Alexia's nightmares become reality: a dead baron, red-eyed wraiths, and forbidden love with a man hunted by these creatures. After an attack close to home, Alexia realizes she cannot keep one foot in her old life and one in this new world. To protec...
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Fourteen
More Death
Salty air hit Alexia's nose, cool in the early evening as the carriage came to a halt. Father and Mother exited. Alexia took Father's hand, gaping at the house before her as she stepped down. At least fifty windows beamed above a vast yard, sheltered by multiple jutting chimneys and three floors of sprawling, stylish brick. Alexia possessed absolutely no idea what kind of wealth Sarah had married into-until now-yet something about the panorama bothered her. Had she seen it before?
Impossible. Maybe a similar house, a comparable yard, a likeness in a painting?
Father fussed over their luggage, dismissing Alexia to enter the house. She stepped inside, powerless to untwist the knot of her stomach.
A vast chasm of a room met her. Checkerboard crème and tan tile reflected light from a giant chandelier at the chamber's apex, which illuminated an upper balcony and rail.
"No, I will not have it!" A moan echoed from the upper floor. "You will throw it all out or be removed yourself!"
Alexia's jaw dropped as her raven-haired aunt appeared. The vibrant hue of skin, the olive sparkle in her eyes, the way she'd thinned in the face... The summer Alexia turned twelve, Sarah had been unhappily married to a man three times her age. She and Sarah had corresponded through letters the past five years, but had her aunt been so dazzling when they parted?
The clatter of amassing baggage turned Sarah's head.
"Lexy!" She leapt down the stairs four at a time, sliding to a halt before her near-sister and straightening up formally. She cleared her throat. "Welcome to my home."
"You are older." Alexia didn't mean to be blunt.
"I am older? Look at you!" She scowled, nose crinkling. "You are not my baby sister. I cannot go to court with you for fear of being outshone!"
Some things about Sarah would never change. Alexia stuck out her tongue. Sarah mimicked her. They burst into laughter and embraced.
"Oh, Lexy, you have become a woman and I a widow. Is it not a strange world we live in?"
Alexia pulled back. "A widow?"
"Did you not receive the funeral invitation? Why else are you here?"
"Funeral?" Father boomed, stepping through the door.
Sarah straightened up, instantly icy. "My husband is dead."
Father stopped. "What was the cause?"
"Carriage accident."
The color bled from Father's face, a slight tremor shaking through him.
