Chapter 9

‘You should be.’

As if it wasn’t already difficult enough to sleep on the first night in an unfamiliar bed, Iris’s words echoed around my mind on repeat until sunrise, keeping me frustratingly wide awake.

I don’t think I got a wink of rest, and after several hours of laying with my eyes tightly shut trying to force sleep to come, I gave up and put my headphones in. I hoped that the music would drown out the noise in my head, but it didn’t. All I could think about was what the hell she’d meant. Had it been a threat? A warning? Utter nonsense from a woman on the precipice of insanity?

Elijah, of course, believed it was the latter. At least, in so much as he felt we shouldn’t take it too seriously. He’d never outright say Iris was insane. He’s way too polite for that.

I'd still been standing in the hall, staring wide-eyed at the door that Iris had disappeared through just moments before, when he’d come down to join me. Yet, when I practically shrieked at him th