He thought I was making this up because I didn’t want to have sex with him? “I killed Trevor, too. I made it look like he tried to break into the school.”

“Trevor?” Ethan kicked the bed. “Damn it, Sam. Trevor is missing. And that guy who broke into the school was in his seventies.”

“No, he wasn’t. He was Trevor. I drained the life out of him. That’s what I do. It’s how I kill people to keep myself alive. I take their life force, drain it out of them.”

“Stop it!” Ethan’s face was bright red. “That’s enough.”

“You don’t believe me.” My bottom lip trembled. Ethan had never not believed me.

“I believe you’re sick. I believe I screwed something up when I brought you back.”

I stepped toward him. “Then tell me how you did it.”

“You’ve become obsessed with this, and it’s messing with your head.” He reached for my hands. “Please, let this go. Let me help you.”

“You can help me by telling me the truth about what you did. I have to know. It’s a matter of life and death.”

“No, it’s not. No one is dying because of you. You’re confused.”

I tore my hands from his. “Why won’t you tell me? How bad is it that you aren’t even willing to say it out loud?”

He ran his fingers through his hair and tilted his head back. I waited for what felt like an eternity for him to speak. I couldn’t take it anymore. “Ethan!”

He looked at me, his eyes red and puffy. “I would’ve done anything. Anything.”

“I know. I’m not going to be mad at you. I don’t blame you for any of this. I just need to know.”

“What will knowing change?”

It might change losing him forever, but I couldn’t say that. I hated having to keep so much from him, but after how he’d reacted to me telling the truth about what I’d become, I couldn’t tell him he was dying. He’d think I was crazy. He probably already thought I was crazy.

“Can’t you tell me simply because I want to know?”

“It’s not that easy.”

“Yes, it is. It’s words. Say them.”

He shook his head. “If I tell you, it will only make you worse. Those things you said about you killing people, that scared the shit out of me. I can only imagine what you’d say if you knew the truth.”

He did think I was crazy. My confession hadn’t done anything but ruin my chances of finding out the truth. Ethan was a dead end.

But he wasn’t the only one who knew I’d come back from the dead. Nora knew. Except if she knew how I’d come back, she would’ve told me. We’d shared a lot. It would’ve come out eventually. That left me with one option. Dylan. I had to call him. I had to set up a meeting to get this all out in the open.

I had no idea if he’d found out about Ben yet. If he had, then I was dead. He’d kill me. But I had to try. He might have the answer I needed. And if he did kill me, well, Ethan and I would end up together after all. Six feet under.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

“I HAVE to go,” I said, looking around for my purse.

“Go where? It’s nighttime.” Ethan reached for me. “Sam, please. Don’t do this. Stay here and talk to me.”

“Are you going to tell me how you brought me back?” My eyes bored into his.

He sighed. “No.”

“Then I can’t stay.” I broke free from him, remembering my purse was on the living room floor. I scooped it up and walked out the front door. I grabbed the hidden key from the wheel well and got in the car. I had to get out of here before I called Dylan. If I didn’t, Ethan would try to stop me. Or worse, he’d get in the car. I couldn’t go see Dylan with Ethan tagging along.

I backed out of the driveway and pulled onto the main road. I drove until I came to a red traffic light. It seemed like a good time to call Dylan, so I dialed his number.

He picked up on the third ring. “Ben?”

The name shot through me, tore my insides to shreds. “No,” I choked out. “It’s Sam.”

“Sam?” It was clear he never expected me to call.

“I want to talk.” He obviously didn’t know about Ben, or he wouldn’t have thought I was him. But the frantic tone in his voice meant he knew Ben was in trouble.

“I can’t now. It’s not a good time. Tomorrow. After school.”

“It can’t wait.”

He sighed. “Look, my brother is—never mind. I can’t talk now.”

“Don’t hang up! You’ve been cornering me since I moved here. Now I’m telling you I’m ready to talk, and you’re blowing me off?”

“I want to talk. I just can’t right now.”

“Well, it’s now or never.” He had no idea why I finally wanted to talk, so I was hoping I could appeal to his own desperation.

“Ugh! Fine. Where?”

“Your place?” I hated the idea of being alone with him at his house, but what we had to discuss required privacy, and I couldn’t exactly take him to the cottage.

“No. Not here.”

“Why not?”

“The diner.”

“It’s closed.”

“Exactly. That’s what makes it perfect. No one will bother us. I’ll be there in ten minutes.” He hung up the phone before I could protest.

When the light changed, I pulled a U-turn in the middle of the road. No one was around, and I didn’t want to waste time. I drove to the diner, wondering how all this would play out. Wondering what Dylan had to say to me and if he really knew how I’d gotten to be what I was.

I pulled into the diner and parked around back. I cut the lights, hoping no one saw me. Gloria and Jackson didn’t strike me as the type to set up security cameras in the parking lot. If they did, they would’ve seen me get in the car with Nora the other day. Gloria wouldn’t have let that slide, not after I had collapsed in the parking lot. Not after I returned with that lame story about the girl with the flat bike tire.

I took out my phone and texted Dylan. Out back. No headlights.

Two minutes later, he pulled up next to me. He got out of his car and into mine.

“Why is it so important that we talk now?” he asked.

“You know about me, right? That’s why you’ve been trying to talk to me.”

He shrugged. “Yeah.”

“I need to know how much you know. Starting with how I got here.”

He eyed me suspiciously. “You moved here with Ethan, even though you two like to pretend you just met.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

He didn’t flinch. “Maybe I do. It would help if you were more specific.”

He was going to make me say it. Confirm what he already knew.

“I died of cancer.”

“I didn’t know it was cancer.”

“But you know I died, and you know Ethan did something to bring me back.”

“Yes.” He wasn’t offering any extra information. He was being annoyingly close-lipped.

“Do you know how I was brought back?”

“Yes.”

“Ugh.” I smacked the steering wheel. “Then tell me!”

“She didn’t tell you?”

“She? Who’s she?”

Dylan laughed. “Figures. It’s just like her.”

“Who?” I was losing my patience. I needed answers.

“Nora.”

The wheels started turning in my head. Nora. The coven. The others using black magic. It would take black magic to bring someone back from the dead, right?