Fated by Darkness Read online

  “Sadie, are you in there?” Ayden calls from the other side of the door.

  “Yeah. Just a second,” I shout back. Then I turn toward Sage and lower my voice. “That’s fine, but I’m not letting you jump out the window.”

  His lips twitch, threatening to turn upward. “I wasn’t going to jump.”

  “Then what were you going to do?”

  “Shimmy down to the porch diagonal from us.”

  “That’s too far.”

  He shakes his head then winks at me. “Trust me; I’ve had a lot of practice with these things.”

  My brows dip. “With sneaking out of condos?”

  “With sneaking out of girls’ bedrooms.” Then he ducks his head out the window and lifts his leg over the windowsill.

  “What’re you going to do when you get down?” I ask, chewing on my thumbnail.

  “Walk up the stairs and come through the front door.”

  “What if you hurt yourself?”

  He pauses from his escape and glances back at me with confusion in his eyes. “Sweetheart, I’ll be fine,” he says, then reaches to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear.

  The way sweetheart rolls off his lips causes me to freeze.

  Causes me to panic.

  Because he sounds just like the guy from that memory … The memory I dreamt about that morning when Fiona knocked on my bedroom door. The memory of where I was in the house and the guy was begging me not to die.

  It has to be a coincidence, though, right? Sage can’t be that guy.

  Can he?

  I try to remember, but only haziness fills my brain.

  Sage’s brows knit as I back away. “What’s wrong?”

  “I …” Words die from my lips as I spot a dead woman lurking in the middle of my room. Not the dead girl I always see, but another one. A woman with fiery red hair, who looks just like the woman Sage was kissing on the porch earlier. The only difference is she’s dead now.

  The redheaded dead girl laughs. “I was dead the whole time,” she says as if she can read my mind. “You were just too busy freaking out to notice the bruises on my neck where he strangled me.”

  I want to ask her how she could’ve been dead then, since Sage kissed her, but talking will only out my insanity.

  She stares at Sage. “They’re going to blame him for this. And I’m not sure if I want to help him or not. He wasn’t very nice to me out on the porch.”

  I’m not exactly sure what she means, but a slimy chill slithers up my spine. The last time I felt this kind of sensation, I ended up with blood on my hands.

  “Sadie, are you okay—” Sage is cut off by a loud bang that sounds like it’s coming from the front door.

  We both jump, and then Sage glances down at the ground, as if debating whether or not to jump.

  When another bang pounds against the front door, Sage climbs back onto the window.

  “What the hell is going on?” he asks as he heads for my shut bedroom door.

  “I have no idea.” I follow after him, keeping my distance, still uneasy about how his voice matches the guy’s from my memory.

  We rush out into the living room where Ayden and Lyric already are, appearing equally as lost. Another harsh bang on the front door, and Ayden throws the door open.

  A few officers are standing outside, dressed in uniforms.

  “Is Sage Davis here?” the tallest one asks.

  Sage tenses beside me, and I have the craziest urge to reach over and lace my fingers through his. Maybe it’s because I’m high—it probably is—but I find myself acting on my thoughts.

  Sage stiffens even more from the contact of my fingers and that crazy spark that happens again. But he doesn’t jerk away. He tightens his grip on my hand.

  “What’s this about?” Ayden asks without answering the officer’s question.

  “We can’t divulge any information yet,” the same officer says, then his eyes wander to Sage. “Sage Davis?”

  How did he know?

  Sage swallows hard. “Yes?”

  “You need to come with us to the station,” the officer says, stepping forward.

  Sage glares at the officer. “Why?”

  “We need to ask you a couple of questions,” is all the officer says.

  Shaking his head, Sage starts to step forward, only letting go of my hand when he absolutely has to. He casts one final look over his shoulders, his bloodshot eyes landing on mine, and then flicking to the corner of the room.

  His face pales.

  I turn around to see what he’s looking at and confusion rips through me.

  Standing in the corner is the dead girl who always haunts me, along with the redheaded ghost.

  I whirl back around, wondering if he can see them, but the officers are already ushering him out the door.

  Blood roars in my eardrums as questions flood my mind. What’s going on? Why was Sage arrested? Why did his voice match the guy’s in my memory?

  Most of all, I want to know why it seemed like he could see the dead girl.

  “What the hell was that about?” Ayden asks as he shuts the door.

