ncaid property look

nes to be buried. Blackened timbers jutted from the ground like ribs. Ivy crept over stone and ash alike. Ten ye

del looked like he bel

hed walls. When I'd last seen him, I was just a girl with smoke in her lungs

at he was. Or what I

some nerve

nd right away. "I c

lder, harder than I remembered. His gray eyes scanned mine like the

me here for

re you back

g him stew in the silence felt l

reath. "I g

skipped

address. No handwrit

the words befor

you saw. Wat

off-white paper. The same weight o

e only ones who

t be the only on

olding between us. I didn't ask why he'd come back. He didn't ask

time for

ll anyone what y

. "It's fragments. Smoke, fire, someone running.

," I sai

ched. "

n't think

Seraphine. I did

" My voice cracked like g

ntact, its skeletal frame bent but not broken. I stepped inside, motioning for him to follow. T

irst told me about the

"I thought that was just

l I started fin

d buried in Helena's files. My mother, smiling stiffly beside a ma

gnize

o. But that pin... I

he

gns, in graffiti. Like it's alw

nted Ashthorne for years. Discre

" I said. "I think Rowan found out too much.

ened. "And now th

. The air tasted like metal. The weight of the conversati

e doorway, arms folded,

Jerry. "Are either

alled worse,

me. "You bro

I said. "They sent

erry narrowing. Then she turned

ays glance. "She alwa

ince th

intly of lavender and something sour. She set a heavy wooden box

r looked through it. Maybe I was scared. Ma

ed the

lders filled with yellowed newspaper clippings. A small recorder. Even

ver my shoulde

together what happened,"

an died. The entries were written in careful cursive,

hey speak of flame as if it were a god. I thought it was just

g questions. She's

me-watch the man with t

he quiet. "Your mom w

rying to g

nnels beneath the town, linking

s," I whispered

ings. Just l

n has rot in its bones, Seraphine. Y

g to burn it

e finally understood this

as a

as quiet af

unt Helena's bedroom door was closed, a sliver of yellow light visible beneath it, and I could still hear her so

books, pages marked with post-it flags, strings of scribbled symbols, and

inside me re

ge of a note written in

sis

I didn't make it. I hope you never

areful. They always wat

ething cold into the

ir. It groaned beneath me. The quiet of the house was too still,

I hea

oft

n another. From the f

ack w

my instincts sharpening like blades. I steppe

o

ned c

a

ime I

With something clen

shed out, barefoot on the col

ess, long hair, feet moving fast into the woods beyond the fe

ood c

ed like

ra

amp and quiet, the ground soft from recent rain. I pushed through the fence gate

uldn'

ld

own an old path we used to play along, one that hadn't been cleared i

sudde

le

d, chest

rl was

ow branch of an elm tree, was a fold

oached

ied

, looping hand, w

She watched

red a

same haunting repetition. And at the bottom of the page, a

ne. Just the woods, whispe

th the note pressed t

of black coffee in the other. She looked at me when I entered,-still in

ou saw a ghost,"

be I

sed an

d her t

aused midway to her mouth. She took it betw

id you g

ods. After

ho

ated. "

ched mine. "No one ever really leaves

rch later that morning, a sprea

hed. She watched," he

s it mean

ck. "It could be code. A cha

aid slowly. He b

petition. What if it's not a phrase? What if it

itne

aitor,"

silent for

"I think I know someone w

ed up.

f it. He's been here forever, and he used to counsel people... confident