Penumbra (The Midnight Society #2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

I realized I was being ignored.
    Don’t do this to me Shadow, especially after all of this. Please, don’t do this to me.
    I got off the table and walked slowly towards him.
    “Can you at least look at me ?” I asked. I must have sounded pitiful and fragile, but I didn’t care. I just wanted him to acknowledge me, to make me know that what just happened here meant something to him—instead of a cheap, meaningless quickie.
    He looked at me with complete complacency. It was worse than a slap across the face.
    “You should put your clothes on,” he said.
    I wanted to die.
    He used me. I had bared my soul to him and in return he used my body to satisfy his needs. I felt stupid and foolish. I felt like a whore.
    I scrambled to put my clothes back on, though my blouse was completely ruined. I had to hold it together with a fist, just so my bra wasn’t exposed.
    Shadow walked past me and grabbed a water bottle, turning his back to me. I had the urge to kick him in the spine. A shattered vertebrae for a broken heart seemed like a fair trade. Just as I was about to open my mouth, I heard Lincoln, whistling cheerfully from down the hall.
    “Who wants sandwiches?” he asked in a light-hearted tone as he rounded the corner. However, as soon he stepped into the kitchen and saw the mess on the floor, his jaw dropped. His eyes turned towards me, staring at my right hand which was desperately trying to hold my blouse together.
    “There’s been an accident,” Shadow said, gesturing at the scattered food on the kitchen floor.
    “What accident?” Lincoln asked, shaking his head. “You tripped and fell into Aria while losing all your clothes in the process?”
    Silence.
    “I can see what happened here,” Lincoln sighed. “I just wish you’d moved the sandwiches out of the way. I’m starving.”
    “I’ll clean it up,” Shadow said.
    “You do that. In the meantime, I guess I’ll go get us a pizza,” he said. “When it arrives, try not to throw it on the floor, in case you suddenly have the urge to bone each other again.”
    Lincoln headed out kitchen door, but stopped just short of the entranceway. He turned around and glanced at the sandwiches on the floor one more time.
    “Seriously, there are people starving out there. Tossing food on the floor is a cardinal sin.”
    So was using someone for sex, especially after you stomped on their heart for the last two weeks , I thought to myself.
    When we were alone once again, Shadow began picking up the bread and meat off the floor, his eyes focused on his task, not bothering to look at me. .
    “Do you need help?” I asked.
    “No,” he replied, just before adding, “I’ll do it alone.”
    Alone.
    It was the perfect word to summarize how I was feeling at that very moment.
    I was alone.
     
    #

Chapter Four
    Aria
     
     
     
    “The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing humanity that he didn’t exist,” Lincoln said as he rummaged through the drawers of the makeup table. “Last I checked, I was still on several most wanted lists—not the ones I take pride in being on—therefore, we’ll need to take a page from Lucifer’s book and disappear as well.”
    “Not a problem for me,” I replied. “I feel invisible already.”
    I stared at my reflection in the broken mirror anchored to the table. It was smashed in the center, forming a cylindrical pattern of shattered glass. I felt as if I was looking through the eyes of a fly, the mirror reflecting hundreds of fragmented images of a sad girl, eyes stained red from tears.
    Shadow had left an hour ago, without even a goodbye.
    He was tearing me apart. For the past two weeks, every cold interaction we had with one another made me realize that his love for me was indeed fabricated by Calisto—that evil donkey bitch. With the flip of a switch, Shadow was able to reverse-engineer any sentimental emotions he ever felt for me. Rubbing salt into the wound, he had decided to pull me close only to fuck me, and then