My skin prickles. “Am I safe?” I huff a nervous laugh. “You tell me.”
“I’ve been worried some harm might come to you. After I first saw you, for days I?—”
“Wait, what?” I freeze. “I just got here.”
The door crashes open. Wind howls through the room, snuffing out candles in one violent gust.
A woman’s shriek shatters the darkness. “Beware!”
Chapter
Seven
Ibarely have time to flinch before a figure lurches through the doorway, snatches Callum’s collar, and jerks him away with startling strength.
“No!” she shrieks. Everything happens too fast. She shifts, draws back?—
Oh, crap.She’s going tohitme. I shrink into the chair but there’s nowhere to go.
Callum shouts for her to stop. To wait. Her gaze snaps to him, locking tight. Finally, she lowers her arm.
“I told you I could do it,” she says, voice cold.
Callum exhales sharply. “But you didn’t. It’s not right, Donag.”
Donag. The name echoes in my mind, strange and sharp.
“Who are you?” she demands, leaning over me.
I tuck my chin, pressing deeper into my seat. “Who am I? Who areyou?”
Callum moves toward us, but Donag’s body brackets mine, blocking him. She clicks her tongue as she studies me.Up close, she’s younger than I thought. Thirty-five, forty at most.
Her eyes narrow. “Answer me,” she snarls.
A thin blade of fear slides between my ribs. My mind scrambles for some version of reality where this makes sense.
I got lost. I passed out.
This should be fixable. But it’s not. Because this woman is looking at me like she’d skewer me if she could.
Callum tries again, but Donag angles her body like she’s daring him to push past. The firelight casts wild shadows across her face. “Who are you?” she demands again.
My pulse kicks into a gallop. “I’m the person who’s leaving.”
I go to button my sweater—only to realize it’s gone.
Everything in me goes still.
My head whips to Callum. “Where’s my sweater?”
He gestures to the hearth, where it hangs by the fire, drying.
“You were soaked through—” he begins.
But before he can finish, Donag whirls from me, snatches it, and hurls it into the flames.
“No!” But it’s too late. There’s a smokywhooshas flames swallow it whole. “That was my only sweater!”
