Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
It was only labeled with a date.
The date we’d been saved. The same date as we’d lost Jana.
And no matter how many hundreds of different passwords I’d tried, I couldn’t get inside.
“What were you doing, Emmalee?” I whispered into the nothingness.
Pain gripped me when I had to accept that she would never answer back.
Blowing out the strain, I slammed the lid shut and stuffed it back into the bag. When I did, my fingertips brushed over the velvet bag that I’d also stuffed at the bottom. The velvet bag that I’d found in her things. The velvet bag that had been stolen from my drawer in my bedroom.
Why had she taken it? Maybe in her obsession she’d needed the single, tangible thing that remained of that night. I just wished she would have told me rather than me thinking I’d been going crazy when I found it missing. I would have happily given it to her, but I guessed she thought she needed to sneak it since I’d never admitted to her that I had it.
Fighting off the anxiety, I stood from the chair.
There was no chance I’d be able to go back to sleep any time soon, so I crept across the room and slipped through the door I’d left open a crack in case Maci needed me, then I tiptoed to hers that rested halfway open.
I stopped at the threshold and peered inside.
A nightlight that cast a million stars onto the ceiling and walls gently lit it, and my sweet niece was tucked beneath the covers, her face turned toward me where she was lost to the abyss of sleep.
Her facial features lax, her lips parted with her soft, steady breaths.
Completely at peace.
Love sped through my being. A tidal wave that nearly knocked me from my feet.
Devotion pumped and pushed. My arms aching because the only thing I wanted to do was to wrap her up and keep her safe forever.
Is that what she would be here?
Safe?
Spirit clutching, I forced myself back toward my room. Only I stalled when I noticed one side of the double doors that led to the primary suite on the opposite end of the hall was wide open, a large wedge of light pouring out into the hall.
I stilled, my ear tuned and my pulse speeding.
I was ninety-nine percent sure Kane wasn’t in there.
I knew it with the way I was drawn. A fool unable to stop myself from seeking him out. A hook he’d somehow managed to impale in my soul dragging me downstairs.
It was dark on the first floor. The long corridor was only lit by the moon that seeped through the windows since the drapes were open wide.
I began to inch down the passageway, feet silently moving across the floor.
I didn’t know why, but I stilled at the first big window that overlooked the front.
A chill crawled across my flesh as I stood beneath the silvery rays.
Unease slithered through my senses. That sticky awareness that kept clawing at my perceptions.
The weight of evil eyes penetrating my skin.
Ugh. I was freaking myself out for no reason. I was so far outside my normal comfort zone that my imagination had gotten out of control. Letting every fear I’d ever harbored sink into my being.
Didn’t I have enough to worry about without conjuring ghosts?
And Kane…he was right there.
I could feel the force of his presence radiating from down the hall.
He wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me.
I nearly scoffed out loud at the errant thought.
As if I could trust the man.
I mean, come on, the last thing I should be doing was creeping in to get a glimpse of him.
But there was no stopping it.
The tether that bound from somewhere deep within.
Tugging.
Tugging.
Tugging.
No will in my feet except to get to him.
By the time I made it to the end of the hall, my breaths had turned short and shallow.
Dim lights burned from within the kitchen.
I peeked inside.
He was there, facing away at the window over the kitchen sink. His hands planted on the counter as he stared into the lapping shadows of the backyard.
His back bare and only wearing jeans.
His aura had diffused from the easiness he’d worn through the entire evening.
As if once the house had gone quiet, he’d been carried away by his own ghosts.
This...this was the man I’d met Friday night.
Every muscle in his body tightened when he realized I was there, the silence between us growing thick and heavy.
A weighted awareness that dragged between us, vying for a victory there was no chance we could find together.
Yet, there I stood.
Chained to the spot.
My stomach in knots as my eyes traced the intricate art that crawled over his shoulders and down his back. A forest scene with skulls hanging from the limbs of the trees.
Morbid and grim.
I’m not the dragon slayer you think I am. I’m the dragon.