I spent hours thinking about what it’d be like to live in one again, instead of moving dank motel to moldy apartment every few weeks, a consequence of being in witness protection for the last seven months.

The second thing I notice is the girl. She has olive-brown skin and big brown eyes and wears a two sizes too big fluffy sweater with a headstone on it that says BRB. She’s holding a raw piece of meat and staring directly at me. A black cat balances its front paws against her leg, trying to reach the meat.

The weirdness of it all almost drives me right back into the cab, but it took two days and the last of Liam’s cash to get here from Montana. I have to believe my brother sent me here for a reason.

Thinking of Liam sends my heart skittering, and I look around for him, hoping he’s beat me here. He went after the two men we found in our motel room a few days ago, making me promise that if he hadn’t returned by that evening, that I’d do what my parents always told us to do if we ever got separated: go to Ravenfall Inn.

My mind stalls on thoughts of my parents, of my mom’s still body on the floor, my dad’s chin tucked to his chest as though he were only sleeping.

For the last seven months, my family moved and moved and moved, staying a step ahead of the people who were after us, and not once did my parents ever tell me who they were or what they’d done. Now they never will.

I hope Liam is safe. I can’t lose him too.

“You take care now,” the driver calls before pulling away a little too quickly. I don’t blame him. He didn’t really buy my “traveling to my aunt’s” story, and between that and the dried blood on my flannel shirt, he probably thinks I’m in trouble.

He’s not wrong. I just have no idea why.

I don’t even know why my parents always told us to meet at Ravenfall. I’d looked it up once. Their website had a picture of the inn and a gimmicky description that said it’s run by a family of psychics. I’d known it was in Oregon, so I followed the bus routes to Portland, where I got a cab. Except Wick hadn’t come up on the driver’s GPS. I had to fish out the paper map my parents made me carry from my emergency bag to find it.