Chapter 56: The Monster Everdawn Kept
Emma’s POV
The moment he stood, the house reacted.
The stone walls groaned, their very foundations shaking like the mansion itself was protesting his presence. The candlelight flickered violently, shadows stretching unnaturally long across the cold stone floor.
Caroline’s grip on my wrist tightened.
“We need to go,” she whispered, her voice shaking.
But my body wouldn’t move.
Because I was looking at him.
The first Ashford. The man who had started all of this.
His pale skin stretched taut over sharp cheekbones, his eyes hollowed by centuries of darkness. He wasn’t alive, but he wasn’t dead, either.
He was something else.
And as his gaze settled on me, his lips curled into something almost like a smile.
"It took you long enough."
A shiver r
