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"Sir, she’s the one who has hurt me"

Tex sucked in a breath "Good for her I hope she tears out yourheart"

I chuckled "I’hter, Mr Weaver I have no intention of letting her tear out my heart"

Tex’s temper soared into my ear "Yet you’ll happily behead her just like her mother! What sort of sick fuck are you?"

"You’re not listening to what I’ perfectly fine, you son of a bitch, but you can’t scare me with these twisted phone calls any to tell me Emma was too sweet, too pure to die--that he’d find a way to end it Only to call me on the eve of her death to tell me it was all a lie! He destroyed s that are left" Soht now--I’ tohis "Christ’s sake Listen toan end to this feud You don’t have to believeyou want Your son, your daughter…grandchildren on’t be taken for so to ether to end this?"

Silence

More silence

What did I expect? Our families had been raised to hate each other Archibald lost his wife to my father--of course, he’d hate me

I can do it without him

Maybe then he’d believein hed, "Look--"

Tex interrupted "What do you expect from me, Hawk?"

My shoulders slumped with relief

I had him

"I expect you to help me save the woman we love"

TAPESTRIES WATCHED ME as if I were already dead

The very air prickled e Hall e me back into its morbid evil Every step, I wanted to cry Every breath, I wanted to sprint out the door and never return

I can’t do this again…

I can’t…

The strength I’d found in Jethro’s company rapidly dissolved, and the cracks and fissures froe bled out, trailing like a bloody stain the deeper I travelled through the Hall

There was no more happiness, only torment and despair I didn’t kno I’d survive another hour, let alone two days