  “I don’t know, but we need to find out ASAP,” Lyric replies, worriedly chewing on her fingernail.

  I wrap my arms around myself as the redheaded ghost appears beside me.

  “They’re going to question him about my murder,” she whispers. “Someone’s trying to set him up.”

  An icy chill rushes down my spine. I want to ask her who is trying to set him up and why—what she knows about what’s happening—but I can’t talk to her in front of Lyric and Ayden without seeming crazy.

  “Don’t worry; you can help him.” The ghost grins. “But only with my help.”

  Then she vanishes, leaving me to wonder if she’s coming back and if she’s telling the truth.

  Wondering if any of this is real or if I’ve finally gone completely mad.

  12

  Sage

  This can’t be happening.

  This can’t be happening.

  This can’t be happening.

  I have to be dreaming.

  No matter how many times I try to convince myself that I’m dreaming, the four walls of the holding room remain around me. I don’t know why I’m here or if I’m officially being arrested. All I’ve been told is that a detective needs to talk to me. I don’t want to talk to anyone, not when I’m stoned out of my mind.

  Honestly, I didn’t smoke that much, but I must have bought some better quality shit than I thought, because I’m losing my mind. Losing it, I tell you. Either that or I really did see the redhead from next door and my brunette stalker girl standing in the corner of Lyric, Ayden, and Sadie’s living room right before the officers dragged me out.

  It had to be a hallucination.

  I’m stoned.

  Too stoned to be in a police station.

  I thrum my fingers on top of the table in front of me, checking the time on the clock. It’s been over an hour since they dumped me into this room without so much as letting me make a phone call. I can only imagine how freaked out Ayden, Lyric, and Sadie are. If I could call one of them, I could at least tell them I’m okay.

  Aren’t I?

  Moments later, the door swings open and in walks a middle-aged man, wearing a suit and one of those stupid smiley face ties. He’s staring down at a folder in his hand, rummaging through pages. He doesn’t look up until he sits down in the chair across the table from me.

  “Sage Davis?” he asks, though I’m sure he already knows my name.

  “Yep, in the flesh,” I reply with irritation.

  “Relax,” he says as he sets the folder down on the table. “I just want to ask you a couple of questions.”

  I lean forward, resting my elbows on the table. “I highly doubt that since your little buddies showed up at my friend’s place and dragged me down here.”

  He studies me, and I do my best not to squirm under his gaze. But fuck, I have a terrible feeling something bad is about
to happen. Something even worse than getting dragged down to the police station. My suspicions are confirmed when he removes a photo from the file and places it in front of me.

  “Tell me what you know about Penelope Bakerten.” He taps the photo with his finger.

  I swallow hard, no longer feeling stoned, but completely and utterly terrified. Because the girl in the photo is the redhead who kissed me earlier.

  “I don’t really know much about her, other than she lives next door to my friends.” I force down the lump in my throat as I look up at him. “Why?”

  His gaze never wavers from mine. “Because she was found dead in her apartment tonight, although she’s been dead for a while. Someone called in an anonymous tip tonight, and also told us a name. Your name, to be exact. Even told us where we could find you.” He crosses his arms on top of the table. “So, I’m going to ask you again. What do you know about Penelope Bakerten?”

  I literally don’t know what to say because, if what he’s saying is true, then …

  Then it means this Penelope woman died before she even kissed me.

  Holy shit, I kissed a dead girl!

  What the fuck is going on?

  13

  Sadie

  After Sage gets hauled away by the officers, Lyric and Ayden start making calls to see if they can find out what’s going on. I could tell them that the dead girl told me the police think Sage may have killed her, but I doubt that conversation would go over very well.

  So, while everyone goes into panic mode, I sneak back to my room, partly because I’m worried Ayden will notice I’m high, but also, I want to see if I can find out why on earth Sage and I can see ghosts. Well, I’m not one hundred percent positive Sage saw the ghosts, but it sure as heck looked like he did.

  What if he did?

  What if he saw them?

  What if I’m not alone in this crazy world I’ve started living in?

  After typing in countless search words into the search engine, I stumble across something that catches my attention. An article based on research done by a handful of scientists who live in San Diego. Basically, the scientists believe that when a person dies and is revived, they become connected with death. For some, sometimes life and death start to overlap to the point where someone alive can connect to the dead. And the more a person dies and comes back to life, the more in tune they become with death and things connected to death. Like ghosts.

