This part of the cemetery wasn’t as well tended as the rest, and bunches of wildflowers had grown up along the fence. I reached down, picked another blue forget-me-not, and laid it on my father’s tombstone. I opened my mouth, but I didn’t know what to say, so I clamped my lips shut and settled for turning my sapphire ring around on my finger one more time.
I sighed and rubbed my head, which was aching. There was nothing to say. Luke had loved my mom, and he’d been killed because Victor didn’t approve of their relationship. Yet another love story with a tragic, bitter end.
There was nothing in this cemetery but ghosts, hurts, and regrets. That was the way I felt about all of Cloudburst Falls sometimes—the Midway, the squares, even the sweeping views from the mountain. All of it reminded me of my mom and everything I’d lost.
And all of it made my heart keep right on aching from the deep, jagged wounds that would never, ever heal.
So I sighed again and turned around, ready to leave the cemetery and all the painful memories behind, and go back to the Sinclair mansion for the night. I looked up, my breath catching in my throat.
A woman stood at the cemetery gate.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I was so surprised that someone would be out here after dark that my brain ground to a complete halt, and I didn’t even think of doing the smart thing, like vaulting over the fence and running away. Instead, all I could do was stare at the woman, my mouth gaping open.
Long, golden hair, dark blue eyes, pale skin that shimmered in the moonlight. She was one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen, like a fairy-tale princess come to life, but something about her seemed strangely . . . familiar. Like I’d seen her somewhere before, although I didn’t think I had.
For as beautiful as she was, her appearance was also a bit strange. A long, flowing white garment covered her slender body, looking more like a nightgown than an actual dress, and her feet were bare, despite the sticks, rocks, and other woodsy debris that littered the cemetery. One lock of her golden hair was braided down the right side of her face and tied off with a sapphire-blue ribbon, while a white wicker basket full of blood-red roses dangled from her hand.
The woman stared at me, obviously seeing me despite the mist and the darkness, which meant that she had some sort of sight magic. I expected her to open her mouth and yell for the guards, but to my surprise, a soft smile curved her lips. The warm, welcoming expression made her look even more beautiful, like an ethereal ghost come to frolic in the moonlit cemetery.
“Serena!” she said, tossing her basket aside and racing over to me. “You finally came back!”
I couldn’t have been more shocked than if she’d started doing cartwheels. Serena? She thought I was my mom? Why? Why would she think that? Sure, I had my mom’s black hair and blue eyes, and I was even wearing her sapphire-blue coat, but I obviously wasn’t her.
But the woman didn’t seem to realize that. Instead, she stopped in front of me, reached out, and drew me into a tight hug.
“Oh, Serena,” she said in a choked voice. “It’s been so long. So very, very long.”
I stood there, my mouth still gaping open, my arms hanging by my sides, wondering who this woman was and why she thought I was my dead mom. After several seconds, the woman drew back, still smiling.
“Oh, Serena,” she said in a light, lilting, almost singsong voice. “I have so much to tell you. About Deah and Lila and everything else that’s been going on between the Families.”
More shock jolted through me. She knew my name? But if she knew that I was Serena’s daughter, then why did she think that I was my mom?
I looked into her eyes, and I realized that they were unnaturally bright, as though two glittering jewels had been set into her face. But the weird thing was that my soulsight didn’t automatically kick in the way it usually did whenever I locked gazes with someone.
I waited . . . and waited . . . and waited . . . but I didn’t feel any of her emotions, even though she was obviously very glad to see me. No warm happiness, no blazing conviction, nothing. Instead, this strange, almost floating sensation filled my mind as if my head were full of the light, airy mist that surrounded us, as if I were somehow drifting away from the rest of my body—
I blinked, and the sensation vanished, although the woman’s eyes remained as bright as ever. I tried to step away from her, but she reached out and grabbed my hands, hard and tight enough to tell me that she had a strength Talent.
“We have to warn the girls about the wolf,” the woman said in a low, urgent tone. “The wolf wants to devour them both, gobble them up until there’s nothing left but bones and blades.... No blood, just bones and blades . . . bones and blades . . . bones and blades. . . .”
She shuddered and let go of my hands. She wrapped her arms around her body and hugged herself tight as though something terrible had happened.
“Are you okay?” I asked, having no idea what was going on or why.