I froze.
“Silas?” I called out—the only other person who had a key, outside of the church ladies…but I’d just left them. “That you? Miss Evers…?”
No answer.
I swallowed hard. Up until now, that flash of white had set me at ease—my angel, with her long brown hair and white dress, glowing, watching over me. She was there in my worst time of need, both times I’d been in danger, and she’d been looking on when I’d confronted Abel.
But if that was her…why was she here now?
And was she still so comforting now that I knew she was less of an angel and more of a ghost?
The silence pressed in, heavy with a near-tangible weight. I set toward the parsonage hallway, taking slow steps, wondering if I was making a mistake…if I should just turn right back around and go through the double doors, to my waiting car. I reached into my pocket to grab my keys, nesting them between my knuckles like claws.
I never thought I’d have to do this here, of all places—but I guess I should’ve remembered that small towns had their own kinds of danger.
The hallway stretched ahead of me, dark and quiet and still. I took one step forward, then another. A faint creak echoed beneath my sneakers, rainwater squelching with every move. It would have been funny if I wasn’t suddenly petrified…but as it was, I didn’t have the luxury of laughing.
It felt like the church was holding its breath.
Or maybe that was just me.
The door to the parsonage was cracked open, just as Silas had left it when he’d emptied it out to move his meager collection of furniture over to 222 Main. The place was empty now, nothing but a spare room for church storage. I glanced up at the hexafoil carved into the threshold overhead as I carefully pushed the door open, reaching up to clutch the matching wooden amulet around my neck?—
And I took a sudden, sharp gasp as I stepped inside, eyes wide.
She was standing in the window, looking out toward thegravel lot behind the church. Her back was to me…but she was unmistakeable. Silas had shown me pictures after we’d shared our stories of the angel, and this…
…this was Amelia Trent.
I swallowed hard, frozen in place. Amelia didn’t move. Her hair hung down her back, long and unbound, incredibly straight…rippling like it caught a breeze that didn’t exist. The white dress she wore, always unclear before, made sense now.
It was her wedding gown…the same one that Willow had worn down the aisle last year.
The same one that Silas had kept for over a decade.
This wasn’t a monster, nor was it an angel. She was awoman. A woman who’d loved the same man I’d fallen so hard for. A woman who’d suffered. A woman who’d died.
And for some reason, she was standing in front of me.
“Amelia?” I said, voice quiet and breathless.
She turned her head just slightly, her face now visible in profile. She was pale, gaunt, one hand splayed wide against the window. Outside, lightning cracked low on the horizon, illuminating the window just enough for me to see the outline of that hand, as real as any living person.
“What are you looking at?” I asked, slowly crossing the room. “What are you?—”
That’s when I heard the noise out in the sanctuary: a door creaking open and thudding shut again.
Amelia’s eyes found mine, terrifyingly blind with a shroud of death…and then they darted toward the door out to the gravel lot.
“Go,” she rasped, and it was like that voice filled me with the heavenly strength I needed torun.
My feet moved before my mind caught up, the keys still clenched in my fist as I bolted for the door. It was deadbolted and chained from the inside, and I couldn’t work fast enough to get them undone…but then glowing, skeletal hands seemed tofind mine, helping me stay steady, unlocking the door. I flung the door open and staggered out into the pouring rain, lightning flashing again in the early dusk light. Nobody out here. I was safe.
But when I looked back at the window, Amelia was still there—watching.
And there was someone behind her.
I had two options: I could run around the church to the front lot to get my car, or I could cut through the woods back home. I would be drenched when I got there…but it was a short walk with a clear path, and I was fast. If I went around front, there was a good chance whoever was inside would meet me there, do whatever they’d planned, but if I went through the woods…
