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My pulse quickened as something Henrietta had told me about the mansion slipped back into my thoughts.

She mentioned she’d never experienced anything strange herself, but somehow tenant after tenant had found a reason to get the hell out of this house. At the time, I dismissed most of the stories as Hallowridge gossip mixed with grown people scaring themselves in a big old mansion.

Sitting there with the imprint of an impossible touch still burning against my back, the stories suddenly weren’t quite as funny.

Is this why nobody could stay here?

I swallowed and looked around again. “Caspian?”

Saying his name aloud made my stomach tighten for an entirely different reason.

Silence.

No voice answered.

Nothing moved.

There was only the vast bedroom, the quiet shadows, and Caspian’s photograph sitting on the dresser.

I remained still for several more seconds, caught somewhere between fear and a curiosity I didn’t know what to do with. Because as unsettling as the last few minutes had been, some irrational part of me wasn’t afraid that whatever was in that room wanted to hurt me; I was more afraid of what it would mean if I wasn’t imagining it.

Finally, I let out a shaky breath and pressed a hand against my racing heart.

“You’re losing your damn mind, Lakelyn. Get yourself together.”

I stood, smoothed my sweater, and rubbed beneath my eyes until my vision cleared.

Down the hallway, Willow’s laughter carried over the TV, followed by Kaidence yelling something about a dinosaur battle.

The familiar sounds steadied me… a little.

My family and I were safe, and I wasn’t about to run through the mansion announcing that a mattress had moved and an invisible hand might have touched me when I couldn’t prove either thing had happened.

Not yet.

But I damn sure wasn’t brushing it off as easily as I had five minutes ago.

I turned toward the door, gave Caspian’s photograph one final look, and swallowed the knot still lodged in my throat.

“I miss you, baby,” I whispered.

I reached for the double doors. The instant my fingers curled around the brass handle, fabric rustled behind me. Then the mattress springs gave a slow, heavy groan.

The exact sound a bed makes when somebody stood up from it.

I froze.

Every muscle in my back went rigid as I tightened my hand around the knob.

Nope! I’m not doing this today… not today.

A settling mattress was one thing, but whatever the hell that was had sounded entirely too deliberate. Either way, I wasn’t sticking around long enough to figure it out. Hell, I didn’t even turn around.

I opened the door and stepped into the brightly lit hallway a little faster than I intended to.

Chapter ten

Caspian