✦Dolly✦
No one slept after that. Not really. My father restored the lights just before sunrise, but the house still felt wrong. Brighter, yes. Safer, maybe. But the wrongness stayed beneath the walls like a bruise. I sat at the kitchen table with both hands wrapped around a mug of coffee. But I didn’t drink from it, and it had grown cold. I set the mug aside as I glanced around. Blaise, Ronnie, and my father had done everything to make sure that the wards were up and that we were safe. Elias, who was seated across from me, caught my eye, and I sighed softly. He wasn’t happy with me. The glare he was giving me was one indication of his unhappiness.
“Get over it, Elias,” I snapped. He recoiled as if I had struck him, and I immediately dropped my head. “It doesn’t help,” I added softly.
