chapter 174

sable

Adult Cleo is on the ground at my feet, still grasping at my clothes. Her shrieks have petered off into sobs now, and she’s very obviously avoiding looking at her father’s face. Her nails dig into my wrist and magic floods into me as she tries to take control.

Nope. Sorry, psycho. We aren’t done.

Summoning all my strength, I rip her from this memory and into another.

We’re in the woods. Cleo’s father is leading her into the darkness by the tail end of a rope that’s wrapped around her hands. She’s dressed in tattered clothes and gagged, and tears have left tracks on her cheeks. She stumbles over a fallen tree and goes down hard on her bound hands, but her father just leaves her there.

“You should have considered the consequences of your actions,” he says coldly, then drops the rope next to her, turns around, and walks away.

Adult Cleo is openly crying now, as if everything inside her is shattering to pieces.

Suddenly, from the shadows, a shifter emerges. In the darkness of the wo