Page 108 of The Sinner's Bargain

I didn’t realize I was edging back until Thoran had slipped an arm around my middle.

“Cyrus, lower your voice.”

But Cyrus wasn’t listening. “Was it a man or a woman?”

My heart was thumping against my chest even as I reminded myself Thoran was there. “I ... I didn’t see—”

“What do you remember?”

“Lower your fucking voice, Cyrus!” Thoran snarled, pushing himself between me and his guard.

The fury in Cyrus’s features softened as he realized and he dropped his gaze. “Forgive me.”

I dampened my lips. “I think the first person was a woman. I think I remember her dress. It was long and black. Maybe gray. I thought it was strange because I hadn’t seen another woman here. The other one was definitely male.”

The two men stared hard at each other before Cyrus spoke, but to Thoran.

“It could have been the fog. It can play tricks on the eyes. The men are always reporting figures they thought they saw in the mist.”

“But I heard him,” I whispered. “He was saying my name.”

There was a moment longer where neither spoke. This time it was Thoran who made the guess.

“Could it have been a guard?”

Cyrus shrugged. “Perhaps. I’ll ask if anyone was in the gardens yesterday, and I’ll check the cameras and see who was on patrol.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell them the voice hadn’t been calling for Katie Smith, but my name. My real name. But it stayed trapped in my throat.

We continued forward. Thoran talked about the lake and the grounds. He pointed in the direction of the gardens far in the distance. I followed his pointing finger to the high wall of overgrown brush I’d mistaken for the forest surrounding the house. But studying it with Thoran drawing the connecting lines, I saw how it just extended enough to appear as if it were part of the grounds while staying completely hidden with the wilderness.

I didn’t recognize anything.

After my blind race through the ruins of that horrible place, it had been too dark to see anything. My only goal was to put as much distance between me and the thing in there as possible.

“I don’t think you have to worry about me going back to that place,” I assured both men. “It was terrifying and I never want to go back.”

Thoran took a deep breath. “It’s dangerous.”

I didn’t argue.

It didn’t matter. I meant what I’d said. I was never going back to that place.

We followed the lake, the jagged edges ending in a sudden drop into black waters. I thought of the moment the ground had vanished beneath my feet and the heartbeat of a second before I’d hit icy waters. A shudder passed through me.

“Okay?” Thoran asked.

I nodded tearing my eyes away from the lake. “I can’t believe you jumped in after me.”

Thoran frowned. “I told you, I wasn’t letting you go in alone.”

We crossed the field, following a neat, cobblestone path ending at the edge of the forest. A set of high, iron gates loomed over us, a work of art bound by age and nature. Thick vines looped through rods and twisted with the high trees keeping the door a secret.

The other side opened to a path amongst rows of rigid trees as thick as Thoran’s entire body. They held back what little light attempted to penetrate the overcast. With their bare branches and perfect stillness, the forest around us seemed to hum with a calm. I sucked in the overpowering stench of dirt, rot and foliage that hung thick in the air and thought I could just pick up a hint of swamp beneath it all. It should have been appalling, but it made me think of Lacroix House and Thoran, which brought on a sense of comfort.

“This is the Widow’s Back,” Thoran said when we reached a step rise, a compact mound of dirt rising high over our heads.

I looked at him. “Why?”

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