Chapter Sixteen

The hallway was still ringing with Clara’s final, poisonous whisper when Tiana finally managed to move again. Her pulse throbbed painfully in her throat, her palms damp despite the cold air inside the mansion.

She needed to breathe. To think. To escape Clara’s suffocating presence.

So, she left the manor. Just a short walk down the path toward the edge of the gardens – just enough to clear her head.

The late afternoon light had faded, turning Lycan Isle’s trees into long, spindly silhouettes. The forest always looked darker than it should at this time of night, shadows pooling between the pines like ink.

Tiana wrapped her arms around herself, taking slow steps down the stone path.

“Miss Greene?”

She turned sharply.

One of the estate’s junior groundskeepers stood a few feet away, cap pulled low, hands nervously wringing a rope he carried. She recognized him vaguely – quiet, always working with his head down.

“Yes?” she asked.

“You’re needed,” he said quickly. “Mr. Lycan sent me to fetc