Chase’s mouth twitches. “Noted. Anyway, we found where she’s staying, and she’s not alone.”
“Where?” Valen demands. “Who?”
“There’s a motel twenty minutes outside of town. The group she had with her checked in under fake names, but they’re gone now. And she left something behind.”
“What?”
Chase’s expression sours. “You need to see it for yourself.”
With a heavy heart but a determination to fight, we follow Chase to the motel.
It’s not quitewhat I’d consider a murder motel, but it’s not far off.
It’s dingy, depressing, and smells faintly of mildew and stale cigarettes.
On the small end table is a drawing of our tree, decorated with old cigarette butts like a dark art installation.
The words, written in her creepily elegant script, say:Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. When the family tree crumbles, in Mother you must trust.
“Jesus,” Valen mutters.
Something inside me fractures. Not breaks—I’ve been broken before, and this isn’t that.
This is smaller.
Sharper.
Like a hairline crack in glass that you know will eventually shatter.
This is rage.
She was here. Twenty minutes from my home, my friends, my life. She slept in this bed. Touched these walls. Drew our tree with her twisted hands and decorated it with ash.
“She’s playing games.” Roman curses.
“But why?” Valen shouts. “Why go to the diner if she knew we’d be watching for her? Why ask Joey at the front desk if he knew Clover?”
“Because she wants us to know she’s here,” Grant says from the doorway. He looks exhausted.
“But why?” The word rips out of me. “What does she actually want? She has to know this isn’t going to end well for her, right?”
Grant’s jaw tightens. “She’s delusional, Clover. She wants what she’s always wanted—to control you both while exacting her revenge.”
Valen meets my eyes, and his are cold and hard. He’s ready to burn the world to the ground for those he loves, and I’m ready to hand him the match.
“She doesn’t see you as people,” Grant continues. “She sees you as property that was stolen from her, and she’s become desperate. Her army is fleeing, but she won’t stop until she takes back what she lost or destroys it so no one else can have it either.”
His words land like stones in my chest. Property. Not a person, but a thing. If she can’t have us, she’ll destroy us. She’s a fucking toddler throwing a tantrum with our lives.
Every time I felt watched, every package on my doorstep, every night I slept with one foot on the floor. That’s what she wanted. I was just a piece on her chessboard while I had no idea there was a game in play in the first place.
Well, fuck that. Checkmate, bitch. I’m not your pawn anymore.
“I won’t play her stupid games,” I say through clenched teeth.
Valen places a heavy hand on my shoulder. “Let’s get you out of here.”
“Wait.” Joey holds up a shaky hand from the doorway. He’s a young kid, just out of high school. He’s working here to start college in January. I know his mother, his little sister, and all four of his grandparents. “The lady— She said something.”
