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My nipples bead beneath my robe as a fresh wave of adrenaline rinses through me like an open tap.

I’m too scared to move; my feet feel as though the wooden floorboards beneath them have grown roots, winding around my ankles and securing me to the house.

“Calamity,” a male voice whispers, his overwhelming presence coming down on me like a ton of bricks.

“Mr. Valdrich,” I whisper.

“You know nothing of me,” he growls, his voice striking fear through my spine like I’ve never felt before, his teeth gnashing by my ear. “Yet you speak my name as if you do.”

I straighten.

“I’m sorry.” I hate my pleading voice. I hate hearing it return after years of rebuilding myself in the wake of what was done to me, in the wake of who I was before.

“I told him you were chaos. I told him you didn’t belong here.”

Told who?

“Kyrin?” I ask.

“Not Kyrin.” His dark tone fills my ear as I feel lips brush the outer shell.

Not Kyrin? Then who?

“You need to leave this place, or you’ll become its next victim.”

Why does everyone speak about this house like it’s alive?

It’s unsettling.

“You said nothing would hurt me while I was here. You said I was safe.”

A dark, spiced scent invades my nose, and I close my eyes, breathing it in and trying not to react viscerally. “I never said you’d be safe.”

I whimper. “Please, let me go back to bed. I’ll stay in my room.”

“Leave.”

“I can’t. I need this job. I need… this.”

“It’s unsafe to need anything from Ironwood Estate and its demons, lest they provide.”

I don’t even try to riddle that out. Turning on my heel, I bolt out the door, stumbling and nearly falling in the hall when the runner lifts under my hurried footsteps. My candle goes flying and hits a wall. The brass candle holder clunks off to an unseen place.

“Remember this, calamity!” His voice booms from behind me. “You chose this fate.”

As I make my way back down the stairs, bouncing off walls in the darkness, a feeling settles in my chest that screams I don’t know what I just did by admitting I don’t want to leave, but a feeling winding in my gut says I’m about to find out.

14

LITTLE CUTS

SERAPHINE

"That's... You're living in a movie," Aria says as I hand a folder to her across my desk.

"What do you make of this?"

She sets down her coffee, and I watch her have the same visceral reaction I had to the folder. “What is this?"