She’s all I have, Nadine nearly said, but swallowed back the words just in time. Because that was not strictly true; she had her aunt. Her aunt who was miles away and probably feeling just as helpless.
But safe, the voice whispered.So safe. They can’t get to her there. Not likeyou.
“I really don’t like this, Nad. You should just take what you have and give it to the police—anypolice. This sounds really bad.”
“I think it is,” Nadine whispered. She paused, glancing at the hallway, holding her breath. Had that been a creak she heard? “I think something bad might have—”
The signal faded abruptly, lost.Shit. No reception.
She waved her phone ineffectually before giving up and leaning back against the headboard in frustration, running her hand over the asters and ivy in the posts. There were no further noises from the hall. She wondered if she’d imagined it.
Her hand drifted down the carved bedposts, before falling gently to her side. She didn’t remember falling asleep but when she opened her eyes again, the light coming in through the curtains had changed color and her stomach was growling. Nadine opened her hand and found that Noelle’s necklace had left red marks from clutching it so tightly. She let it fall to the bedspread and glanced at her phone. 5:45—so she’d been asleep for hours.
I’m surprised no one came here to wake me, she thought.
They seemed to have very little restraint when it came to anything else.
She slipped Noelle’s necklace into the pocket of her nightshirt for safekeeping, along with the scrap of vellum from behind the painting. Then she carefully folded it up, so it was resting in a neat square on top of her open suitcase.
There was still well over an hour to get ready for dinner, and for some of the members, like Cal’s mother, it would be the first time she’d seen them since the wedding.
The prospect of sitting down across from them all at once was terrifying. She had mostly packed for the outdoors, figuring her time here would be spent largely on search parties and other logistics. That hadn’t happened and now she suspected it never would.
God, they were so cold and formal. You could tell just by looking at their house that they valued appearances over anything else. Nadine wasn’t about to face down against them looking like a lost hiker. It might give them ideas.
Oops, Nadine went for a walk in the woods and never came back. Too bad.
She grimaced—they’re not murderers, idiot—and discarded several tops in quick succession, tossing them on the large bed as she dismissed each choice. Finally she settled on dark-wash jeans and an embroidered black peasant top. Aunt Nikki had told her to make sure to bring one nice top with her just in case she had to do a press conference.
Both of them had carefully danced around the reason why.
Nadine went to the vanity table and began to put up her hair, which was when she noticed a strange mark on her neck. It looked almost like a bruise.Or a bite.
The hair she had gathered up fell from slack fingers as she leaned in, gripping the wood.
It was on the side of her throat that Cal had bitten in the dream.
Was it a dream?She suddenly felt sick and scared.Was it?
The girl on the other side of the glass looked very pale, making the burst blood vessels seem that much more prominent. Her fingers trembled as she dabbed on concealer, doing her best to hide the unsightly mark.
The thought of someone sneaking into her room and doing that to her made her stomach feel tight and panicky, but even worse was the thought of her attacker studying the aftermath of their handiwork like some depraved artist. Examining her bare skin. Perhaps contemplating where they might like to mark her next.
She didn’t quite whimper, but it was close.
It wasn’t hard to conjure up the image of Cal walking through that tapestry door in the dark, stealing into her dreams like an incubus as he peeled back her clothes and—and—
(Good thing you didn’t scream)
She pushed away from the vanity and grabbed her phone, clutching it in a death grip. Wanting to call someone but not sure who. How was she supposed to face them likethis?
As freaked out as she was, hiding in her room might be worse. She couldn’t forget how Odessa and Cal had goaded her, or how Nathaniel had smiled when she ran.
Someone in this family might like the idea of her cowering too much.
They might want to see it in person.
Nadine’s hand tightened on the banister. Heeding Cal’s earlier warning, she was careful about where she placed her feet on the stairs. Paintings followed the downward slope of the staircase, illustrating various members of the family. Some of them were marked, like Benjamin Alexander Cullraven, who looked like Ben with lighter hair and a bigger nose, and a heart-stoppingly beautiful woman next to him, whose portrait was labeled Adelaide Carmody Cullraven.
