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I always felt like people were staring at me when I left Guttertown. Neco wasn’t totally overreacting when he said I might get jumped because some arsehole thought I was too effeminate for a man. I found the whole thing wholly ridiculous because it wasn’t like that was even contagious.

The streets of Lower Cutwart were mostly empty, just like they were supposed to be when a celebration was going on. There were a few families that weren’t invited, but they were mostly just hauling water home since all the businesses were closed.

They all passed by without even looking at me. I got it. It was a big snub not to be invited to a wedding or a name day when the whole town was there, especially when it wasn’t a mutual thing like it was with Elsbeth.

Trevils got us a lot more information than I thought possible. There were two other girls that had the attention of Barons’ and merchants’ sons in Lower Cutwart. Those were the houses Neco, and I were staking out.

The people of Lower Cutwart wanted them to marry out to get rid of them more than wanting them to have a better life. The people who weren’t invited to this particular wedding were those who’d burned bridges with the bride and groom’s family.

Probably with each other, too, because they didn’t seem to be having their own little get together. When we were kids, one of the boys broke Ronan’s charcoal. Ollie punched him in the face and Ronan ruined his life later.

Yeah, Ronan ruined his life pretty badly.

We didn’t get invited to any of his name-day celebrations or his wedding.

We threw our own party each time. None of these people were doing that.

The kid that broke Ronan’s charcoal was a bully who made a lot of enemies, so we invited everyone he shunned from his parties, even if we didn’t like them that much. It was a bonding thing.

These people weren’t doing that, so there was probably some bad blood there, too. They all just seemed like they wanted to get home and didn’t acknowledge me at all.

Which was perfectly fine by me, but that feeling I had when I left Guttertown that people were staring at me was worse than ever. The hair on the back of my neck was literally standing up, and I felt super exposed.

I hated it and wanted to leave, but I had a job to do.

The sky decided to dump rain on me. It didn’t feel like there was going to be a storm.

It had been sunny and clear all day. If the townsfolk didn’t have a barn or pavilion to move to, they’d all be on their way home.

If there had been any hint of a storm, I was guessing the Ghoul would have called this off. He still might.

There was a narrow alley between the houses. I had a very bad feeling, so I was just going to duck into the alley, peek into the window to make sure the Ghoul wasn’t inside, and find Neco. I trusted my gut. This was where the Ghoul would be.

Their neighbor went into their house with water, so clearly, I thought he might not be here yet or they’d look more tense. I peeked into their window from the shadows of the alley. They were all sitting down to eat.

Lightning lit up the alley and I jumped when I realized I wasn’t alone. This was the Ghoul. He was dressed too nice to not be related to the Barons, but his clothes were ill fitting and dirty.

Before I could run, he slammed me against the wall and had his blade to my throat.

“Why are you following me?” he demanded. “You must be really stupid.”

Clearly, because I was alone in an alley with a serial killer. He’d never taken on Guttertown before, so I wasn’t going to stand there and let him kill me.

Fuck that.