“Jessica.”
It wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be.
The voice — low, rasping, intimate in a way that made my skin crawl — curled around my name like a promise. Or a threat.
I spun so fast the room tilted, my pulse pounding loud enough to drown out Alisha’s gasp. The firelight danced across the empty space behind me — empty, but not. The air felt wrong, thick and humming, like the room itself was holding its breath.
Nothing was there.
But I could still feel it.
“Did you—” Alisha started, her voice breaking.
“You heard it too,” I whispered.
She nodded, throat working around a swallow, her fingers curled so tightly into the arm of the chair her knuckles were white.
This wasn’t a nightmare. Not this time.
I pressed a hand to my chest, trying to steady the frantic rhythm of my heart. “Tr
