The boy. Eli. Certainty crashed into my skull like a hammer. Rose intended to do something terrible to my father and Eli.

Terrified by that certainty, I craned my head around the corner and saw Rose standing over my father.

Her back was half turned to me, but I could see that she was holding something in her fingers. A syringe. And she was injecting the contents of that syringe into my father’s IV.

“To protect Haven Valley, you and the boy must die,” Rose said. Her words cut through the confusion gathering in my mind like a blade.

You and the boy must die. Her words echoed through my mind and the world around me seemed to stand still. Die. The word was in my mind, but so unsettling that it didn’t offer me meaning.

And then it did.

Die, I thought again. Rose was killing my father. And Eli was next.

I lost my mind to fear and retreated without thought, hurrying on tippy-toes, not daring to breathe. Then I was outside and the cool evening air hit me like a wall of bricks.

The back door shut behind me, and a small part of my mind wondered if the sound had been too loud. But the thought didn’t linger long because I was already around the clinic’s corner, then pressing against the wall, hidden for the moment. If Rose came out, I would run.

You and the boy must die. Rose’s final statement ravaged my thoughts, tore them into pieces and devoured them. Rose was murdering my father?

No, I must have misunderstood. An image of Rose standing beside my father’s bed, syringe in hand, filled the space behind my eyes. You and the boy must die.

A wave of nausea rose through me and I fought to keep from emptying the contents of my stomach on the ground, but it was no use. I vomited at my feet, desperate to remain as quiet as possible. Between waves I took several harsh drags of air and tried to steady my breathing.

With that violent retch, clarity came to me. Sylous had told Rose that my father and Eli had to die because they were wolves in sheep’s clothing. They were the darkness masquerading as light. It was the only thing that made any sense.

Rose had just killed my father.

Eli, the boy with the beautiful blue eyes, the child my father had called my brother, would be subjected to the same fate. How could killing him keep Haven Valley safe? Surely there had to be another way.

I straightened as a sudden urge of my own worked its way up my spine. I couldn’t let Eli die. He was my brother. He was just a child. I had to protect him.

“Don’t be crazy, Grace.”

Bobbie appeared on my left, face firm, eyes sharp. But I wasn’t interested in her advice now, so I turned away.