Tree shadows slid across the ground, restless and ghostly. Maya didn’t have to look; she felt the air shift around her, her skin prickling. Her eyes, that eerie blue, didn’t glow, but she saw every detail—the bug crawling on a distant leaf, the heartbeat behind her, slow and heavy, belonging to the woman standing just out of sight.
“I saw the mountain collapse, Catherine,” Maya said. Her voice was calm, but inside she was all chaos and dread. “You should be buried under those rocks.”
Catherine stepped into a patch of moonlight. Her favorite red coat was shredded and caked with dirt, her face crisscrossed with angry red burns. She clutched a small gold bottle, her hand trembling.
“The Rossi family’s tough to kill, Maya,” Catherine whispered, taking another step. Her boots crunching in th
