Rafe stood in the ruin of the kitchen long after Vivienne disappeared.
He didn’t speak. Didn’t breathe too loud. Even his heartbeat had gone shallow, as if afraid the house might still be listening.
Clara had left, stumbling toward the parlor like a woman chased by her own blood. But Rafe remained, sword at his side, ash on his coat, staring at the place where Vivienne had been.
He wasn’t good at silence.
But this one… he deserved.
She was gone.
Not dead—not yet—but gone just the same. Swallowed by a doorway that hadn’t existed before, opened by a box no one had dared to destroy.
You should’ve burned it.
You should’ve told her sooner.
You should’ve stayed away.
His hands clenched.
Rafe had trained for monsters. He’d hunted the grinning things that wore human skin. He’d buried fr
