“I have no idea.”
But now, with Ivy turning up dead? The unknown meaning of it feels all the more ominous.
“I’m not sure we should trust anything Rafe has to say,” Jude says.
“Even Reflection Rafe?”
“Especially Reflection Rafe.”
Fire pops in the grate.
Flurries continue to fall outside.
There’s no real accumulation, just a faint dusting on the ground.
“What’s going on, Jude?” I ask, turning to look at him—really look at him. “We saw what happened to them when they were pulled through the rift. Now Lainey is alive and Ivy was found in the river, seemingly intact? Meanwhile, Rafe’s ghost is haunting me in reflections.”
His eyes darken.
“And I keep dreaming about my mother, running through the woods.” I worry my bottom lip. “Mistress Bramble said I woke a great hunger.”
“That was part of her story.”
“She was looking right at me.” I pick up Simon’s journal and fiddle with the clasp. Finally, I say it. The thing I haven’t yet said out loud. Not to Jude or Twig. “And it was me chasing her.Iwas the monster.”
“Selah…”
His phone screen lights up on the coffee table. He scoops it up quickly, like he wants to hide the screen, but he’s too late. I’ve already caught a glimpse of the sender. I’ve already processed the number. The message came from the retired professor in Ohio—the same one Jude visited right before Halloween. “Why is the curse expert texting you?”
Color rises high in his cheeks as he pockets his phone. “I sent her a message.”
“About what?”
He shrugs uncomfortably.
And understanding dawns.
Lainey is back.
Possibly Rafe.
He’s worried the curse might return, too.
“Jude,” I say softly.
But he looks so troubled.
Haunted, even.
I unzip my vest and move the collar of my shirt aside, showing him my clavicle, where Seraphina’s mark once was. A symbol of my impending doom. “It’s gone.”
His eyes burn as he takes in the spot.
“And it’s not coming back,” I say.
He shoots me a crooked, sheepish smile. Then he lowers his lips to my collarbone.
Heat blooms beneath my skin.
