The figure in the doorway did not move.
He stood just beyond the threshold, hood dripping with rain that had not started falling yet. The fabric clung to his shoulders, casting a shapeless silhouette that seemed to pulse with something.
Ivy's skin prickled.
Axel hadn’t blinked.
The air in the cottage tightened, like something invisible coiled itself around their throats.
“Grandma,” Ivy whispered. “Who is that?”
The old woman did not answer. She simply dried her hands on her apron, unhurried, like she had been expecting guests all her life.
“I suppose it was too much to hope you would come alone.Ivy,how have you been? ” the hooded figure said, voice muffled but unmistakably amused. Smooth. Too smooth.
Ivy’s heart stuttered. That voice…it scratched at her memory like a nail behind a