  A shiver runs up my spine. I’ve died and been brought back to life multiple times by the cult members as part of one of their strange rituals, so if the article carries any truth to it, that’d explain why I’ve been seeing ghost.

  But what about Sage? Has he died as well?

  I swallow hard, remembering when he uttered the word sweetheart, and how his voice sounded strikingly similar to the guy from some of my memories of when I was trapped in that house. Was Sage trapped there as well? Did they kill him and bring him back alive too?

  I have no idea, but I feel strangely connected to Sage now. And I don’t want to lose that connection, but if he gets arrested I may never see him again.

  I need to find a way to help him, and the only way to do that might be to seek help from the ghosts.

  About the Author

  About the Author

  * * *

  Jessica Sorensen is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who lives in the snowy mountains of Wyoming. When she’s not writing, she spends her time reading and hanging out with her family.

  Also by Jessica Sorensen

  Other books by Jessica Sorensen:

  * * *

  Ultraviolet:

  Ultraviolet

  Untitled (coming soon)

  * * *

  Tangled Realms:

  Forever Violet

  Untitled (Legend’s story) (coming soon)

  * * *

  Unexpected Series:

  The Unexpected

  The Unpredictable

  Untitled (coming soon)

  * * *

  Curse of the Vampire Queen:

  Tempting Raven

  Untitled (coming soon)

  * * *

  Bad Boy Rebels:

  Meeting the Bad Boy Rebels

  Bad Girl Training

  Untitled (coming soon)

  * * *

  Hacker Rebels:

  Truths

  Untitled (coming soon)

  * * *

  Shadow Cove Series:

  What Lies in the Darkness

  What Lies in the Dark (coming soon)

  * * *

  Mystic Willow Bay Witches Series:

  The Secret Life of a Witch

  Broken Magic

  Stolen Kisses

  One Wild, Crazy, Zombie Night

  Untitled (coming soon)

  * * *

  Standalones:

  The Forgotten Girl

  The Illusion of Annabella

  Confessions of a Kleptomaniac

  Rules of a Rebel and a Shy Girl

  The Opposite of Ordinary

  * * *

  Broken City Series:

  Nameless

  Forsaken

  Oblivion

  Forbidden (coming soon)

  * * *

  Guardian Academy Series:

  Entranced

  Entangled

  Enchanted

  Entice (coming soon)

  * * *

  Sunnyvale Series:

  The Year I Became Isabella Anders

  The Year of Falling in Love

  The Year of Second Chances

  * * *

  Unraveling You Series:

  Unraveling You

  Raveling You

  Awakening You

  Inspiring You

  Fated by Darkness

  Untitled (coming soon)

  * * *

  The Coincidence Series:

  The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden

  The Redemption of Callie and Kayden

  The Destiny of Violet and Luke

  The Probability of Violet and Luke

  The Certainty of Violet and Luke

  The Resolution of Callie and Kayden

  Seth & Greyson

  * * *

  The Secret Series:

  The Prelude of Ella and Micha

  The Secret of Ella and Micha

  The Forever of Ella and Micha

  The Temptation of Lila and Ethan

  The Ever After of Ella and Micha

  Lila and Ethan: Forever and Always

  Ella and Micha: Infinitely and Always

  * * *

  The Shattered Promises Series:

  Shattered Promises

  Fractured Souls

  Unbroken

  Broken Visions

  Scattered Ashes

  * * *

  Breaking Nova Series:

  Breaking Nova

  Saving Quinton

  Delilah: The Making of Red

  Nova and Quinton: No Regrets

  Tristan: Finding Hope

  Wreck Me

  Ruin Me

  * * *

  The Fallen Star Series:

  The Fallen Star

  The Underworld

  The Vision

  The Promise

  * * *

  The Fallen Souls Series (spin-off from The Fallen Star):

  The Lost Soul

  The Evanescence

  * * *

  The Darkness Falls Series:

  Darkness Falls

  Darkness Breaks

  Darkness Fades

  * * *

  The Death Collectors Series (NA and YA):

  Ember X and Ember

  Cinder X and Cinder

  Spark X and Spark

  * * *

  Unbeautiful Series:

  Unbeautiful

  Untamed