Beside me, Eleanor winces.
Winnie covers her mouth with her hands. “Oh no, he somehow made itworse.”
She looks over at me, and something tells me I need to take a closer look at that sculpture.
I rush over just as Celeste bends down to examine the plinth. “Um, this sculpture is calledArabella.”
“Is that supposed to be you?” Alyra asks me.
My mouth falls open. Who would create a horrific sculpture and name it after me?
Is this a sick joke?
Gideon glides over to me, a blood cocktail resting casually in his fingers.
“Do you like it?” he asks.
“Do I…” Realisation dawns as I take in his expectant smile. “Youmade this?”
“Of course! Alaric helped me. Well, he tried to help, but I told him I had to do it myself.” Gideon gestures to the abomination behind him. “I wanted to show you how I feel about you, that even though one hundred and fifty years have passed, I still remember every curve of your body—”
“Clearly you don’t, because my curves don’t resemble the Elephant Man!”
His smile freezes on his pouty lips.
“I can’t believe this. You thought putting an ugly sculpture of my naked form in the garden of the estate where I live wouldwin me back?” I glare at him. “You’re even more clueless than I thought. I don’t want you back.”
Gideon’s face freezes. “You still have feelings for me. I can tell. Why else would you help me?”
“Oh, I havefeelings. But I won’t repeat them in polite company,” I hiss. “Why do you think I want to help you keep this place open? Why did I buy a house in Sanctus in the first place? Because you promised discretion. You promisedsafety. I don’t want to be reminded of what I had and lost because of you. I don’t want this—” I gesture at the monstrous effigy. “Reminding people that I used to dance naked and sell my body for money. I want you to stop trying to win me back and accept my eternal hatred like a man.” I whirl on my heel and storm away.
“Arabella, wait!”
My friends call after me, too, but I ignore them. I cross the babbling stream and rush up the winding path towards my house as fast as my Louboutins will carry me.
“Arabella!” Celeste jogs up alongside me, her short brown bob with the red streaks flying around her face, and her cupcake earrings jangling as her dress rides up over her ample breasts.
I don’t slow down. “How come you’re not puffing?”
“You think that because I run a bakery and eat raw cookie dough every day, I’m not in shape?” Celeste leaps in front of me, forcing me to stop so I don’t plough into her. She thrusts her hands on her hips. “You know I run in the woods near the Old Mill most days. What I want to know is, why are you so upset?”
“Wouldn’t you be upset if someone created a hideous naked statue of you and put it up for the whole neighbourhood to see?”
“Only if they were someone I cared about.”
“I don’tcareabout Gideon. I hate everything about him, from his stupid face and his ridiculous smile to that suit he’s wearing and—” Something behind Celeste’s head catches my eye. I dart around her and step onto the path that leads to the front door of my house.
“Arabella, what is that?”
But I can’t tell her. Because I haveno ideawhy there is a beheaded songbird nailed to my brand-new front door, with a message beneath, scrawled in what looks suspiciously like blood, that says:
MINE.
24
Arabella
Then
