never to return. Her memories were tangled in the faded walls of the house where she grew up, each corner holding the echoes of a life she'd chosen to forget. But life had a
ung to the ground. Kiera felt the familiar weight of unease settle over her chest as the village came into view. The same village she'd once thought would be a prison for the rest of her life. She had left
n, the ivy crawling up the stone walls like an infection. Kiera hesitated as she reached for the front door, her hand brushing against the bra
A sharp scent of mildew mixed with something else-something familiar, yet unsettling. The house had been abandoned for too long. The furn
een a private man, a man who rarely let anyone into his world. Kiera had never been close to him, not after her mother died when she was ten. He had become a ghost of a parent-more a figurehead
never been a man of words, but the journal was a window to a part of him she had never seen. She opened it slowly, the pages yellowed with age. The h
less. The bloodline m
l. I feel the change withi
s better this way. The cu
an the last. Her fingers tightened around the journal, an uneasy feeling creepin
oze, the journal slipping from her hands and falling to the floor with a soft thud. She hadn't heard anyone approach, and she wasn't expect
r than usual. The forest beyond her house had always been a place of mystery, where the trees grew thick and the paths twisted and turned. Kiera had been told stories of the woods when she was a child, tales of w
between the trees. It was gone before Kiera could
ughts. She turned back to the journal, but something had shifted in the room, a palpable tension in the air that hadn't been there before.
screamed at her to hide, to lock the door and retreat upstairs, but she quickly pushe
at seemed to gleam in the twilight. His clothes were simple, worn jeans and a jacket, but there was something about hi
deep, steady, and when he spoke her n
She couldn't hide the s
ver leaving hers. "I'm here because you
r mentioned anyone by name. She had no idea who this man w
she said, her voice low. "My father
est to explain. "Your father wasn't the man you thought he was, Kier
door to close it. "What are you talking about? I don't
s hard to believe. But you need to hear what I have to s
skipped. "
the center of something ancient. And
ion of anything more sinister. But something about Finn's words felt...true. Like a door had
ying to steady herself. "W
ice lowering. "I want to help you, Kiera. Y
e. A long, low howl carried through the air from the forest. It was the kind of
ly looked at Finn for an explanation. His
ered under his breath. "