Page 7

6

Bo

The officer drops us off at a beautiful home that did not exist in Monster territory seventeen years ago.

Most houses in this area of the lake were smaller with a handful of exceptions.

One mansion in particular stands out in my mind, but I push those memories away as Levi leads me toward the front door.

“I ask that you step quietly. My mate is sleeping. And she’s pregnant, so she needs as much rest as she can get.”

“Yes, sir,” I mumble, still feeling unsteady.

Not from any weakness in my body.

But because of the dismissal I just received from Georgie.

Georgiana.

After the first shock, she seemed almost angry to see me.

Seventeen years.

That length of time continues to blink like a strobe light in my mind’s eye.

I could see the time on Georgiana.

The siren is still beautiful, but her face is sharper, with a few lines around her eyes and mouth that she didn’t previously possess.

She didn’t look for me .

I rub the aching hole in my chest. A crater left by the only being I’d thought cared for me.

The one I had given up so much of my life for.

“Are you hungry?” Levi’s low voice pulls me out of my turmoil of thoughts.

“No. Thank you,” I respond at the same level.

The thought of food makes me nauseous.

He nods and waves me down a long hallway, lined on one side with massive windows.

The glass is dark now, but I suspect, in the daytime, it would show off a sprawling view of the forest.

“You can stay here.” He opens a door to a bedroom.

“Sleep. We can talk more in the morning.”

Talk.

Ha. What words can be said to bring back the time I lost?

Still, I’ve never been good at projecting my dark emotions onto the undeserving.

Levi Abadi has been nothing but gracious, opening his home to me.

“Thank you.” I nod numbly.

“Sleep would be good.”

At least it would be if I thought I could get any.

But once I’m alone in the largest bedroom I’ve ever seen, perching on a mattress that could easily fit three of me—which is no easy feat—my thoughts only grow louder.

Seventeen years.

“What happened to you was unfortunate. I’m glad you came out unscathed . ”

I have nothing.

I have no one.

All because I went into that house to take something.

All because of him .

My mind latches on to the memory.

The aristocratic voice laying out the task, as if it would be simple to achieve.

Go in. Find the item.

Leave and deliver it.

Then Georgiana would be free of his influence.

But that wasn’t how it went at all.

Did he know what would happen to me?

Did he send me on that errand as a sick joke?

Is he still here?

I realize I have nothing else in my life.

Nothing but an undeniable urge to take out all this pain and rage and devastation on the monster who sent me to my fate.

A beast who might very well still live in Folk Haven.

I shove off the bed, and on silent feet, I stalk out of the house.

With jerky movements, I strip the clothes from my body, knowing I’ll need all my brute strength to face him—and even then, I probably won’t live through this. I don’t care.