She sits me down and takes my hands and stares into my eyes.
“Finn is alive,” I say slowly, and the words the words the words.
She nods.
“But he was dead.”
She nods again.
“The hooded boy I kept seeing… all my life… it’s been Dare’s brother all along, and his brother is dead.”
Sabine nods.
I’m numb, I’m confused, and I’m so so tired of being this way. I tell her and she looks away, then back into my eyes.
“I’ll get you some tea.”
“I don’t want your tea.”
My voice is rigid and sharp. “I feel like I’m a pawn, and I’m being played.”
“Always trust your instincts, girl,” she tells me throatily.
And
Suddenly
Suddenly,
I feel the danger.
It laps around me, igniting in the air and crackling in my hair and Sabine’s eyes are as cold as death and she’s the danger.
My instincts are on fire, crackling, popping, snapping, and my eyes scan the room, quick, quick, quicker. My gaze comes to rest on something
Something
Something.
A photo, sticking out of a drawer. Just the corner, just the edge, but I’m drawn to it.
It’s important.
I know it.
I lunge to it, I grab it, I pull it out and peer at it.
And it’s Olivia.
And her eyes
Her eyes
Her eyes.
Black as night, black as coal,
Black as Sabine’s.