EMBER’S POV

“You’ve been in here for hours,” she says, drifting closer. “Marjorie said you’d holed up with my grandmother’s old things. I did wonder.”

I snap the book shut, dragging it off the table and into my lap.

“Good for you. Do you usually track guests through the house, or am I just special?”

“Prickly.” Hale tilts her head, her bright, unsettling eyes dropping to the leather cover in my lap. “Why the hostility, Ember? I thought we established a rapport yesterday. I helped you, didn’t I?”

“You led me straight into a dead woman’s bedroom, Hale.” I hold her gaze, refusing to back down. “That is fucking creepy.”...