“Stop!”
Sandra’s voice shrieked behind me.
“Stop right there!”
I didn’t. Something was pulling me forward. Maybe defiance, maybe the dead. I stared at Juliet’s photograph, her smile frozen beneath candlelight.
Did you hate me too? I wondered. Or were we both just sacrifices?
I barely heard Juliet’s mother move.
I only felt it.
CRACK.
The broom struck my back. Pain flared. She flogged me again and again, like she was trying to drive out a demon.
“Get out!” she screamed. “You killed Juliet! Get out!”
The wood struck my shoulders, my ribs, my arms.
“Five years!” she sobbed. “You think five years in prison makes it right?”
She kept hitting me.
“Hell no!”
My wolf growled in pain, but I didn’t scream, I didn’t run, didn’t fight back. I just kept walking.
Like I couldn’t feel anyth
