“If you're here to check up on me after last night, I can assure you, your brother and I didnothave sex.”
Dianna's cheeks bloom with color as she stares at me, wide-eyed. I hold up three fingers while two remain curled around the cereal bar, chuckling sarcastically. “Or was consummation part of the deal in exchange for my freedom? Although it's not really freedom I have to look forward to, is it? I've already signed my name away. For all I know, we’re halfway across the world.”
Dianna is frozen in her shock, only her lips moving to mutter, “You're in Bitterroot Valley, Sophie. He didn't take you out of the country.”
“Oh, wow! Now you tell me!” I chuckle again, rolling my eyes. “What does it matter? We're surrounded by wilderness. I wouldn't even know which direction to run in.”
“North,” Dianna says calmly, pointing at the kitchen window. “Hamilton is north of this area.”
A frown flits past my face, but I'm still wary of the woman, unable to understand why she's telling me this now. Her forced sweetness is unnerving, and I don't trust her.
“Okay. So why are you telling me this now? It's too late.”
Dianna sighs, her eyes dropping and her shoulders slouching bashfully. “Because I don't agree with what Damian did to you. It wasn't supposed to be like this. He was supposed to talk to you, and—”
“Talk?!” I exclaim bitterly, taking another bite of my cereal bar. “I wouldn't have agreed to this if he were the last man on earth!”
Dianna frowns. “You wouldn't? Why?”
I take a deep breath as I swallow. “You wouldn't understand. I'm not telling you. Just like you're not telling me what this is all about. Why did I need to marry him?”
Dianna sighs as she lowers her gaze again. “It's not my place to tell you, Sophie. I can tell you about our traditions, about the necessity of it all, but it's not my place. Damian needs to tell you this.”
“I'm not talking to him,” I snap with an indifferent huff. “I don't wanna talk to him. I just wanna understand why I've been forced to marry him. Why me?” my voice cracks withdesperation, prompting Dianna to look up with an apology in her blue eyes. She places her hand on the table, near me, as if reaching out an olive branch of comfort.
I wish I could take it, but I don't trust her. I don't trust any of them. I just want to hear that I'm not crazy, that my mind didn't make up what I saw that night in Hamilton. But Dianna has said nothing about it, and it leaves me confused. Shouldn’t she be the one trying to convince me that what I saw was real? Isn’t that why she’s here?
Because her brother failed to convince me.
It’s my denial that’s volatile, and now I’m left questioning myself.
Did I make that all up? Did I imagine Damian turning into a monster?
“Because…” Dianna begins with a painful sigh. “The valley is dying, Sophie.”
“What do you mean, it's dying?”
Dianna takes a deep breath, as if swallowing her words, as if she's said too much. She moves her hand to the breakfast plate and pushes it toward me.
“Please eat, Sophie. You may not trust me, and you have every reason not to, but I care about your well-being.”
“I'm not hungry,” I murmur, and take the last bite of the cereal bar.
As I'm chewing, I see the light in Dianna's eyes flickering, her pupils dilating for a few seconds while she remains quiet, almost stunned, before those eyes return to normal. Almost as if she entered a trance, but it doesn't last long, and when she snaps out of it, she lifts her eyes to mine as she rises to her feet.
“I'm sorry, I must go,” she says with a curt nod.
“Er—okay,” I respond in confusion, watching her leave the cabin through the front door.
What was that?
A small flicker of something in my chest compels me to follow her outside, through the door that's now unlocked. The sun greets me with a warmth and brightness that has me closing my eyes to bask in my freedom for a small moment, and when I open my eyes, I'm met with the view of the vast wilderness in front of me.
Pine trees and firs spread out for miles, ascending the mountain from the bottom of the valley. The gushing water of the river sets a serene tone to the surroundings, and for a brief moment, I allow myself to appreciate the beauty of this place. Even with the cabin near the river being so isolated, the only one that's visible from where I stand, there's a certain calmness I feel settling into my bones.
That faint tingle beneath the surface of my skin remains, warm but not alarming, though still foreign. I look down at my palms, and I must be imagining my veins changing color, like the heat is taking physical form and materializing in a gentle shade of red.
My heart is thundering now as panic sets in, the strangeness of it all frightening me in a way that doesn't feel normal. I take a deep breath as I look away from my palms, lifting my head just in time to see Damian walking out of the forest.
