“Have you heard from Henry at all?” I asked her as she started to fix my hair, taking down the pins, my curls unfurling behind my back.
“Henry and his family moved only a few days ago. After news got out about your mother, Henry’s mother got worried, and they left. I heard something about them moving to Waverly Cove.” I smiled at that, remembering Henry saying how his mother wanted to live by the sea. “Why do you ask?”
“Nothing.” Vail didn’t know about my meetings with Henry, but she probably suspected. “I thought about him the other day. His mother and mine were friends.”
“Rosie, I am so sorry about your mother,” she said, her arms coming around my waist and she looked at me through the reflection in the mirror. I leaned back into her touch, her smell comforting.
“I really miss her.”
“I miss her too,” Vail said, squeezing me gently, “I will go and check on your house from time to time … if you want me to? To keep it nice until you decide when you want to move back.” She smiled, and her eyes held a hopeful promise that touched my heart. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her that I had no intention of returning there. The thought of entering that house again felt like an insurmountable challenge.
I hugged her back, resting my head on hers.
Vail eased out of my embrace and retrieved something from her bedside table, and handed it to me. “Here,” she said, offering a small, worn crucifix dangling from a simple chain. “This belonged to my father, and I keep it hidden from my grandma. You know how she is with religious things. Keep it with you. I am not sure why, but something in me tells me that you need it more than I do.”
I knew people kept religious items around them for protection against Blood Hunters, but that was never something my family did. I took the crucifix in my hand, feeling the weight of it. “Thank you.”
She moved closer to me, her voice almost a whisper. “You can stay here, you know.” Her eyes filled with hope. “You do not have to go back to that haunted mansion.” She smiled at her own joke. “It will be a tight squeeze, but we can share my room.”
I met her gaze. “I appreciate that. Though, I want to go back.”
“All right.” Her worry was still evident on her face. “I hope you know what you are doing, Rosie.”
I nodded and glanced out the window. The sun was setting in the sky, “I have to go,” I said abruptly.
“Stay for dinner,” Agnes suggested from the kitchen.
“I cannot. It will take me a while to walk back, especially since it is uphill, and I do not want to be out in the dark alone.”
Vail and her grandmother bid me farewell at the door. Agnes gave me a candle and told me to keep it lit during the entire walk back. The flame would ward off the spirits of the night.
Vail pulled me in for a tight hug. “Promise you will visit me soon?”
“I promise.” I hugged her back.
“I really thought you were dead. Do not ever scare me like that again,” she warned, giving me one final squeeze before I turned away to walk back to Draven’s.
The walk back to Thornwood Manor took me longer than I had anticipated and the moon was already emerging over the tops of trees as I opened the heavy front door.
When I stepped inside, the house was dark and cold. No candles had been lit, and it felt like the fireplace had been out all day. The door closed behind me, and a rush of air extinguished the candle I was holding, leaving me in darkness.
“Where have you been?” a voice called from behind me.
I dropped the candle in fright.
Draven was leaning against the wall, his hair falling across half of his face like a mask. He took out a match and lit the candelabra on the table next to him.
“There was a fire in town,” I replied, my heart racing.
“Do you have any idea what time it is, Rosalia?”
“I was helping—”
“The moon is in the sky and that means there are creatures out there in the woods who would have loved it if you stayed out a while longer.” He almost spat out his words to me. I had never seen him angry before, and it scared me.
I swallowed hard. “I apologize. I did not think it would take that long.”
Draven glided closer to me, his eyes piercing through the dark. “You should know better, Rosalia.” He loomed over me. Sometimes I forgot how tall he was. “You cannot do reckless things.”
