Page 67

“You remember what she likes already.” Rafe muttered.

I stood still while the vendor moved away. Voices. Tapes. Terror. My past. “I remember everything.”

The market breathed around me.

Diesel.

Rainwater.

Something rotting.

“Anything else?” Rafe asked.

“Tea.”

“The good one?”

“Yes.”

Rafe shifted ahead and I followed, moving deeper into the market. Three rows down, I slowed.

Earth.

Wet wood.

Then—

Smoke.

The scent cut sharply through everything else.

Cloves.

Rain trapped in wool.

Nyssa flinching beside the cracked sitting room window.

Her breath catching.

I stopped moving.

“Anything else?” Rafe asked quietly.

The smell lingered at the edge of a memory. “No.”

He gathered the tea and the fruit, then led me out. The drive back was quiet. The kind that followed me all the way home. I didn’t lift my head until we turned into the driveway, only then did I stir. Vivienne and Guild would be long gone. What repercussions did they leave behind?

I reached the bag beside me as the car came to a stop outside the house. I climbed out with the bag in hand, climbed the stairs and entered the house.

The basement waited.

My past along with it.

I turned instead and made my way to the kitchen.

“Mrs. Reid.” I murmured catching movement at my right.

“Mr. Voss.”