Scarlett
I don’t sleep.
Rhodes makes me lie down, and I do. But once in bed, I just stare at the ceiling. Hours crawl by. I count them all. Every breath. Every heartbeat. Every creak of the old manor.
Violet’s out there. Bleeding. Terrified. Maybe dead.
And I’m here. Safe.
That thought alone makes my skin itch.
What if she’s already dead?
The thought comes, sudden and cruel, and I push it down like I’ve been doing all night. But it’s there. It lingers. A quiet, awful whisper beneath every heartbeat: too late, too late, too late.
If I die before I find you, Violet... please know I tried. I REALLY tried. And I never stopped loving you or trying... even if I wasted time not looking for you in that maze when my heat struck. Yes, I got temporarily lost looking at Rhodes in the maze. But
