“Miss Wren?” came a voice from behind me.
I turned around, hiding my sticky fingers and bloody prize behind my back. It was the girl who had spoken up before. She was a tiny little blonde in a blue Victorian gown. Her hair was piled up on her head in an elaborate hairstyle that I guessed was from her days before Haven Crest. She was pretty and delicate. She looked sweet and gentle. I bet she’d never ripped someone’s eye from their skull.
“Yes?”
She looked about, as though worried that she might have been followed, then rushed toward me like a hawk on a mouse. I held my ground. She was the one who ought to be frightened, not me.
She stopped directly in front of me, eyes darting about in a nervous flutter. Whom was she so afraid of overhearing us?
“I need to talk to you,” she whispered. “I have a message.”
“A message?” I asked, rolling my prize between my fingers behind my back. “From who?”
“Emily,” she replied. It took me a moment to realize who she meant.
“Emily Murray?” I asked. My ancestor?
The girl nodded. “I knew her once. A long time ago. We were friends. She would often come to visit me after I was committed. Even after I died she came a few times to say hello, but the others didn’t like her coming by so much. She made them nervous. Your sister makes them nervous, as well.”
If they knew I was holding Robert’s eyeball in my palm, they’d be nervous around me, too.
“What’s the message?” I asked. I didn’t mean to be rude or to rush her, but I needed to get the blood off me before Lark returned.
Her wide blue gaze locked with mine. In it, I saw fear, but not of me. “She says you and your sister are in danger. She said that he’s coming for you.”
“‘He’?” I made a face. “He who?”
The girl shook her head. “I don’t know. That’s all she told me before saying that she didn’t want to put me in danger. She disappeared, and I haven’t seen her since.”
“When was this?”
“Two days ago.”
When I’d first met Noah. Emily must have seen me here that night. Maybe she kept tabs on Lark and me all the time. I was really starting to feel conspicuous with this eye in my clutch. “Why are you just telling me this now?”
She drew back. What a little mouse. “This was the first moment I had alone with you. She told me not to trust anyone except you and your sister.” Her gaze darted to the smudge on the wall. “Is he really gone?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” She shivered. “He was an awful man.”
I didn’t ask what he’d done to her. It wasn’t like I could hurt him for it again. “He can’t hurt you anymore. Did Emily say anything else?”
“No. She only begged me to tell you and your sister to be careful.” Her face lit up. “Wait, she also said that you needed to look for Alys. Does that make sense to you?”
I nodded. I’d seen Alys in Nan’s house before, but she hadn’t been around lately. Had something happened to her? “Thank you for giving me the message. I have to find my sister.”
The girl smiled and then flitted away in a rustle of skirts. I left as well, but I didn’t immediately go to Lark. I went to my private little place in the Shadow Lands, where I retreated when I wanted time alone, or felt the need to simply be dead. There, I opened the small box I kept my treasures in and deposited Robert’s eye with my other keepsakes. I paused just a moment to admire my collection before putting the box away. Then I cleaned myself up—easy to do in the Shadow Lands, when all you had to do was wish it—and phased back into the realm of the living.
I met Lark and Noah in front of the building. My sister was dirty and smelled of smoke, but she was otherwise fine.
“Are you all right?” Noah asked.
I nodded. “I am. I’m sorry you had to be a part of this.”
“Don’t be. Anyone who would threaten a woman is no friend of mine. Are you leaving?”
“Yes.”
“Will I see you tomorrow?” he asked. I couldn’t judge his emotions from his voice. His tone was polite, as it always was around others.
“Would you like to see me tomorrow?”
He smiled, and Lark rolled her eyes. “Get a room,” she said. And then, “Security’s coming. I’ve got to run. Thanks for your help, Noah.”
I watched as she slipped into the darkness. I’d catch up with her in a moment.
Noah held out his arms, and I walked into his embrace, wrapping my own arms around him. “I don’t want you to leave,” he whispered.
“I don’t want to, either, but I need to talk to Lark. Do you really want me to come back later?”
He nodded. And then he kissed me, and I knew then that everything was good between us. He wasn’t angry at me for Robert’s destruction. And he didn’t know about my trophy.
After I left him, I caught up with Lark just as she climbed into Nan’s car in the graveyard.
“You okay?” she asked. “Truthfully?”