Sadie’s POV
The storm struck at two in the morning.
The sound that woke me up was the pounding against the wall of our cottage, not someone knocking on it, not a fallen tree limb, but a steady pounding that shook the whole wall. It was the wind. It wasn't blowing so much as screaming through the valley, turning the rain into icy needles hitting the window.
I was disoriented, sitting up in bed, feeling like my heart was going to beat out of my chest. There was no power. The only light came from lightning, which would strike periodically outside, illuminating the room briefly. The dresser. The door. The window, blank beyond the darkness.
The lightning struck again, and I could see the tree.
It was the old oak tree at the edge of our garden, where Lily would sit and dig for worms in the
