Novel’s POV

“You... Alice?” The words felt like lead in my mouth. I stared at her, my mind reeling.

“You are the lady we have been looking for?”

“Yes, I am,” she answered. She stepped toward me, her presence cold and suffocating. She leaned in, her breath ghosting against my ear as she whispered,

“I have been watching you since you were a baby, Novel.”

She pulled back, a serene, terrifying smile fixed on her face. I clenched my hands into fists, my knuckles turning white as a tremor took over my body.

“If you’ve been watching me since I was a child,” I said, my voice low and shaking...