Page 7 of Ever Dark

I’m told he’s some big shot here in Ever Graves. This land is just a cash grab for him. He doesn’t understand the emotional attachment, the need for me to be here. It’s the only connection I have to a family I’ve never known. People like Draven Blackwell don’t get it. They don’t know what it’s like to be abandoned and penniless.

The money isn’t important to me, although it’s nice to have it. It’s the energy here. I feel the ghosts of my past all around me. Like they’re trying to reach out and tell me something.

Ugh. I wish I could put my finger on it. I wish I could touch something tangible for once.

And that’s why I got drunk at Duff’s the other night. I wasn’t planning on fucking one of the locals in the bathroom, but after a few drinks, my loneliness was suffocating me. That man was gorgeous, devilish, and slightly feral.Slick. My pussy tingles just thinking about the way he bent me over the counter. He was rough and impatient, and I loved every second of it.

I remember how he looked at me in the mirror. We took whatever was eating at us out on each other. I just hope it isn’t too awkward if I ever run into him again. I sort of led him to believe I didn’tlive here. Well, technically, I didn’t until that night. I think a part of me was still thinking of selling everything and making a run for it.

He didn’t strike me as the clingy type though. He was gone before I could even stand upright. I was still smeared across the bathroom counter when I heard the door shut behind him. If anything, we’ll give each other a little smirk, or maybe we’ll pretend we don’t know each other. Hell, we were both so tipsy that I might not even recognize him.

I can’t help the smile from forming on my lips. It’s been a really long time since I let someone fuck me outside of my nightmares. Like a real man in the flesh. It felt amazing. And I think I want more. Just not the complications that come with it. I can’t be in a relationship like a normal person. I’m too damaged, too fucked up, and too broken.

I reach for the first envelope on the stack and pull out the letter inside. This has been the most troubling one of all. It’s the only message I have from beyond the grave. The only thing my grandmother Emma Harker left me with. It was sealed with her initials, dipped in red wax, when my uncle Dorian handed it to me at the asylum.

I’ve read it a thousand times since—in between packing, at various rest stops from Raven’s Gate to Ever Graves, every night when I wake up and stand in this kitchen over a cup of tea…

Dearest Mia,

It pains me to write these words because if you are reading them, then I am gone from this world. I know you don’t remember me. You were just a baby when you went away.

You must have many questions. Questions I will no longer be able to answer. Especially not in this letter. For I fear this may fall into the wrong hands. But what you seek is in this town. In Ever Graves. In these very walls of Harker Mansion.

Between the living and the dead, secrets abound. I pray you haveyour father’s cunning and your mother’s heart. I will leave you with this, my final gift to you:

Roses bring Thorns

Night is ever Black

When the shadow comes

The Crane will attack

Heads will roll

When the nightmare roams

Stick close to the well

OF BROKEN BONES

Your ever-loving grandmother,

Emma Harker

It’s a riddle I can’t decipher. But I’m determined to figure it out. I will search every nook and cranny of this entire estate if I have to. Even if it takes forever.

It’s only been a week, but from what I can tell, this house has three floors, an attic, and a basement cellar. There are staircases everywhere, and I’ve gotten lost several times. So far, I’ve counted at least twenty guest rooms, ten bathrooms, a library, three sitting rooms, and two kitchens. The second kitchen is much smaller, so I’m assuming it was once used for servants.

I’ve never even had a personal assistant, so the thought of an entire staff of people waiting on me is mind-boggling.I wonder what happened to all of them.There are traces of their former existence all over this house—name tags, neatly pressed uniforms, and even photos of them posed in the backyard at what looks like some kind of massive party.

My head pounds as the sun streams in brighter, announcing that a new morning has come. It’s going to be another crisp autumnday in Ever Graves, judging by the dew hanging off the orange and brown leaves that lie scattered all over the grounds.

I head out to the back veranda and plop down in one of the cushy chairs so I can watch the sun fully rise while I finish my tea. A strange scent assaults my senses. It’s unfamiliar and appears to be exuding from the endless rows of colorful bushes that stretch out as far as my eye can see.

I’ll have to take a closer look at the deed and files that Dorian gave me. I’m curious as to what my ancestors were growing and why there is so much of it. Do I have to maintain it? I don’t have a green thumb, so I’d hate to see all of it die just because I moved in. I make a mental note to look into hiring a gardener or two.

The quiet and stillness are a nice change from the chaos of Absentia Asylum. I didn’t belong there. But then again, no one does. That place is worse than hell. I slipped deeper into Nox’s nightmare much more there. It was my only refuge. I owe him a lot for getting me through that dark time. But he got too used to me always being with him. So now that I want to stay awake longer, he’s more determined than ever to keep me asleep.

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