Shirley
I didn’t sleep.
The morning sunlight filtering through the blinds only reminded me of how different everything had become—how I had changed. The girl who moved to Crescent Hollow for a fresh start was gone. In her place stood someone waking up from a life she hadn’t even known she was sleeping through.
My fingers brushed the mark at the base of my neck as I stared at myself in the mirror. The rune hadn’t faded. If anything, it pulsed faintly now, almost like it had a heartbeat of its own. Dr. Myles’ words echoed: It reacts to your emotions. And the more you feel, the more it opens.
But what if it opened something I couldn’t close?
Downstairs, the air was thick with tension, even though the bar hadn’t opened yet. Zara had left a plate of breakfast on the counter for me. I wasn’
