MEADOW’S POV.
The door of his office stared back at me as I stood before it.
It looked normal. Just wood, just a handle, just a simple door separating me from someone I had never had a decent or civil conversation with before.
But it felt heavier than that.
I let out a slow breath and shifted my weight from one foot to the other.
Penny was quiet inside my mind, but I could feel her unease.
“You are really going to do this?” she asked.
“I don’t have a choice,” I whispered back.
But even saying it didn’t make me feel any better.
Black Hollow.
Dorothy’s voice.
Hawthorne bloodline.
It all kept repeating in my head like a warning I couldn’t ignore.
I lifted my hand slightly… then lowered it again.
“No,” I muttered to myself. “Stop overthinking it.”
I tried again.
This time I str
