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I’m glad he’s moving to Manhattan to be closer to me. It’ll be nice to get to know my biological grandfather. DNA testing has proved it because while Cora assured Spencer he was Ava’s father while she’d been trapped in that chamber, I didn’t trust her not to say anything in an effort to escape and I wanted irrefutable proof.
It’s heartless, how Cora robbed him of being Ava’s father yet kept him around. He’s told me how they had a secret affair for years following my mom’s eighth birthday and I can’t believe Cora played on his feelings for her. A small part of me is relieved he’s free of her now.
He could’ve walked away from me and washed his hands of our familial mess, but he’s committed to deepening our tenuous bond and I’m grateful. It makes me feel less alone in my topsy-turvy world.
I intend to bestow a sizeable chunk of the money from Arcania’s sale to him. He deserves it after all he’s done for me.
But I have to be careful.
I can’t afford to lower my guard while spending time with Spencer.
I can never tell him how I tampered with the door to the chamber to ensure it couldn’t be opened once the tide started coming in, ensuring Cora wouldn’t live.
How her precious compass emblazoned on that door handle also signifies revenge and I made sure Cora got her comeuppance for brutally killing my mother.
How from the minute Spencer told me about his plan to lure Cora to the tunnel’s chamber and scare her into divulging the truth, I’d known I couldn’t settle for anything less than getting rid of my twisted grandmother.
Ironic that Cora ultimately got her wish.
I’m now the heir to Arcania.
And I can’t wait to escape its tainted walls.
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If you enjoyed THE RETREAT, you’ll loveBANISH.
Alyssa Wood hasone week to annihilate her enemy and save her soul.
After her ex-boyfriend dies and her mom’s alcoholism sparks yet another psychotic episode, Alyssa flees her small hometown of Broadwater and heads to New York City to stay with her bohemian aunt—a Wicca High Priestess.
Alyssa revels in the anonymity of a big city and her new life. Her grades improve, she makes a good friend, and meets a new guy, the sexy geek Ronan, a saxophonist who prefers jazz to pop. But her newfound peace is obliterated when she glimpses a dead body in one of Ronan’s music clips—and she’s the only one who can see it. Worse, Alyssa recognises the body that has been murdered a week into the future.
Alyssa doesn’t believe in the supernatural, despite her family’s Wicca background. But as the secrets start to unravel, evil is closer than she thinks and she’s powerless to stop the inevitable…
PROLOGUE
Time to putthe past to rest.
I edged towards the door leading to freedom and clasped the knife, its weight reassuring in my hand. Ignoring the pain in my palm where it had accidentally sliced as I’d bolted to escape, I focused on the kitchen doorway and waited. Waited for him to come after me.
A shadow fell across the doorway and using both hands I raised the knife, holding it high and extended, like a Samurai.
He stopped at the kitchen door, malevolence radiating off him. He raised a finger and drew it across his throat in a slow, deliberate slit. “You’re dead.”
He stepped into the kitchen, the absence of emotion in his icy glare almost as terrifying as the slow curling and unfurling of his fingers. I had no doubt those fingers would end up wrapped around my throat.
“Give me the knife, bitch.”
The insult didn’t freak me out as much as the uncanny timbre of his voice; how much he sounded like my dead ex. Wish I’d noticed the resemblance sooner. Would have saved me the hassle of carving up his ass. For there was one thing I was sure of: I’d managed to endure this god-awful week so far, no way would I go down without a fight.
My trembling fingers convulsed around the knife, gripping the handle tighter as I lowered it to chest level. “Make me.”
The eyes of the guy I’d once trusted glowed with hatred. A second before he lunged at me.
I feinted to the right, slammed my hip against the sink and cried out in pain.
