Chapter 94

Abby

It snowed in Blackridge the night after we came down from Aldric’s cabin.

Not much. Just enough to dust the dark stone of Vincent’s house and turn the edge of the lake white, so that by morning the whole valley looked like someone had drawn it in pencil and forgotten to finish.

I watched it from the kitchen window with both hands around a mug of tea I wasn’t drinking.

I had slept, but badly. All night, in my dreams, I heard Aldric’s voice again, rough from years of not using it. The way he had said Seraphina’s name, as if it still cost him something. The way he had looked at my necklace and then at me, and then at Kade standing behind me.

I took her for granted.

Diana stirred at the memory. She had been quiet since the mountain, turning something