Page 246 of The Blairville Legacies

Only then did I realize how much I was actually shaking. My knees had gone weak and the headache that had disappeared after the blueberry milkshake earlier had returned. And for the first time, I considered taking Mum's stupid pills again.By choice.I wanted the throbbing behind my temples to stop.

“Good!”Julian grumbled.

He looked tense.

Little did he knowLarissa. I knew that she had convinced me to go there for the last time. But did that also apply to her? Her curiosity was bigger than her fear. This trait powered her into every adrenaline rush.

“I'll take you inside,” Julian said, addressing me.

I just nodded, because I felt too weak to argue now. I just wanted to go to bed, with the unrealistic hope of being woken up by Mum's vacuum cleaner in Sacramento in the morning. I never thought I'd miss that stupid thing so much.

“And you should go home now, too.”

He glanced over at Larissa, who snorted and put her helmet back on.

“We're texting, Bay!”

I nodded.

Then, she disappeared on her motorcycle along the lantern-lit street. Into the night.

I jumped up and realized with relief that I had only been dreaming that Amara Blair had taken off her hood and suddenly turned into that psychopath from yesterday who had tried to shove a blood-soaked dagger into my heart.

I was going mad in this town!

Julian had simply picked me up after the upsetting events of yesterday and carried me through the whole house to my bed.

I must have been in such a state of shock that I'd allowed something like that to happen.

He had sat me on my bed, told me that I should sleep now and also that I was safe here in the house. Awerewolfhad told me that I wassafehere, andIhad believed him.

Somehow, I must have fallen asleep.

The memories of yesterday seemed like a surreal dream.

How had Mum not noticed?

Reflecting, I got up, texted Larissa that I was okay, and went to make my bed, which rarely happened. But I dropped the pillow, in shock.

I grabbed my head and when I looked at my hand again, it looked like the pillow: Full of brown hair?

I jumped up in horror and rushed to my standing mirror. Examining my head, I came closer to look at my scalp.

I felt sick to my stomach.

It looked like I hadless hair. My freckles seemed paler, like the rest of my skin.

A radical fear grew inside me.

What if Amara had made meill?What if something had gone wrong with this ritual? A small mistake? Maybe because I wasn't one of them? What if my body couldn't take it?

A sweet melody snapped me out of my destructive daydream.

Julian was playing the grand piano again.

I tiptoed to the curtain and pushed the hair thing out of my mind. Peering past the curtain, I spotted Julian sitting at hisopen old floor-to-ceiling window, shirtless as usual, playing on the keys in front of him.

His broad shoulders were relaxed, and I caught a glimpse of his taut skin and large chest muscles.

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