Malum Discordiae: An MM Dark Academia Enemies-to-Lovers Paranormal Romance by Ashlyn Drewek

Author:Ashlyn Drewek [Drewek, Ashlyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fox Hollow Books
Published: 2022-03-27T16:00:00+00:00

In a moment of déjà vu, I was back at the hospital just before midnight, except this time I was actually waiting for Graeme in the parking lot instead of secretly hoping he’d bail on me. I rounded the front of my car as he was closing his door, looking less than thrilled to be here.

“You don’t have to do this,” I said. “I can go alone.”

“No, I want to. I mean, I don’t want to. But, I feel like I have to. It’s my fault too.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, rocking awkwardly on his heels.

Nodding, I turned and set off for the hospital. He fell into step beside me. For once he didn’t seem hellbent on talking my ear off. I wanted to ask why, but at the same time, I had to focus on the task ahead.

We made our way into the basement quietly. Graeme’s steps didn’t falter until we reached the morgue doors.

I pushed the door open and gestured for him to go first.

He rolled his eyes and walked through, flipping on the lights as quickly as he could.

“Still creeped out by dead bodies?” I asked, heading toward the giant cooler.

“Yeah,” he admitted bluntly, with none of his usual arrogance. “I don’t think I’ll ever not be creeped out by dead things.” I mean, to be fair, most people were. At least he’d dropped the act and was actually being a little more humble these days.

“You want to know a trick?”

“What?” He eyed me warily, conveniently finding himself on the opposite side of the room, as far away from the cooler as possible.

“If you see the beauty in death, you won’t be so creeped out by it. Not to get all Lion King on you, but it really is about the circle of life. The dead have a lot to teach the living, the living just don’t want anything to do with it.”

He didn’t look convinced in the slightest. “Yeah, right. Thanks for the tip, Mufasa.”

It was my turn to roll my eyes. Instead of arguing, I opened the large, stainless steel door and stopped at the threshold, eyes wide. “Shit!”

“What?”

It was empty. There wasn’t a single body inside. Not entirely unusual for a small-town hospital, but the fact the murder victim wasn’t here either? That was problematic.

I didn’t answer him as I walked into the cooler and whirled in a circle, as if a body would suddenly appear if I willed it into existence hard enough.

Graeme opened the door wider and peered inside. “Where is she?”

“I don’t know…”

“Well now what?”

“I don’t know!” I swore under my breath and strode out of the cooler again, trying to think.

Treadwell said they kept it out of the papers to avoid panic. Maybe they kept Sophia out of the hospital for the same reason, which meant they had to take the body somewhere else. There was only one other suitable place for a dead body, pre-burial.

I grabbed Graeme’s sleeve. “The funeral home.”

“What?”

“I bet they took her to Kellermann’s.

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