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minute, I’m panicky.
    Don’t leave me alone.
    “Wait,” I call out, without even meaning to.
    He stops, but doesn’t turn around.
    “Yes?”
    “Will you be at dinner tonight?”
    My question is breathless and I internally kick myself. Stop acting so eager. You’re sending mixed signals. But my heart is mixed and I can’t help it.
    Dare starts walking again.
    “Of course.”
    I watch him walk away, the way his broad shoulders and slim hips move.
    He’s everything to me, everything I’ve ever wanted and ever will want.
    It makes me want to scream in frustration, because is there really something so bad about him that I should be pushing him away?
    My heart thumps and I think there is… I just can’t put my finger on it.
    Yet.
    Dare disappears over the hill towards the house, and it’s a few seconds before I realize that I’m being watched.
    The tiny hairs stand up on my neck, and goose-bumps form on my arms. I look around, scanning my surroundings, but no one is here.
    I’m alone.
    Or am I?
    It seems… it seems… it seems like there is someone standing at the edge of the house. There is a movement, and was that a flash of gray? But then it’s not there and I’m imagining it.
    For a moment, as I’m dwarfed by the shadows, and as the silence envelops me, I feel more alone than I’ve ever felt in my life.
    It’s not a good feeling.
    It’s actually terrifying.
    St. Michael save me.
    Save me.
    Save me.
    My fingers find Finn’s necklace, buried under my shirt. I grasp it in my fingers, as I pray to the archangel.
    St. Michael, protect me.
    Protect me from the snares of the devil, because somehow I know the devil is here.
    He’s here and I’m in danger.
    I just don’t know what the danger is.
    But you do.
    Protect me til I know.
    Protect me.
    Protect me.
    Protect me.

Chapter 6
    T here is a whispering in the hall, and I pull on my clothes, eager to leave this room behind. I throw open my doors to find Sabine in the hall, speaking with Jones.
    They both look up at me, surprised at my abrupt appearance.
    “Can we help you, Miss Price?” Jones asks, his tone so formal and stiff.
    He belongs here , I think. Here in this stiff, stiff house.
    “No, thank you,” I say. “I’m just restless.”
    Sabine notices the book beneath my arm.
    “We have a magnificent library here,” she tells me. “Come with me and I’ll show you.”
    We pass through the quiet halls and the silent rooms, and always, always, always, I feel watched. Invisible eyes stare through me, into me, and I hate it.
    There is something here.
    Something.
    “Do you feel safe here?” I ask her abruptly as she pushes open the library doors. She turns to me, surprised.
    “Of course, Miss Price,” she says throatily. “You don’t?”
    “Please, call me Calla,” I tell her, avoiding the question as she leads me into the room.
    Shelves of books surround me, lining the room, ceiling to floor.
    “I’ll light the fireplace to get rid of the morning chill,” she says, crossing the room and kneeling in front of the beautiful stone.
    I leave her as quickly as I can, to get away from her question, and I go from book to book, but of course she doesn’t forget and when I turn back around, she’s there.
    “Let’s sit by the fire, child.”
    It’s a suggestion, but she’s pulling my elbow and so I find myself beside the lapping flames. She sits next to me, and her gaze is magnetic.
    “Why do you feel unsafe here,” she asks. “Has something happened?”
    My brother and mother died.
    That’s what I want to say.
    But I don’t because that’s awkward, and so I swallow hard instead.
    “Do you feel guilty for surviving?” she asks, her words direct and insightful.
    I swallow again.
    “Because things happen for a reason, the way they’re meant to happen. You survived them because you were meant to. There is no guilt in that.”
    “I miss them,” I whisper. And it feels like a confession. I always felt I had to be strong for dad, to not