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"But what could you have done to threaten Ginny so? I don’t understand"

"I know you don’t," she said and tapped once on thethat separated us froer I’ll explain everything e see each other next For now, promise me that you will keep this to yourself, for your own sake For randson’s sake" She smiled as she mentioned Colin "Promise me" She placed her smooth, cool hand under my chin and tilted my face so thatopened, then closed That hen I realized ere no longer

I found it impossible to refuse her "I promise," I said, and she leaned in to kiss my forehead "But how do you knohat’s happened to Maisie?"

"I havefriends who have kept hters," she said "I’m only sorry I couldn’t prevent it all"

"Okay, but can you help me find her?"

She sirl" The door next tothe chauffeur He stepped aside I knew he expected me to exit, but I couldn’t tear myself away My mother touched my cheek and then moved her hands to her neck She unhooked the necklace she’d been wearing and fixed it aroundher locket entle push "Go on now You’ll see ain very soon This I promise you" I climbed out of the car to find we had stopped not far froe of Forsyth Park My bike, which had been in the trunk of the car, aiting patiently on the curb Suddenly a thought hit me, and I reached out to stop the driver’s hand before he could close the door

"Thethat we had left the poorin the weeds

My htly forward "It’s already been taken care of," she said, and the driver closed the door I watched the li all ive way The blare of a siren yanked ue, and an a, I kneard the old powder azine A second police car followed thehts and siren working too, but it er inside turned to look at nition crossed Detective Adam Cook’s face

THREE

As I walked rown up in had been really nothing e set A theater of lies The setelse was real Myto me She was alive Alive! That was real That was the truth Everything I’d ever believed about her, aboutfalse now A darkness squeezed my heart as a newfound hatred for Ginny took root I had been working on letting go of iveness evaporated Forgiveness, hell I would go torave She had stolenive I prayed that wherever Ginny’s essence had landed, eternity would find her without one moment’s peace

How could Ginny have justified keeping my mother from me? But then what could she have hoped to accoht of power? She would have clai the line Protecting it fro it from me But the line had chosen me It didn’t fearabout my mother too She must have been

I touched the locket my mother had placed around my neck The feel of its precious ination I leaned e and fu open to reveal two tiny photos, one of Maisie and the other of h hair on our heads to support the ribbons sootten these pictures? Had Ellen or Iris sent theuilt?

That ain was obvious My mother was still very much in this world, and they had spent the last twenty-one years rerave My mother had told me point-blank that Iris and Ellen had colluded with each other and Ginny to keep the truth from Maisie and me, but I knew these women, andother than Ginny’s victims The truth I needed to uncover hy they’d decided to lie to ivable one--and once I got to the bottoether We couldn’t recapture the lost years, but we could recover and build a future Together ould deal with the fa Maisie home

I turned toward the house, but stopped dead in ht hit me Had I been the only one kept in the dark? Up until a few ht me powerless Had Maisie known the truth this entire tio, I would have never entertained my mother’s accusations I would have rushed hole breath But that was before I learned that my aunts had hidden the fact that Ellen’s late husband, Erik, was my father; before Iris’s husband, Connor, left me to burn in Ginny’s house; and before my own beloved sister had turned me over to the hands of a demon Now that the line had selected me as an anchor, I was on everyone’s radar I felt it inmembers of my own extended family, ould jump at any excuse to remove me as anchor I would keep my promise to my mother I would remain silent about her return to Savannah But I would do so only until I could get a better grasp on the slippery truth

It took every bit of , de answers I slipped the locket beneath my shirt and took a deep breath I prayed that I would have the strength and the good sense to keep my foolinto the kitchen

"You’re late," E to look atintently at an apple that hung suspended inoff in one thin, clean strand

"Yeah, sorry Got distracted," I replied I circled around and took the seat opposite hiravity Eo, therooroomed, certainly overly self-confident After a few months as a man, he had taken on a more feral look The shadow on his cheeks pointed well past five o’clock, and his once closely cropped black hair had grownin thick, careless curls He pushed them back from his forehead, and I noticed from the sorry state of his hands that he had picked up the habit of biting his fingernails

"You are easily distracted," he said, and the apple stopped spinning and flew directly at my face I held up my hand to repel it, and in a mere blink, it combusted and fell as ashes Emmet looked at me, unimpressed "Noas that really necessary? You used too much force to dispel such a tiny threat"