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The look we share is heavy, words unspoken passing between us before I turn and break it, stepping back into Sera’s room.
She stirs, a small whimper escaping her lips.
My presence at her side seems to calm her, and I brush her hair back and hum.
“You’re alright, calamity,” I whisper.
Even if you’re going to bring this estate down on our heads.
“Do you think this is healthy for you?” Kyrin asks from behind me, and I turn to find him in nothing but sweatpants, leaning against the door frame.
“Probably not, but what’s it matter at this point?”
He shrugs. “Matters to the two of us.”
Sera reaches up in her sleep, holding my hand to the side of her face, and I marvel at her.
“It’s probably not healthy for her, either,” he adds.
“The copious amounts of liquor she downs before bed aren’t healthy for her, either.”
“Neither are we,” he replies.
“On that, we agree.”
“Are we really going to let this house dictate our lives?” he asks, coming to the end of the bed and resting a hand on the metal footer, his knuckles whitening from the force.
“We have thus far, have we not?”
“Yes,” he replies, his gaze seeming far away, even though he’s looking right at me. “It just feels wrong… to ruin her like this.”
“What if she’s the one to ruin us?”
“An even worse outcome,” he tosses back. “We should just let her go.”
As if on command, the house shifts, wind from outside bearing down on it, and the sound of it through the chimneys reminds me of a screaming banshee.
“We can’t.”
He looks around, his eyes scanning the room. “I see that.”
“It’s already begun,” I whisper, plucking my hand from Seraphine’s to stand.
Kyrin scoffs and exits.
I retake my stance at the window, watching the snow drift down over Lenore as she dances around the fountain in the front drive, capturing each flake on her tongue, the happiest I’ve seen her in years.
“You always did love when it snowed.”
19
DANCING WITH DANGER
Before: Lenore
“Just tell him and be done with it,” Charles whispers as my hand wraps around the closet’s door handle.
He pulled me in here when he saw me pass. God only knows how long he’d been hiding.
