Chapter 164

Abby

I woke late, and alone.

The light through the curtains was already high and white. Kade’s side of the bed was cold. There was a note on his pillow, in his square, impatient handwriting. Let you sleep. Office till noon. Eat something.

I lay there for a while with the note in my hand.

I hadn’t slept properly since the hut. Every time I closed my eyes, I felt the air in the hut go tight again, and that cold breath at the back of my neck, as if somebody had opened a door behind me and stood there. I had told myself a hundred times that Imogen was right, that it had only been a few seconds, that she might have seen nothing at all. I didn’t believe it. I lay in Kade’s bed and listened for her in every creak of the old house.

Somewhere toward dawn I must have fallen asleep. Now it was nearly eleven.

Ivy came in without knocking, the way she did, with a pitcher of hot water and an armful of linen, and stopped when she saw me.

“You