Chapter 18
Lila’s POV
I stood there with the knife still in my hand, onion forgotten, staring across the kitchen at a woman I’d never spoken to in my life. My heart wouldn’t slow down no matter how many times I told it there was nothing to be afraid of.
Her lips hadn’t moved. I knew they hadn’t. But the voice was still sitting in my skull like it had been placed there on purpose, gentle, clear, and completely undeniable.
I can help you find your true self.
I looked around first, certain someone else must have heard it too. The kitchen carried on exactly as it was. Steam. Steel. Shouted orders. Nobody looked my way.
The other girls chopped and stirred and plated without pause, heads down, the rhythm of people who’d learned a long time ago that slowing down here cost more than it was w
