Book One: Chapter 32

“That’s where you are wrong,” Cecilia said, running the fingers of her hand across the top of his. “Everyone who has lived here has been given the nymph’s gift, but you are different than they were. There’s a part of you that has been broken, damaged in such a way that you don’t fit in anywhere else. You’re a mismatched puzzle piece-someone put you in the box, but you make a crooked fit.” She waved her hand back at the house. “This place is a crooked puzzle piece in the fabric of the universe. Even if a piece is found that fits here, the edges will never line up quite right.

“Your edges are crooked. I imagine it’s what Naia saw in you. You don’t fit in with the rest of the universe like you do here. You’ve already seen things that most men never will, experienced sensations outside of the human experience. Naia’s magic may have snared you, but the person you are is what makes you special.”

Mike shrugged, unsure what to say. “I’m just trying to do right by the monsters he