A pair of angry green eyes flashed in front of my face.
I rubbed my hands up my arms, trying to warm the tremble trickling up my spine, but I couldn’t chase away the look on Mason’s face. My life was spent drowning in the cloud of his well-deserved wrath, but today… I’d never seen him like that.
He’s not going to let this go.
If I didn’t calm down before I got home, then my father would know something was wrong. Blowing out a breath, I put Mason out of my head and stared up at the sky.
This was my favorite time of day, when the sun was starting to drop behind the horizon. I soaked in every second the sky was lit up with that breathtaking pink and orange hue, because soon enough the moon would come out and darkness would take over.
My mother used to call this ‘warrior’s hour.’ She said these few minutes were meant to remind us that even though darkness dampened so much of our lives, there was always a time to shine. We just had to find it.
I liked her analogy. It reminded me of how sweet she was. But her story was nothing more than a beautiful lie.
The sun didn’t come back every day because it wanted to. It didn’t shine down on the world to brighten our lives. It did it because it had to. The sun sat high in the sky releasing its energy on everything below, because if it didn’t, the world would die. It didn’t have a choice.
Just like me.
I pushed through the magnolias lining our property. The sweet champagne-like fragrance that was wafting off the pretty little pink flowers decorating the foliage hanging overhead quickly faded when a large black roof came into view. My stomach flipped as that colorful hue in the sky lowered behind the black of my house.
More like a prison.
Other people looked at the building I called home and saw a breathtaking scene full of lush greenery and flowers surrounding a Georgian style house. When I was a little girl, I used to think the same thing. My family's estate was a place of beauty and wonderment for someone so young.
The large white pillars surrounding our wrap-around porch used to be one of Lana’s favorite hiding spots, and Mason and Silas were convinced something was haunting the woods out back.
Every time they came here they’d have a more intricate plan on how to chase the ghost away. We even had the same spiral staircase that Lana and I imagined princesses would descend to enter a grand ball.
That time of innocence was the thing I missed the most. When the only things we had to worry about were the beings created by our imagination. But there was no ghost waiting to be vanquished, or fairy living in the garden, because the sun didn’t shine here anymore.
Not since Mom…
I closed my eyes and shook the memory from my head. I didn’t want to think about that. Or the patch of Black Eyed Susans on the left side of the house.
The only parts of her that were left were buried under those flowers. Daddy made me help him put her there. Alone in the cold, hard earth, forgotten by everyone but me.
No eight-year-old should know how long it takes to burn a body to ash.
When my phone went off again I was tempted to ignore it, but something pulled at me to look. I wished I hadn’t. That one text caused my stomach to swirl with dread.
Mason: I told you you’d be sorry if you stepped out that door.
I swallowed back the lump in my throat and turned my phone off. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I did bring this on myself. I knew not to argue with Daddy, yet I did anyway. Now my secret was at risk of getting out. And to the worst person.
Mason Kessler couldn’t find out, ever.
Once upon a time, he was my everything. The white knight sent to protect me from the horrors of the world. Now he was the monster I’d turned him into. I twisted everything pure and happy in those bright green eyes with three little words.
‘Mason did it.’
Now he was judging me. Everyone was. Even the eyes of the bronze wolf knocker stared back at me, silently picking apart every decision I’d ever made.
I saw that skeptical look everywhere I went. The way Micha curled his lip when I walked past, or how Logan glared at me. They were all watching me. Even Preston tipped a brow when I was around. I could feel the question in their subtle glances and wavering tones.
What kind of person betrays someone they love? To them I was the monster, and maybe they were right. Lana was the only one who didn’t judge me. Maybe she should. After all, I’d lied to her too. She just hadn’t figured it out yet, but one day she would.
Then I’d lose her just like I did that little boy.
I missed him. Every day I looked for some hint that he was still there in the eyes of my tormentor. There was nothing. No spark or fleeting glance that told me the Mason I knew was still there. Just the dark and hate-filled stare that assaulted me in the halls.
