Book Four: Chapter 96

The cool afternoon air seemed to hang suspended around them as they lingered in that strange, quiet space between the physical world and the spectral.

“Yeah like that?” he asked. His voice was a low, gravelly rumble that vibrated through the air, lacking the usual resonance of a chest cavity but carrying a weight that was undeniably masculine. He shifted his grip slightly, testing the balance of his own detached head as if it were a prized possession he was offering for her inspection.

“Very much,” she replied, her voice breathless and thin. She reached out, her fingers hovering just inches from the jagged, yet strangely clean, line where his neck ended. The sight was macabre, yet there was an alluring grace to the way he held himself. “How do you keep it from falling off?”

“Willpower.” He smirked, the expression appearing both on the face he held in his hands an