These anxious thoughts pushed me back in my clothes. Afterward, I returned to his side while he slept under the blanket beside the fire, watching the snow fall onto the beach through the cave’s opening, waiting for him to wake.
There was a possibility that this stranger could open his eyes, and darkness would ignite within them. The chance of him being a witch hunter who’d come here to hang us from trees like ornaments in Town Square crossed my mind, too.
This thought made me uneasy, and I looked him over to see if there was an indication of trouble outlining his silhouette.
There wasn’t.
His landscape was a blank page awaiting a new story to unfold.
This man was an adventure. Quite possibly a dangerous one.
With that, a prickle of excitement blossomed down my spine.
Either way, the night was coming, and I couldn’t stay to find out for sure. If I didn’t return to the cottage before dark, Ivy would break the rules and leave the house after curfew to look for me.
I left water bottles at his side and pulled the blanket tightly around him.
It was up to him to make it through the night.
And I wondered if, on this night, it would be him that the Shadows would choose.
CHAPTER 11
ADORA
November 18, 2020
71 days until the Crimson Eclipse
A secret lived within me.
Neither Fable nor Ivy could see it in my expression, in my walk, or heard it in my voice when I’d returned home. Though, my lips tingled with a faint smile whenever they weren’t looking.
I never had anything that was all my own. So, while Ivy sat behind the register, every stitch from the sewing machine left a bead of my secret woven within the fabric.
The argument we’d had must have driven Ivy to come into the shop to help with inventory so I could get ahead on dresses.
Both of my sisters had always worked part-time, but since the Panic had started, I hadn’t been able to pay them. Dad was without a job, and every dime was allocated to managing the household.
And Ivy hadn’t been the same since the news of Cyrus and me. While my mind had been occupied with the stranger tucked away in a cave, I still noticed how closed-off she had become in such a short amount of time. It was to be expected, I was sure. I’d made it my life’s purpose to kill Kane and break Mom’s spell, and Ivy had fallen in love.
I wondered if our desires were reversed, if a man could ever love me in the way she loved him. Not only desire me, lust after me, or spend their days fantasizing about me, but truly love me.
The store was quiet, no customers had come.
Ivy appeared in the doorway of my office.
“In case you hadn’t heard, the autopsy came back,” she said. “They’re saying Mrs. Madder’s death is consistent with the others.” A few more awkward seconds passed, then, “I’m heading out. Inventory’s done, and it’s my shift to watch over everyone tonight. I want to try and get a few hours of sleep before nightfall.”
I let my foot off the pedal and reached around the sewing machine to raise the needle. The top half of Mrs. Cantini’s dress fell into my lap, and I held it out in front of me, imagining my future mother-in-law wearing it. My smile faded.
“I’m finished,” I said to her, but it felt as if I was saying it to myself, too. Everything I’d worked so hard for was slipping away from me.
I was done with the evil that lurked within me.
Done with the Shadows killing people in my hometown.
Done with being alone in the fight for Mom.
